Lucy London
Lucy London is a composer and performing artist from Petaluma, California, currently based in Minneapolis. She graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in Performance Studies from the School of Communication, and while there also studied classical voice and opera at the Bienen School of Music.
Lucy plays guitar, mandolin, cajón, shruti box, nose flute, and slide whistle, but singing is her primary instrument; she sings solo in a variety of styles, as well as in harmony with others.
Lucy has studied and performed music with international folk ensembles in Karnal and Delhi, India and Greensboro, North Carolina. She co-composed the Fox and Beggar Theatre Company's spring 2024 production, The Paper Operetta, in which she sang the voice of the principal character, Z. In spring of 2023, Lucy wrote and performed an hour-long musical solo performance, Grasping at Straws, as a reflection on her changing relationship to activism amidst the Great Turning. Lucy has busked across the United States, from Seattle to Chicago, California to Alaska, as well as performed songs at diverse venues such as cafes, bars, hotels, schools and festivals.
Lucy's work centers around themes of animacy and connection with the more-than-human world. Through her songs, she channels many perspectives distinct from her own, including those of humans and non-humans alike.
Lucy has received numerous awards for her work in performance studies, including the Performance Studies Book Award (2023), as well as an Honors award for her undergraduate performance thesis. In 2022, she received the Martha Lavey Prize and the Zeta Phi Eta Award, each given to an outstanding Northwestern upperclassman in Communications.
Outside of her music, Lucy has received the Edward L. Schuman Award for Creative Essay from Northwestern's English Department (2023) and the H. Paul Friesema Award for Environmental Leadership and Academic Achievement (2022).
In 2022, Lucy had the honor to perform with E. Patrick Johnson, the Dean of Northwestern's School of Communication at the Gary Marshall Theatre in Los Angeles. She was awarded 2nd place in the classical voice division of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) contest (Chicago Chapter, 2020), 2nd place in classical voice (San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of NATS, 2018), and 1st place musical theatre and classical voice (San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of NATS, 2017). Lucy was also a YoungArts winner in classical voice in 2019.
