Welcome to my virtual home stage!

I’m Lisa Markovits, a singer, writer, coach, facilitator, poet, performer, healer, and international foundation director who loves to weave words and notes, flavors and sounds, entertainment and social change. I was born and raised in New York (city and state!) and lived for 30 years in Ecuador before moving back to the US to North Carolina in 2022.

I bring a bilingual, bi-cultural spin to all of my work and play and enjoy being part of an international community. I’ve spent a long time creating both artistic works and communications assets in Spanish and English for others but now I have decided to share more about my own work. Thank you for taking the time to get to know me through this page.

I will be adding to this showcase over time so please keep checking back to discover what’s new in my world! And feel free to reach out to me over socials for questions, bookings, consulting, and collaborations of any sort.

“Versatile vocalist:

My main musical mother-tongue is jazz, a love language I have studied since I was a child listening to my father’s Big Band collection and then developed through mentorship by and collaboration with fabulous musicians. But I don’t like being put in a box! So, though I may jump up and down at the opportunity to jam, I also like to work cross-genre, singing in other languages and styles (Broadway musicals, bossa novas, timeless pop, 80s rock, gospel, blues-rock and even some occasional hip-hop grooves) that I have picked up through childhood influences and later world travels. Basically, if it’s good music I want to hear it and I want to sing it! Check out some of my solo work on the music playlist of my personal YouTube channel and a fun holiday project called “Carols on Tap” that I developed in Christmas 2024 on my former duo’s YouTube channel.

Over the past few months I stepped into a childhood dream by joining my first ever musical theater performance! We weren’t allowed to film it (intellectual property rights in music are so complex!) but I am figuring out a way to share at least some of the magic with you! So stay tuned for a link. And follow me on socials for some of the candid photos and story behind the performances as well as upcoming events.

Songwriter:

I design my songs to tell a story that moves you, inspired in everyday life or world events or anything that excites my inner muse. I consider myself more of a lyricist who sets her poems to music than a composer per se. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good hook, but in my world, the words become the music and the story is my focus. I also enjoy the challenge of translating my own work, and that of others, from English into Spanish or vice versa. And lately I´ve been playing around with longer format pieces that showcase my full writing abilities. More on that later…

For now, check out my No More! No Más anthem song that I wrote to help end violence against women.

Poet:

I used to hate poetry. Seriously! I did. But one day a life crisis left me broken and writing poetry pulled me out of my hole. Since then, I have written dozens of still unpublished poems to explore my own emotions, to record my observations of nature and human foible, and to remember that there is always beauty and light in the world even when we are surrounded by darkness. Some of the poems have become songs, while others have remained noteless, even as they sing their own truth.

Communications, Content Design and UX:

I have “worn many hats” as a communications professional in corporate, non-profit, community, and media spaces. Whether using my actual voice as a voiceover artist, hosting community radio, or representing my foundation in countless public interviews, I bring the creativity and performance capabilities of a trained vocalist and bilingual language professional to traditional communications roles as a writer, editor, translator/interpreter. My blogs in Spanish-language mass media outlets have reached hundreds of thousands of people with the power of storytelling. And I have successfully created and implemented innovative community-sourced and art-based communications campaigns that have reached millions of people with inspiring messages of hope.

In addition, I have taken the time to systematize my work and that of the teams I have led. Sometimes these processes lead to the distinctly non-glamorous but highly useful world of internal content databases. At other times, they can put the information to good public use where UX becomes crucial, such as in the award winning OyeSARA platform I developed with a fabulous volunteer team at Pa’Arriba Foundation to help victims of violence find the support resources they desperately need.

For more information on my varied uses of communications, storytelling and culturally sensitive UX work, see my portfolio.

Artivist:

I have spent much of the past decade of my life using my music and my communications background – with a healthy dose of my formal education in international relations – to try to make a dent in the worldwide issue of violence against women and other vulnerable populations. I strongly believe that cultural transformation and dialogue are key to solving this issue and other current world problems, and I am honestly frightened by the polarization we are seeing across the planet. Click here to learn more about the highly innovative programs we have created at Pa’Arriba Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) that I founded and have led. Our proprietary work includes Ecuador’s first ever digital platform with nationwide information on support resources available for victims of violence. And learn more here about From Caterpillar to Butterfly: Shepherding Women from Trauma to Joy, a self-paced digital course I have created base on the knowledge I have gained from working directly with thousands of people using my music to help women reconnect with self-love and joy after the trauma of unhealthy relationships.

Foodie:

Not many people outside of my circle of family and friends know this about me, but I´m the queen of quickly turning whatever is in my fridge into something delicious (and usually healthy). I love exploring the flavors of world cuisine and making things from scratch. So, you may occasionally find me posting something yummy on my socials. And you will often find me bonding with friends and building community in my kitchen and at my table!

Wake-Up Checklist

Is there a little voice inside your heart telling you something isn’t quite right in your romantic relationship?

Do you wish you had a way to know what is normal and what is just a bit off?

This wake-up checklist is just that… a checklist of the most common signs of an unhealthy relationship so you can make the decisions-you need to recover your life and step into joy.