Mary Ann McSweeney
Mary Ann McSweeney was born in Aptos, California. She started playing piano at the age of five and began to study violin at age 8. In high school, she fell in love with the acoustic bass while watching Ray Brown perform at the Concord Jazz Festival. At age 16, she was chosen to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the All Star band fronted by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.
McSweeney has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Joanne Brackeen, Lee Konitz, Gil Goldstein, and Bucky Pizzarelli. She has also played for renowned conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, and John Williams. McSweeney has performed with Renee Rosness, Vic Juris, Ken Peplowski, Dennis Mackrel, Lewis Nash and Larry Goldings at various venues throughout the USA.
Big Band performances include Maiden Voyage, the Clayton/Hamilton Orchestra and Diva. She has performed with her own quintet at the Seixal Jazz Festival in Portugal and the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center. She has arranged for and recorded with Warner Brothers artist, Lea Delaria.
McSweeney has toured Europe and performed with David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness. McSweeney performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Claire Daly and the Baritone Monk Band, which was rated in the top ten on jazz radio in the USA. She performed at the White House with the Eli Yamin Quintet with President Obama in attendance. She was musical director/arranger for three shows at NYC's Birdland featuring Jane Monheit in a program that included selections from Irving Berlin and the Cole Porter musical, “Anything Goes.” She is currently performing with her Urban Fado band and the “McSweeney plays Mingus” project.
Estrella Acosta
Cuban born vocalist Estrella Acosta is an accomplished and versatile singer-songwriter. Though she never stopped singing the folk songs of her motherland, she is equally at home embracing various Brazilian and jazz idioms. With her warm earthy voice she creates an energetic yet intimate and personal style, rooted in the sounds of her native Cuba.
She has left a travel footprint that truly makes her a citizen of the world. After completing a degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, she set out to pursue her musical dreams in a journey that took her to Rio de Janeiro, New York City and, finally, Amsterdam, where she now resides.
Estrella has recorded seven albums for the label eStar, which have won international acclaim. Her album, ‘Alma Guajira - Cuban Country Songs’ (2003), was nominated for a Dutch ‘Edison’ award, and ‘Tierra’ (2023), featuring songs by female songwriters from the countryside of Cuba as well as her own compositions. was nominated for a Latin GRAMMY® 2023.
Estrella has been a featured artist in several more albums: she sang in bandoneon-player Carel Kraayenhof's project ‘Memorias de Cuba’, which included a CD recording for Universal Records and live concerts at a.o. Amsterdam's Concertgebouw with the Metropole Orchestra.
Her festival appearances include the North Sea Jazz Festival, Curaçao Jazz Festival, Madison World Music Festival, World Music Chicago and Sunfest in London, Canada, and venues such as Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Ronnie Scott’s (London) and Perelman Performing Art Center (New York).
Estrella has performed with many great musicians, including Toninho Horta, Craig Handy, Edy Martinez, Leo Amuedo and Jovino Santos Neto. In the Netherlands, she fronts ‘Esquina 25’, a band of top international musicians who participate throughout the years in her various projects.
Peggy Stern
During a distinguished career that has seen her put down roots in such places as New York, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco, pianist/composer Peggy Stern has never stopped pushing into new stylistic territory. Classically trained, she has adapted to her surroundings by playing everything from modern jazz to salsa to western swing—a signature sound of Austin, Texas, which she now calls her winter home, to be near her family.
In each case, she has left her personal imprint on the music. Combining her take on jazz, with the more local styles, like western swing, Peggy can be found gigging around town - from restaurants, the airport, the local jazz clubs, etc.
Most importantly, finding inspiration in her physical surroundings, and drawing upon what jazz critic Harvey Pekar called her “fertile imagination” as a pianist, composer, and arranger, Stern has recorded her deepest and most personal album, Z Octet. Comprised of several of her most poignant compositions, the recording features flute, clarinet, cello and trombone + rhythm section, and shapes them into a cohesive work of great beauty, color, and tender emotion.
“I like that it doesn’t really fit into any genre,” says Stern, who has never let generic expectations color her approach to the music or the way she plays the piano: “I skipped the roots of jazz. I was not into Charlie Parker, I wasn’t good at bebop. I came to jazz as a foil for classical music, so my one clear aim in improvisation has been to sing my own song, to tell my own truth.”
Previous LuluFest Artists
Dena DeRose
It’s no small accomplishment to be thought of as “The most creative and compelling singer- pianist since Shirley Horn”, but that’s exactly how Joel Siegel of the Washington City Paper described Dena DeRose. If she comes to your city and you want to catch the show, go early, because the room is going to be packed. She not only awes her audiences and music critics with her facility on the piano and her swinging, soothing vocal style but, as Richard Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury aptly put it, “… she exudes joy … what soul!” DeRose always delivers “…vivid and often exciting demonstrations of how innovative her musical concepts are…” (Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner).
She has brought that vitality and innovation to performances alongside the likes of Ray Brown, Clark Terry, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson, Scott Hamilton, John Scofield, Benny Green, Ray Drummond, Houston Person, Tootie Heath, Deborah Brown, Ken Peplowski, John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Kenny Burrell, David ‘Fathead’ Newman, Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Mark Murphy, Marvin Stamm, and many, many others.
