Lucien La Motte is active as a composer, guitarist and educator, having received several awards in composition and commissions for new works. In 2000, Lucien received the Thomas O. Stevens Award in composition for his string orchestra work Surface Tension and in 2001 was awarded the Eva Thompson Prize for excellence in composition. In 2002 Variations On A Dream, an electronic work for CD, was featured in the Bay Area Concert Exchange Program at the University of Berkeley, Stanford, and Mills College in Oakland. He has had pieces played by the New Works and Earplay Ensembles, and in 2007 composed Temporal Flux for Orchestra. Lucien recently composed Three Pieces for Cello and Piano 2007, Character Sketches for Wind Quintet 2006 and Static Fields for Flute and String Trio 2006, working closely with members of the Alexander String Quartet at SFSU in the creation of the works. Lucien graduated Magna cum Laude with a B.M. in composition from San Jose State University having studied with Allen Strange and Pablo Furman. Lucien completed work on his M.A. degree in composition at San Francisco State University under the guidance of Ron Caltabiano. As an educator, Lucien teaches guitar privately, has taught Counterpoint at SFSU and has lectured at De Anza College. Lucien teaches composition and developed the curriculum for the composition program at the School of the Arts in San Francisco. He also works as a musical assistant and copyist for violinist Midori.

Lucien La Motte has performed with former Dizzy Gillespie guitarist Pascal Bokar as a member of the Pascal Bokar Band at John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room and with  bassist Myron Dove of Carlos Santana. He has opened for acts such as the Temptations, O’Jays, The Whispers, Ziggy Marley, Chaka Khan, Don Carlos and Wadi Gad. Lucien  works regularly with Danny  Hull formerly of the Doobie Brothers in addition to performing annually at the San Jose Jazz Festival. In the summer of 2005, he toured Hawaii as part of the “Power to the Peaceful” tour opening for reggae legend Don Carlos at the Pipeline Café and Waikiki on the Beach. As a guitarist, Lucien is versed in studio as well as live performance. In  2005 alone he recorded albums for fusion artists  650 Connection, Pentimento Jazz Ensemble, and the World Music ensemble Brother  Sun. In 2006 he recorded the guitar work for Ben Vega’s album Bury the Times. In 2007 Lucien recorded When You Go, an album of original pieces and has also recorded an album for solo classical guitar that includes works by Francisco Tarrega and J.S. Bach.