April 26, 2023

Pianist Lara Downes heals loss with ‘Love At Last’ (NPR)

“It was really clear to me that I could take this music and show cycles of history, the ins and outs of tragedy and chaos and the possibility always for new beginnings.”

Pianist Lara Downes spoke about her latest album “Love at Last” with Michel Martin from NPR’s Morning Edition.

Music is able to do that. You pour your grief, all your emotions into music to create something beautiful, and to harness all this beauty into this one album, it’s really just a testament I think to the hope and the growth that comes out of times like these.

Lara Downes for NPR’s Morning Edition

With a piano draped in spring flowers, Lara Downes’ NPR Tiny Desk Concert is “a smart set of music, new and old, that offers the power of renewal.”

Downes knows how to mix and match music. She’s an indefatigable concert pianist and recording artist who also hosts her own radio show on KUSC, and her own interview video series, Amplify. Her theme here is renewal, the possibilities that come with change and the power of community.

Tom Huizenga