Meet Lisa Piccirillo
Radiate - spreading joy and cheerfulness through soothing sounds
Good afternoon Norwich and the Upper Valley,
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking to Lisa at the crosswalk as she was heading over to MCS. She gave me a post card advertising an event at the Briggs Opera house in White River Junction. I knew her from seeing her dropping off her toddler but did not realize that she was also a singer songwriter. I asked her if she would like to share her story with my readers and the community at large.
Here is her response and story for you to read and some of her music to listen to.
Hey Demo,
Thanks so much for supporting me and my music as a local artist.
Folks may know me as a teacher of the Music Together program at UVMC, an MCS parent and nanny, performer in the local party band The Tricksters, but I am also a singer-songwriter. Since my days touring the country as a solo artist and member of the band Hotels & Highways, much of my life over the past few years has been spent in the creative cocoon.
Several years ago, during my early motherhood when my son was still a toddler, I began to feel the pinch of being totally disconnected to my artistic identity. This was in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, so it was a challenging period for all of us, and finding time to devote to a creative practice felt tricky as the parent of a young child. I began waking up before my family and retreating to the studio space that my husband (realtor/builder/musician Seth Barbiero) had built several years earlier from the bones of an old barn on our property. The reclamation of my songwriting practice gave me something to look forward to every day and I began to feel like myself again. I dusted off an idea that I'd had back in 2014 which came to me as a vision during a waitress shift. I had doodled it on the back of a menu with the crayons from the hostess stand and held onto it, knowing it was important.
RADIATE was one of the first songs that came to me during my sunrise songwriting sessions, and the rest of the record soon followed. By early 2022, I had all the songs written, a team of collaborators assembled, and I was ready to seek crowdfunding to make the project a reality. My amazing community (folks from the Upper Valley and beyond) came through to pledge their support for the project, which was recorded primarily at The Station Studio on our property throughout 2022 and 2023.
I am thrilled to say that after releasing several singles since June 2024 (the title track among them), the full-length RADIATE record will be released to streaming services on Oct 18th. Folks can find all my music at lisapmusic.com - and if there's one thing I'd like the community to know about right now, it's the RADIATE Release Event at the Briggs Opera House in WRJ on Oct 19th.
I'm overjoyed to present my new body of work in this unique way. Part listening event / part intimate concert, my goal is to transport folks beyond a traditional release show. This sacred event will offer the audience a chance to experience my new music by tuning into themselves in a safe space. We will listen to the record in its entirety, and then I will perform several selections from the record with a string quartet of VT Symphony Orchestra players.
In the spirit of full self-expression and holistic healing...in the lobby, vintage clothes from Nancy the Girl (in WRJ) will be on hand to play dress-up before the show, wellness practitioners (The Acupuncture Studio in Hartland, Shake Away Stress in Woodstock, etc) will promote their businesses, and local artists will showcase their wares. I hope folks will leave lighter than they arrive, inspired by all the magical creative energy right here in the Upper Valley.
Thank you for always spreading positivity in our community,
Lisa Piccirillo
Lisa Piccirillo (she/her)
You can listen to here songs here on the below links
