"Carmen Consoli  and her band played more original musical ideas in her first three songs than most American, or for that matter, English bands manage in a whole evening,’ marveled an inspired Elvis Costello following her Joe’s Pub performance.” Global Rhythm


“...an Italian singer and acoustic guitarist whose volatile songs signaled passion across the language barrier.”  Jon Pareles, The New York Times


Carmen Consoli opens her 2008 North American concert season with a trio of high profile US theater dates in New York, Washington, D.C, and Boston.  These March dates mark the iconoclastic world music artist’s fifth Stateside tour in less than four years.


After an unprecedented headline appearance at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater in Fall 2007, Consoli returns to New York City on Thursday, March 6 at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center’s Mainstage Theatre in Long Island City.  This appearance is part of the noted Performance Planet Series held at the CUNY Queens venue.


A Saturday, March 8 performance at the Grosvenor Auditorium at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters follows Consoli’s attendance record-breaking appearance on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in 2006.  Consoli, who headlined the Nat Geo Music Channel launch event held in Rome in October 2007, will also fulfill an invitation to record an intimate Global Session profile for Nat Geo Music’s worldwide network while in D.C.


On Sunday, March 9, Consoli will make her Boston debut at the Museum of Fine Arts’ Remis Auditorium.   In all three concerts, Catania-born Consoli’s vocals and guitar will be backed by a five-piece band.  She will perform a repertoire drawn from her more than decade-long career with arrangements that feature the traditional instruments of her Sicilian homeland.  In a twist on the high profile case which saw the MFA return works of art to the Italian government, Italy will in turn loan one of its treasured young artists back to Boston.


The Sicilian-born Carmen Consoli is the most successful female singer-songwriter Italy has ever produced.  The 33 year-old musician is known for her unflinching emotional live performances of songs that examine broad themes of love, illness, solitude and friendship from a feminine -- and feminist -- perspective.  Her innovative mixture of Italian song with indie-rock influences, bossa nova rhythms and jazz and blues-inspired riffs have engendered a sound unique on the Italian music scene.  Consoli has six studio albums and two live albums to her credit, all platinum albums in Italy that have sold cumulatively over 1 million copies.


Consoli‘s latest studio CD effort “Eva Contro Eva” (Eve Against Eve), debuted at Number One on the Italian charts in May 2006.  The album was released in the US on Universal Music Latino marking the iconic singer-songwriter’s first US release.  Recorded in her home town of Catania, Sicily, and featuring guest appearances by the Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo and Balkan composer Goran Bregovic, “Eva Contro Eva” is a set of musical tales depicting Consoli’s reflections on the wide range of contradictions -- the beauties and hardships -- encountered in contemporary life on the Mediterranean island.


Consoli has been honored with numerous awards including the MTV Italian Music Award for Best Video (Parole di Burro) in 2001; Best Female Artist at the Italian Music Awards in both 2002 and 2003 and Best Song at the Taormina Film Festival for the soundtrack of the international hit film “L’Ultimo Bacio” (The Last Kiss).  Zach Braff’s recent film The Last Kiss is an adaptation of the Italian film, whose title was inspired by Consoli’s song.

 

In May 2006 Consoli was named a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF representing Italy then went on to headline the MTV Europe Foundation’s Exit concert in Vlore Albania, to benefit NGOs working against human trafficking in the European Union.  In February 2005 Consoli was chosen to represent Italy at the Africa Unite concert in Ethiopia celebrating the 60th anniversary of Bob Marley's birth.  She participated in Quincy Jones' "We Are The Future" project, a live concert held at the Circus Maximus in Rome in May 2004, which was a fund-raiser to support children in war-torn cities.  The resulting benefit CD was sold in Starbucks in the US.  Consoli’s debut New York City and Austin, TX appearances at Joe’s Pub and the SXSW Festival in March 2004 were aired in Italy as an MTV Rockumentary.


Music and English-language information is also available at http://www.carmenconsoli.it. [2]


CARMEN CONSOLI: Winter 2008 US Theater Tour


Thu. 3/6    LaGuardia Performing Arts Center Mainstage Theatre, Long Island City, NY

            LaGuardia Community College / CUNY

            31-10 Thomson Avenue (#7 subway to 33rd/Rawson or the E,G,V,R to Queens Plaza)

            8:00pm  Tickets: $25 Door / $20 Advance / $15 Students

            Info.: http://www.laguardiaperformingarts.org [3]


Sat. 3/8    Grosvenor Auditorium, Washington D.C.

            National Geographic Society Headquarters

            1600 M Street, NW

            8:00pm  Tickets: $35 Nonmembers / $30 Members

            Info.: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/nglive/washingtondc/s2008/concerts/consoli.html [4]


Sun. 3/9    Remis Auditorium, Boston, MA

            Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

            7:30pm  Tickets: Nonmembers, general admission $25 / Members, seniors, students $20

            Info.: http://www.mfa.org/calendar/event.asp?eventkey=31588&date=3/9/2008
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