Magos Herrera

MAGOS HERRERA Born in Mexico City and currently based out of New York City, Magos Herrera is a dazzling jazz singer- songwriter, producer, and educator. Declared as “One of the greatest contemporary interpreters of song” by The Latin Jazz Network Magos is regarded as one of the most active vocalists in the contemporary Latin American jazz scene, she is best known for her eloquent vocal improvisation and her singular bold style, which embraces elements of contemporary jazz with Ibero-American melodies and rhythms singing in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, in a style that elegantly blends and surpasses language boundaries. “She gets way under the skin of the song, recalling great communicators like Edith Piaf or Billie Holiday” is how NPR describes Herrera’s talents who has recorded 9 albums including joint collaborations with producer Javier Limón in addition to having participated as a guest artist of several recordings and albums. An accomplished artist, Magos has performed in leading international cultural venues such as Lincoln Center in NYC, Kennedy Center in DC, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Union Chapel in London, Duc des Lombardes in Paris, Kamani Auditorium in Delhi, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, and has been part of the line-up of some of the most memorable jazz festivals around the world including Montreux Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Festival Internacional Cervantino, to mention a few. Throughout her career, Magos has garnered important awards and recognitions, including a Grammy short-list nomination in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category for her album Distancia (2009), and is the only female artist to have received the Berklee College of Music’s Master of Latin Music Award. She is well known for championing women’s causes, served as spokesperson for UN Women, and has contributed to important campaigns including UNITE to end violence against women and He For She, as a promoter of gender equality. She serves as an artistic advisor of the “National Sawdust”, one of Brooklyn’s most innovative venues, and as a frequent collaborator for radio and TV Magos produces and hosts a weekly radio program from New York for Mexico’s Public Radio. In 2018 Magos released her album Dreamers (Sony Music) in collaboration Brooklyn Rider .”Dreamers is not only a work of art, setting musicians of the highest order to accomplished music with purpose, but it is a work of love as well” wrote Sounds and colors on this highly acclaimed album that rapidly got into #1 Amazon, #2 iTunes and got into the Top lists of The New York Times, Billboard classical, NPR Music, NPR Alt Latino, PRI The world, among others and was nominated for the international Grammys for Best arrangement with the song “Niña”. This recording includes gems of the Ibero- American songbook reimagined by a superb group of arrangers including Jaques Morelenbaum, Gonzalo Grau, Diego Schissi, Guillermo Klein and Brooklyn Rider’s own Colin Jacobsen. In the same year Magos received the Omecíhuatl Medal, an award granted by the Women's Institute of the government of Mexico City in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the empowerment of women through the arts and culture and has been included as one of the most creative Mexicans in the world by Forbes Mexico. Herrera is a 2020 recipient of Chamber Music Americas New Jazz Works Award and currently she serves as a Cultural Diplomatic Advisor for the Mexican Government. Created and recorded remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and in collaboration with composer Paola Prestini, in December 2020 Herrera released her tenth album “Con Alma” An operatic tableau on isolation (National Sawdust Tracks), exploring the question of how we can find communion a in a time

of isolation. With more that 30 musicians around the globe including Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, Jeff Zeigler, Kinan Azmeh, Romero Lubambo, Gonzalo Grau, Vinicius Gomes, Diego Schissi, Ensemble Sjella, Constelation Chor and The Young People’s Chorus of New York City this artifact of our time was presented as a virtual digital experience on Dec 13th through National Sawdust virtual stage Mexican Government Secretary of Culture platforms directed by multimedia director Ashley Tata and in collaboration with visual artists Kevork Mourad. In retrospective as NPR describes on Herreras work “She's stretching the very notion of jazz singing, pushing past the diva pleasantries into a sound that's bold, thrilling and effortlessly global”.

Awards

Awards and Recognitions An accomplished artist, Magos Herrera has garnered important awards and recognitions. She was twice nominated in 2006 y 2009, for Lunas del Auditorio Awards, presented by Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional to the best live performances, for Best Jazz Concert of the Year, among the likes of jazz greats Bobby McFerrin and Bill Frisell. Her album Distancia (2009), earned her a Grammy short-list nomination in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category. In 2010, music journalist Tom Moon, best known for his “search of musical experiences from all genres and every corner of the earth”, wrote about Magos Herrera in his famous blog titled, 1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die, addressing how improvised music was experiencing a significant resurgence at the time. He qualified Magos as the writer of “beautiful, achingly lyrical tunes that deserved to be played again and again, in many contexts.” Leading Spanish language lifestyle women’s magazine, Siempre Mujer, featured Magos Herrera alongside Michelle Obama in 2011 as one of the Top 10 Women of the Year for her outstanding work as a musical ambassador for Mexican contemporary music. In 2013, Mexico’s Canal 22 recognized her work on their Mexicanos Exitosos television series. In addition, from 2010-2013, she was a recipient of the Mexico National Grant Program for Performing Artists, presented by Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA), for representing Mexican jazz internationally. In a first award of its kind presented to a female artist, she received the Berklee College of Music’s Master of Latin Music Award in May 2015 for her contributions to developing and showcasing Latin American music, as well as her own, in a contemporary context around the world.