PHOTO PROVIDED Acclaimed jazz vocalist, Lucia, will perform at the Durrwachter Alumni Conference Center on the Commonwealth University-Lock Haven campus on Sunday, Sept. 21.

LOCK HAVEN — Acclaimed jazz vocalist, Lucia, will be performing in Lock Haven on Sunday, Sept. 21, in Lock Haven as part of a fundraiser for the local arts.

Presented by the Clinton County Arts Council to support the Commonwealth University’s retention fund and CCAC scholarships for the arts, and produced to bring the most unique and highest quality music to our community, this concert will take place at the Durrwachter Alumni Center on the Commonwealth University’s Lock Haven campus.

Tickets can be secured through Zey and that link can be found on the CCAC website: stationgalleryccac.org.

The evening will begin with doors opening at 6 p.m., serving hot hors d’oeuvre and providing a cash bar. The concert itself will begin at 7 p.m.

The acclaimed Mexican jazz vocalist, Lucia, was only 23-years-old when she won the 2022 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. She was the first Mexican artist to enter the contest. When it came time to select the song that she would perform in the final round, she picked a standard that reflected her musical sensibility, colored in equal parts by the beauty of jazz and the Latin American songbook.

Her innate talent was nurtured from a very young age.

Born in Veracruz, Lucia Gutierrez Rebolloso began performing at age two, together with her parents Laura Rebolloso and Ramon Gutierrez, and their acclaimed Son de Madera, a son jarocho ensemble. She grew up surrounded by fandangos and the son jarocho community and is also the niece of Quetzal Flores, founder of the Los Angeles-based Chicanorock band Quetzal.

Most importantly, Lucia’s parents played many records at home — from the salsa nuggets of El Gran Combo to the Latin folk of Mercedes Sosa and the healing Soul sides of Aretha Franklin.

At the age of 13 she became interested in developing her own singing technique which led her to study voice at the Universidad Veracruzana.

Interested in the ideas of jazz, bolero and the son jarocho musical traditions, she wanted to explore the concepts of improvisation and community connection.

After getting a degree in Jazz Studies from the university of Veracruz, Lucia contributed vocals to Mexican singer/songwriter Natalia Lafourcade’s De Todas Las Flores — one of the key Latin albums of the 21st century. She also performed with Lafourcade at Carnegie Hall (as well as being a backup singer on tour for two years), an experience that had a massive effect on her carving out her own path.

According to an article in the June 2025 issue of Downbeat magazine, she collaborated with a wide variety of artists, like “…Natalia Lafourcade, Aloe Blacc and the National Jazz Orchestra of Mexico” and has recently brought her own brand new album to the world entitled “LUCIA,” which she described as a “magical experiment.”

Lucia plans to tour across Europe and the Americas, presenting her unique approach to her song book to the world. The combination of traditional American jazz with the warmth of Latin folk remains at the core of her identity — both as a person and a vocalist.

She pauses for a minute and smiles.

“I was in love with jazz and doing big band recitals, but on my debut album, I managed to fuse that sound with my own roots in a very organic way,” she says. “I wanted to generate a musical project that would paint an accurate picture of who I really am.”

Lucia’s future looks bright indeed with her sparkling onstage presence and a debut album that represents the global evolution of jazz, where cultures from all over the world can dance together in harmony.

Special acknowledgment is made to the generous sponsors who are bringing such an amazing event to the area; the Clinton County Arts Council, Thomas “Doc” Sweitzer and the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania-Lock Haven campus.