George Clinton calls her "the Jimi Hendrix of the violin." Rolling Stone called her music “fiery and virtuosic...”
Lili Haydn has released four critically acclaimed major label recordings as a solo artist. Lili (1997 Atlantic Records), Light Blue Sun (2003 BMG Music), Goodbye Stranger Ep (2007 Nettwerk Music Group), and Place Between Places (2008 Nettwerk Music Group). She has played with, sung with, and opened for everyone from Roger Waters, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Josh Groban, Seal, Matchbox 20, Cyndi Lauper, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars to name a few. Both as a solo artist and as support, Lili has performed in premiere concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, the Vienna Opera House and the Hollywood Bowl.
Her last cd, "Place Between Places," was a favorite on NPR, and Lili performed the single "Strawberry Street" on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the HBO hit Californication. Her songs have also been licensed for TV, film, and commercials, including Army Wives, Dharma and Greg, the film Anywhere But Here, and adverts for Jaguar, and Folders Coffee, among others.
In addition to Lili's extensive recording and touring career, Lili is the featured voice and violin on several films with Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and 4 (2007, 2011), The Burning Plain (2009), Casi Divas (2009), The Boat that Rocked (2009)), as well as with composers Harry Gregson Williams (The Town), Ramin Djwadi (The Unborn (2009), Fright Night (2011), Henry Jackman (Henry IV, Gulliver's Travels), Cliff Eidelman, Paul Cantelon, Tom Petty (Open Window (2006), She's the One (1996), among others.
After performing and improvising on filmscores for several years, Lili has launched her own film scoring career, earning a fellowship from the prestigious Sundance Institute for film composing, and has scored six feature in the last several years, including Jacklight (1999), the award winning film The Horse Boy (2009), The Lightmaker (2009), Somewhere Between (2011), Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011), Broken Kingdom (2012). Lili is currently in production for her upcoming CD, and is composing and performing additional score for an upcoming film called The Manson Girls, starring Eric Balfour, and Taryn Manning, to be released theatrically in 2012.
A humanitarian and activist, Lili also performs regularly for various human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Action Center, the Global Security Institute (for whom she performed a concert at the UN), Code Pink, John Wayne Breast Cancer Center, Indigenous Land Rights Fund, El Faro Orphanage, Peter Gabriel's Witness Foundation, National Civil Rights Museum, among many others; and recently contributed her song "Unfolding Grace" to a CD compilation benefiting Ang San Suu Kyi and the Burmese pro-democracy movement which features U2, Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Paul McCartney.
Lili Haydn was also an accomplished actress growing up, paying her way through Brown University (where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science), performing in TV and film such as NBC's Mrs. Columbo, The New Gidget, Rodney Dangerfield's Easy Money, and Jack Frost, among many others.
At the center of all Lili Haydn's musical ventures is a belief that music has the power to uplift and to heal, no matter what the medium. For an artist whose music has always been eclectic, cinematic, and broad in scope, there are no boundaries, and Lili looks forward to continuing to bring her unique voice to film and TV, as well as to her inimitable performances and recordings.
“One of L.A.’s most adored musicians will surely become the province of a national trust. Haydn has a voice so sublime that it is truly like the fifth string of her virtuoso violin. Haydn is the true spirit of ineffably poetic magic. On Light Blue Sun, Haydn offers a rare profundity in a lushly sensuous pop confection.” -- Paper Magazine
“Emotional…profound” – Interview
“An impassioned mix of classical, punk, funk, jazz and pop.” -- Rolling Stone
“Get out of the way, Norah Jones. If you're looking for the hot new CD, hit record stores today for Lili Haydn's just-released "Light Blue Sun." The L.A.-based rock violinist pumps out song after song with a mix of pop, Eastern, classical, jazz and dance music that defies description. -- Detroit News
“Lili amazed her audience…tossing her raven curls like the rock star she is…her performance was electrifying.” -- Women Who Rock
"Courageously intimate with her audience, Haydn lays into her violin as if it’s a wild animal only she can bring to heel. The effect is an emotional magic show...a party of sound...electronica beat, lyrical strings, ethereal voice, and words that resonate in the battered chamber of the human soul." -- LA Weekly
“The music appeals sometimes to your heart and other times to your feet, managing not to insult your brain in the process. This CD deserves to be heard and should certainly become a favorite on public radio. More intense than the likes of Enya, more real than Madonna, and miles ahead of most everything else, Lili Haydn's "Light Blue Sun" provides reassurance that popular music can still be meaningful.” -- Jazzreview.com
“Lili is the Jimi Hendrix of the violin.” -- George Clinton
