Liz Pappademas (”papp-ahh-DEE-muss”) is a Los Angeles-based pianist, singer/songwriter, and educator. An award-winning Berklee graduate, her albums, including work produced with Brian Kehew (Fiona Apple), have been featured on NPR and praised by LA Weekly for their "masterful lyrics" and "forceful piano pop." She performs intimate solo shows combining piano, storytelling, a “smoldering alto” (SF Bay Guardian) evoking what Electronic Musician calls "gorgeous and lush" arrangements.
Longer bio:
Liz Pappademas is a Los Angeles-based pianist, songwriter, and educator whose atmospheric, piano-driven art-pop has earned recognition from NPR, LA Weekly, Electronic Musician, and the SF Bay Guardian. Born in a Checker cab in front of Lincoln Center in New York and raised in San Francisco, Pappademas studied songwriting at Berklee College of Music where she won a John Lennon Songwriting scholarship before spending years touring and recording in Austin, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Albums including Hurts to Purr (2005), 11 Songs (2007), and Rock Record (2020) were produced in collaboration with Brian Kehew, co-producer of Fiona Apple's recent work and co-author of the definitive text Recording the Beatles. Critics have praised her "masterful lyrics," her ability to invoke artists from Rauschenberg to Houdini with natural grace, and Cat Power/Feist-esque vocals. NPR featured her work as "beautifully downbeat" piano-pop, while LA Weekly declared she "should be in the big leagues already," noting that her songs "deftly combine Neil Young's gentle introspection with Fiona Apple's forceful piano pop." Her recordings incorporate field recordings from her home base in Los Angeles, vintage Chamberlins and Mellotrons, and collaborations with skilled players across multiple cities. After focusing on education in recent years—earning a master's degree in educational therapy from Cal State Northridge and directing student supports programs at K-12 schools, Pappademas is returning to live performance with new solo material that builds on her reputation for literate, emotionally resonant songwriting and intimate, thoughtful arrangements.
Press:
"Liz Pappademas's solo debut 11 Songs, is gorgeous and lush in a sparse sort of way. The uncluttered arrangements and production allow her songwriting, vocals, and piano playing to shine through." - Electronic Musician
"A beautifully downbeat collection of piano-driven art-pop tunes reflecting on broken hearts, bitterness and murder." - NPR
"Bearing the narrative agility of a class-act storyteller as well as the unhurried precision of a poet, Pappademas writes lyrics that carry impressive weight standing alone on the page. Delivered in her smoldering alto, evoking a cross between Jolie Holland and Fiona Apple, they burn with an almost disarming poignancy." - SF Bay Guardian
"The local singer-pianist and former member of the Austin band Hurts to Purr should be in the big leagues already. Her 2007 debut album, 11 Songs, was a mesmerizing assortment of passionate ballads that deftly combined Neil Young's gentle introspection with Fiona Apple's forceful piano pop. Even more impressive, Pappademas proved to be a masterful lyricist, playfully invoking Robert Rauschenberg, Jackson Pollock and Harry Houdini." - LA Weekly
"It also encompasses a wider range of pitches than many pop songs do; not lingering on a specific set of pitches adds to the somewhat freeform feeling of the song. In the way the melody is shaped (and perhaps also in the broken chord piano accompaniment), "Loma Prieta" seems to be toeing the line between pop song and art song." - harmonictremors
photo by Jane Preston
photo by Chris Campbell
photo by Peter Baker