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Lisa Marie Simmons
Words as music-Music as words.
About Me
Lisa is a multi-disciplinary storyteller: She is a singer/songwriter (Ropeadope), essayist
(Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, Kweli Journal, Family Stories Project, Chicken Soup for the
Soul, Jazzfuel), and published poet currently based in Italy. She fronts the poetic/musical
ensemble NoteSpeak, which debuted in America at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in Boulder
(CO) in September 2017. She was a speaker and performer at the 70th Conference on World
Affairs at the University of Colorado in April 2018. In November 2019, she presented NoteSpeak
(Amore e Tragedie in Musica) in Italy, Austria and Prague. In January 2020, Lisa presented
NoteSpeak in India on the Jaipur Music Stage. Ropeadope released her poetic/musical album
NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) in March 2020, which received a four-star review from
Downbeat magazine. In October 2021, she flew to Florida to search for her birth father; Angela
Tucker and her Emmy Award-winning husband Bryan Tucker filmed a documentary about the
search: Lisa & Isell: A Story about Adoption and the Ghost Kingdom, which premiered in June
2022. Angela and Lisa co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the
Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium in May 2022. Lisa co-hosed, alongside Dionne
Draper, the first season of ‘DAWTA The Podcast’, which covers complex, challenging, and always
heart-warming stories of the transracial adoptee experience and the powerful path to self-
actualization. Her jazz standards album Lisa Meets Gianni, featuring legendary Italian drummer
Gianni Cazzola, was released in June 2022 on Ropeadope. Lisa was invited to perform at the
Biennale in Venice in October 2022 for artist Simone Leigh’s Loophole of Retreat. Her poem “Last
Supper” was shortlisted for a Creators of Justice Literary Award in November 2022. Her latest
album, NoteSpeak 12, was released in February 2023 by Ropeadope and is on Downbeat
Magazine’s Best Albums of 2023 list, having garnered five stars. Lisa and her writing partner
Marco Cremaschini were invited to be inaugural Artists in Residence at SUNY Oneonta in
October and November of 2023 and won a travel grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation and Italia Music Export in support of their American debut of
NoteSpeak 12 allowing them to tour on the East coast in the US in support of the album in
November 2023. In 2024, NoteSpeak 12 won Best Spoken Word Album of 2023 from the World
Entertainment Awards, and “Transcend” was shortlisted for Best Jazz Song by the International
Songwriting Competition. “Can We Agree” and “The Last Supper” won Gold and Silver,
respectively, for Best Spoken Word single in the One Earth Awards, and NoteSpeak 12 was a
finalist in 4 categories in the ISSA Awards. “Transcend” from NoteSpeak 12 was a 2024 nominee
in the Jazz (Fusion/Bebop) category of the Hollywood Independent Music Awards. “Can We
Agree” is a semi-finalist in the 2024 American Songwriters Song Contest. In 2024, Simmons
collaborated with artist Phoebe Boswell on Sentient I - VI, a selection of drawings from
Boswell’s ongoing Sentients series, recently exhibited in Wentrup Gallery’s 20th anniversary
show. Simmons provided a sonic response in the form of an ekphrastic poem, Portraits in
Paradox, accompanied by pianist Marco Cremaschini. The NoteSpeak trilogy will conclude with
its third and final album, set for release in the summer of 2025.
