At the Twin Cities Jazz Fest on Saturday, audiences will hear music from an array of genres and continents as saxophonist Lucia Sarmiento channels her experiences with music and life into her performance. This act of combining is inherent in Sarmiento’s genre, jazz fusion, but the Peruvian-born musician puts it at the center of her art.
“My music is a mix of all the different lives that I’ve lived,” Sarmiento said. “It’s the sum of every place that I’ve lived, and every person that I’ve loved, and every friend that I’ve loved as well.”
Sarmiento was born and raised in Lima, Peru, where she developed a passion for Peruvian and Afro-Peruvian sounds, and for groove and rhythm. She moved to Minnesota in 2013 to attend St. Paul’s now-defunct McNally Smith College of Music. Although she moved to Chicago a year and a half ago, Sarmiento considers Minneapolis to have raised her musically. She learned new forms and ways of feeling music from the strong funk and R&B presence here.
“Minneapolis made me a very versatile player,” Sarmiento said. “Now I feel comfortable, and I actually love playing different styles of music, and that is all thanks to Minnesota.”
The saxophonist has spent the majority of her career performing in the Twin Cities — with some notable exceptions. Sarmiento toured with the Grammy-winning Latino artists Pitbull and Karol G in recent years.
“[The tours] were huge opportunities for me,” Sarmiento said. “It was my first step into entering the big pop industry and becoming more international.”
In February 2025, Sarmiento released her first album, “Escape.” She started working on the album in 2020, when she got her first microphone and interface, and began to write songs on her computer.
“The first songs are like a kid just trying to spell the ABCs,” Sarmiento said. “These ideas started developing and growing and maturing over the years. … When ‘Escape’ came out, it was a moment where I became an adult in the musical world. I had something to say, something to offer to the vault of music that exists.”
On the album’s track “Porcelain,” Sarmiento sings in addition to playing the saxophone. The instrumentalist had resisted singing for years, frustrated with being mistaken for a singer; people often assumed that a woman would not be entering a music venue to play with the band. However, she realized that she was limiting herself. Sarmiento said that singing is still scary and new, but that she is enjoying it more.
On her newest project, an EP with Japanese synth player CC, Sarmiento continues to sing and to incorporate new genres into her repertoire. The collaboration nestles synth pop fusion inside of jazz fusion and is “girly pop music,” Sarmiento said. Sarmiento and CC plan to release their first single, “Secret Code,” next month.
Sarmiento often returns to the Twin Cities to perform. Her distinct style has given something back to the music scene that made her. Before Sarmiento, Peruvian sounds and artists did not have a strong presence in Twin Cities music, according to Sarmiento’s bandmate, guitarist David Feily.
“It’s new and it’s a fresh international sound for many listeners, especially here in the Twin Cities,” Feily said of Sarmiento’s music. “That also draws them in, because they can’t easily access this music. … People are really interested because it’s authentic to her story.”
Feily himself learned Peruvian and Afro-Peruvian styles from Sarmiento, picking up especially on the role the rhythm section has in those genres. In return, he taught her about jazz and fusion harmony. Sarmiento said that she treasures the way that her musician friends have shaped her, and that she can hear pieces of them in her songs.
“In my music, there’s a little bit of personality of everybody that has been close to me,” Sarmiento said. “I imagine when I’m older and I look back at my life … [my music] is going to be like a little history.”
The artist’s favorite moments from her music career have been playing original pieces with musicians who have become trusted friends, people who can communicate without talking. She loves when everyone, including the audience, is present in the music.
“You create this bubble in time of unity in the music, and it’s so fun,” Sarmiento said of these moments.
Sarmiento played a show like this at Minneapolis’s Dakota Jazz Club on Jan. 8, the day after ICE agent Jonathan Ross killed Renée Good.
“It was a very heavy show to play because everybody was scared and grieving and had all these emotions so close to the surface of their skin,” Sarmiento said. “And then you come in with music, which is also all about emotion and connection. … I saw people crying in the crowd. It made me cry on stage. These have been the best moments for me: when there’s human connection.”
Sarmiento’s 2 p.m. show in Mears Park on Saturday will be her first time playing the Twin Cities Jazz Fest mainstage under her own name. It will also be the first show that she plays on alto saxophone; Sarmiento has been relearning all her songs on the smaller instrument following a shoulder injury that made it difficult to play tenor saxophone.
The newness of the alto saxophone for Sarmiento is yet another layer that the artist is adding to her songs, both old and new. This dynamism will underlie her Jazz Fest set, which will include well-established songs from “Escape” and her recent arrangement of Afro-Peruvian tune “María Sueños” — the latest installment in the history book that is Sarmiento’s music.
