Lua Hadar

Lua Hadar is a unique and original vocalist with a soaring range and a charming, swinging delivery. Her band is called TWIST. Multi-lingual and multi-talented, LUA HADAR has performed as a singer and actor since her New York childhood. She watched her reed man father go out the kitchen door in a tux every Saturday night, to play in the swing band at Roseland Ballroom or one of New York's other night spots. In the summer, the venues changed to the hotels in the Catskill Mountains, where Hadar heard her first Latin band and began to envision herself at a microphone.

Multi-lingual and multi-talented, LUA HADAR has performed as a singer and actor since her New York childhood. She watched her reed man father go out the kitchen door in a tux every Saturday night, to play in the swing band at Roseland Ballroom or one of New York's other night spots. In the summer, the venues changed to the hotels in the Catskill Mountains, where Hadar heard her first Latin band and began to envision herself at a microphone.

Lua performed as a singer and actor all through her youth and graduated college summa cum laude with a B.A. in Theatre Performance, She then attended New York's celebrated Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre and The Dalcroze School of Music, also studying with Metropolitan Opera coach, Joan Dornemann.

She calls herself a ?language geek.? French was the first language she studied. She became fluent in Italian after a 5-year theatre residency in Italy. She later moved to California, settling in the San Francisco Bay area, where she spruced up her high school Spanish and was certified as a Spanish bilingual teacher. She has a lifelong passion for stories and music from cultures around the globe. Her greatest delight is to make music and theatre in collaboration with artists abroad.

Lua sings world jazz influenced by pop, funk, Latin and international cabaret. Instantly accessible and truly exotic, this Broadway-influenced performer has been molded by cultural exchange experiences in places as diverse as Bali, Russia, Switzerland, Japan, Thailand, France and Italy. Her fascination with world cultures is reflected in the sophisticated song choices for her band, TWIST, in their signature ?jazz without borders.? ?She's on a mission to create world unity through music, one audience at a time.

A unique and original vocalist with a soaring range, Lua interprets lyrics in several languages with a charming, swinging delivery, as well as passionate commitment and humor. She has appeared at Yoshi's Oakland, The Fairmont Hotel, The Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco's Rrazz Room, The Plush Room and Jazz at Pearl's, New York's Iridium Jazz Club and Cornelia Street Caf?, the Swan Bar in Paris, Theatre Les Tisserands in Lille, France, and at the Bangkok International Festival of Dance and Music.

Her band's first CD, Lua Hadar with TWIST, garnered raves from around the world, (?vivacious brand of jazz?inspired?swinging?cool - Luna Kaf?, Sweden; ?seductive? polished vocal phrasing? irresistible - Blast Radio 1386, UK) as well as Radio Top 10 Ratings in the USA.

Her new recording project, Like A Bridge, forms the centerpiece of her 3-year Bridges Project, which includes education and cultural exchange. Like A Bridge was recorded at the legendary Fantasy Studios and was released in New York City on April 14, 2012, with sellout performances at SOMETHIN' Jazz Club on ?E. 52nd Street and in California at Berkeley's Jazzschool on June 3. The Like A Bridge DVD, directed by Lawrence Jordan (Mariah Carey, Eddie Izzard, Sting, Tony Bennett) will have its premiere screening on Nov. 15, 2012 at San Francisco's Historic Balboa Theater.

An effervescent swing, a dynamite range with passionate phrasing, Hadar is nothing if not the consummate entertainer. ? Brent Black, Critical Jazz

... a bold, worldly musical venture... Hadar's grasp of various languages and vernaculars is vast, singing in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian and Malagasy. What is more impressive is her command of each of the seven dialects' dictions and supple inflections within the musical selections, and her phrasing of each melodic line...a bridge of musical delight that makes a truly global journey, introducing sounds from across the beautiful palette of diversity.
- Geannine Reid, All About Jazz

? a wave of sonic bliss? - Jeffrey Siegel, Straight No Chaser Jazz Show

... thanks to the various languages it feels like one is drifting around the world... quite something to behold. - John M. Peters, The Borderland, UK

Hadar delivers Master Classes in interpretation and style of the body of musical material known as The Great American Songbook, part of her heritage as a native New Yorker and daughter of a musician. Hadar also holds an M.A. in Education and is a teaching artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her San Francisco-based Studio NPG provides professional development for performing artists and offers Salon Concerts and events for the community, featuring teaching artists such as Broadway-TV-film star, Faith Prince, among others.