La Lucha is a Tampa Bay based trio that consists of three best friends from three different parts of the world: Colombia (Alejandro Arenas), Mexico (John O’Leary), & United States (Mark Feinman). Their music ventures boldly into a wide variety of musical styles, offering an appealing and fun mix of genres under the jazz umbrella. The combination of their musical versatility and varied musical influences makes for compelling virtuosic performances. Through an engaging stage presence and high level of interaction, La Lucha brings the audience into their world.

La Lucha was awarded Creative Loafing’s “Best of the Bay Jazz Ensemble” in 2013, 2014 & 2015; the “Think Small to Think Big Grant,” by Creative Pinellas; featured presenters at TEDxTampa Bay (2014), TEDxUSF (2015) & TEDxDouglasville (2017); and were honored by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, to present a multi- media project raising awareness for Alzheimer’s disease.

The trio has extensive national and international performance experience, including a tour of Italy and France with performances at the “Umbria Jazz Festival” and “Jazz a Juan” in Juan Les Pins. Some highlighted festival performances include; the Clearwater Jazz Holiday, St. Petersburg Jazz Festival, Sarasota Jazz Festival, New Smyrna Beach Jazz Fest, Thin Man Watts Jazz Fest, Chestertown Jazz Festival (Maryland) along with various performances in concert halls throughout the south and mid-atlantic United States. Their debut album, A Cup of Fuzzy Water was released in 2009 and their second self-titled album was released in June 2012. Their third album, Standards, Not-Standards, featuring vocalist Jun, was released in January 2015 on Blue Line Music, and Pa’ Lante, which features all original music, was released in September 2108 on Fuzzy Water Music.

Joining La Lucha is Barcelona born vocalist and composer Ona Kirei. Ona has performed across Europe in countries such as Spain, France, and the UK. She moved to the United States four years ago and is quickly becoming one of the premier performers with her ownprojects, including “Iberia” and a bass & vocal duo, “Orilla.