BIO

Lilo Gonzalez is a singer and songwriter who has touched the lives of many people with
his fun yet thoughtful music, sending a message to adults and children of all cultures
that we can and should unite to build a better world for all.

Lilo, or “Don Lilo” as his students use to call him, was a grade school teacher in El
Salvador. He fell in love with the poetic lyrics of Joan Manuel Serrat and Facundo
Cabral, at a time when social injustice became unbearable and erupted into a brutal civil
war. 

As an undocumented immigrant in the United States, music became an oasis for
Lilo, opening connections to different people who surprisingly had much in common with
him. He discovered the music of Ruben Blades and Pete Seeger and was impressed
with how their songs could change the way we think.

After working with at-risk youth and elementary school children, he stumbled on a job
teaching music to preschool children. He saw this as a great opportunity to bring the
love of music to young children, foster their creativity, exposing them to many cultures,
and helping them believe they can create a better world. In a few years, he was
traveling between ten different music programs, and “Mr. Lilo” became a household
name for hundreds of families in the area.

Building community, finding our common human threads, instilling hope, and fighting for
justice have all been themes in Lilo’s life that have poured into his music and his daily
interactions. His persona is as special as his music, and has taken him to perform at
venues such as the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Lincoln Center,
President Clinton’s Inauguration, the Levine School of Music, the Festival Verdad in El
Salvador, many festivals, conferences and universities, and even to Cairo, Egypt.

Lilo released his first children’s CD in 2016. This album has been requested with great
enthusiasm by his students and parents and is a compilation of original and traditional
songs they have enjoyed throughout the years. Since then Don Lilo has released another

children’s album and has continued with recording and performing projects for a variety

of platforms.