Liz Pappademas (”papp-ahh-DEE-muss”) is a Los Angeles-based pianist, singer/songwriter, and educator. An award-winning Berklee graduate, Liz’s solo shows and performances with her band, Maiden Names, offer resonant stories and classic arrangements that pay homage to her longtime influences -- criteron L.A. songwriters like Tom Waits, Randy Newman, and Joni Mitchell.
Longer bio:
Liz Pappademas is a Los Angeles-based pianist, songwriter, and educator whose atmospheric, piano-driven art-pop 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. Critics have praised her "masterful lyrics," her ability to invoke artists from Rauschenberg to Houdini with natural grace, and her Cat Power/Feist-esque vocals. Her albums incorporate field recordings from her home base in Los Angeles, vintage Chamberlins and Mellotrons, and collaborations with skilled players across genres and locales. Liz has focused on education in recent years, earning a master's degree from Cal State Northridge and directing student support programs at K-12 schools, but she continues write and record in her spare time, and still delievers infrequent, but sold-out shows that build upon her reputation for emotionally resonant songwriting and 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