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Lian is a renaissance woman and entrepreneur who has pursued many creative endeavors. Her current focus is on completing her first musical release. A life-long vocalist, Lian's music features an eclectic mix of her heartfelt singing, unique songwriting and rhythm rich world-soul arrangements. She is currently recording her debut CD. Lian has been blessed to work with many diverse and illustrious artists, including Esperanza Spalding, DJ Cheb i Sabbah, Neal and Al Evans of Soulive, Didi Gutman of Brazilian Girls, David Fiuczynski of Screaming Headless Torsos, John Medeski of Medeski Martin and Wood and many others. Lian was featured on the Hector Zazou & Harold Budd album "Glyph" (Crammed Disc Records), and her contribution, "And She Stepped Aside" was a popular favorite on "Morning Becomes Eclectic" on Los Angeles radio station KCRW. She also vocally guested and composed for the 2001 release KiF by David Fiuczynski & Rufus Cappadocia, and the 1999 David Manley release Deep PM. Singing and performing since she was a child, Lian is the daughter of noted Bay Area jazz vocalist, vocal coach and graphic artist Maye Cavallaro, who has been her great inspiration. Born into a musical family, she is the granddaughter of a concert pianist on her father's side and an opera singer on her mother's, and grew up in Marin County, CA. She has studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, New School/Mannes Jazz Program in New York, and SFSU in San Francisco. |
Lian currently sits on the board of Austin, TX non-profit music program Anthropos Arts, which brings professional musicians into underserved Austin Title I schools to offer free music lessons, workshops and performance opportunities for the students. She recently created a vocal program for high school students at a local Title I Austin school under its auspices. She also volunteers at Girls Rock Camp, Austin, teaching young women the joys of rockin' out. Lian was the co-founder and CEO of independent record label FuzeLicious Morsels, where she functioned as executive and co-producer, live DVD producer, graphic and web designer, publicist and promoter, overseeing every business aspect of ten CD releases and a double live concert DVD for guitarist David Fiuczynski and his groups Screaming Headless Torsos and KiF. She worked extensively in live entertainment, having booked, produced and tour managed seven European and Latin American tours. Lian's graphic design is unusual and offbeat. She is a self-taught designer who has created web sites, CD covers, logos, T-shirts, advertising and promotional items, as well as having worked freelance in New York City at advertising agencies BBDO, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather and others. A proponent of long-term world travel, Lian has visited 34 countries and spent a number of years overseas traveling in India, Africa, SE Asia, South America, Mexico, the Mediterranean and Europe, in 2008 returning from five months in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Although a casual photographer with a point and shoot, her travel photos are as quirky as her design sense. |
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 Photo: Gene Vandiver |
Lian has been an award-winning actress, who's starring debut in "Longshot", a pioneering feature length video "mockumentary" which she co-wrote, was shown on PBS nationwide, selected as the outstanding Film of the Year at the London Film Festival, and won the Grand Prize, Montbéliard Festival, France and the Prize Publique, Montreal Video Festival. The Village Voice opined that "the most compelling aspect is the leading performer, Lian Amber... while the facts may be invented, the self that Amber exhibits for the camera is unmistakably her own." In addition to her many other endeavors, Lian has been a music and arts features journalist for Associated Press, an editorial contributor to numerous music magazines, and a hip-hop and soul columnist for San Francisco music publication NMP. She worked extensively as a live DJ in the Bay Area in the 90's, spinning world music, funk and soul at many venues. A life-long collector of sounds, Lian has amassed a 5000 LP collection of music spanning the entire world, which she uses extensively in her work. |
