Perla Batalla
A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend
Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026
Time: 7:00pm
Tickets: $69 & $49
Member Tickets: $36.75 - $62.10
Reserved Seating
While today Grammy®-nominated singer-songwriter Perla Batalla can be found sharing the stage with musicians such as Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, and Jackson Browne, it was Perla’s early years touring with the celebrated Canadian poet Leonard Cohen that shaped her as an artist in her own right.
Perla’s first homage to Cohen, Bird on the Wire, was recorded with Cohen’s blessing: he attended the studio sessions, weighed in on material, and uncharacteristically participated in a photo session at his Los Angeles home to help promote the project.
Perla’s powerful follow-up Cohen undertaking, A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend, picks up where she left off, and this time features Batalla’s original compositions inspired by two decades of musical exchanges with Canada’s poet laureate.
In A Letter to Leonard Cohen, Perla celebrates Cohen’s art legacy with an elegant intersection of deeply personal tribute and fearless originality. What immediately sets this concert apart from other Cohen tributes is that Perla’s early career was guided by Cohen, who personally encouraged her journey as an artist. After touring and recording with Cohen for more than a decade, she brings her own unique perspective to Cohen’s canon.
Perla has performed in venues as varied as Sydney Opera House, Kennedy Center, Royce Hall, and Brighton Dome. She has released seven albums and co-written and appeared in two one-woman shows: her celebrated Mestiza song cycle, exploring the intricacies of being a person of mixed race, and Blue House, an exultant Frida Kahlo musical commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and tapped for production by Ojai Playwrights Conference.
