Lisa Downing

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LISA DOWNING is a three time Emmy Award Winning composer/pianist, and a six time Emmy® Nominee. Lisa achieved #5 on the Billboard® Charts for New Age Album, and is a multiple award winning, international concert performer, composer and recording artist who is re-defining the genre of solo piano. She performs world-wide with Grammy Award winners/nominees such as Liz Story, David Lanz, Suzanne Ciani, Will Ackerman, and Peter Kater. Her performances include the "International Pianists of the World" series in Spain, the “Concierto Internacional de Piano” series in Argentina — plus performances in Germany, as well as many concerts across the United States.

Her CDs have won multiple awards including the ZMR Holiday Album of the year for her album “Christmas for Two.” Lisa's album, "A Delicate Balance,” was also considered for Grammy nomination and ranked in the top 5 Albums for worldwide airplay in its genre. Her latest album, “The Wisdom of My Shadow,” achieved #5 on the Billboard Charts for New Age Album.

Ms. Downing is a member of The Alliance for Women Film Composers and has received Heartland Emmy® Awards in the “Best Music Composition/Arrangement” category for her original film score in the PBS documentary series “Great Colorado Women,” her original film score for the short documentary “The Torii Gates,” and for her work on the short documentary “An Incest Survivor’s Odyssey” — as well as three other Emmy® nominations for her concert video performances and film scores.

Recently, Lisa created the musical score for a Documentary (Short Subject) film “Miss America By Day” which has been submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar® consideration.

Lisa has lived in Denver, Colorado all her life. Her Father was an African American son of a Mississippi sharecropper who proudly served during World War II in the Naval 23rd Special SeaBee unit. He arrived on Iwo Jima on the fifth day of the American assault of that island. Her Mother, a caucasian woman from Sulpher Oklahoma, married her Father when interracial marriages were still illegal in many states. Both her parents also have Native American heritage, so instead of the term “bi-racial,” Lisa prefers to describe herself as “poly-ethnic.”

Lisa's cousin, Carlotta LaNier, is one of the “Little Rock Nine,” the first African American students to racially integrate a public high school in America — Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Carlotta experienced and has overcome the kind of violent bigotry that most of us can only barely imagine.

Ms. Downing’s collection of original solo piano compositions are fiercely impassioned and many embrace her experiences due to her ethnic background and her passion for gender equality. Although her compositions are technically impressive, the emotional meaning of each piece remains clear and accessible. Her works might be classified as New Age, but they more accurately belong in a yet unnamed genre that would be a fusion of multiple musical categories. Her unique style could be compared with Liz Story, Peter Kater, David Lanz or George Winston, but experiencing her creations will certainly draw you into uncharted musical territories.

Lisa’s musical compositions paint a vastly imaginative landscape of powerful and mysterious energies drawn from her seemingly inexhaustible palate of musical creation. She believes that there is a “Universal Source” of music and that this “Source” is streaming at multiple levels through endless and unseen channels that she believes are available to anyone. Lisa says she simply emulates the music she can hear from the “Source” using her skills at the piano, and that the only thing required to become aware of this abundant stream is to be still and listen.