Kira Alejandro at the Living Room

Kira Alejandro is 17-year-old aspiring songwriter and her talent already has matured beyond her years. The native New Yorker attends a fine arts boarding school, the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, and participates in its Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, first for songwriting, and then for creative writing. She is completing her training at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where she is a singer/songwriter major. Alejandro already has received some major attention, however; Ringo Starr’s manager included her song "Better Days" on a compilation album, along with Starr, Paul McCartney, Dave Stewart and others, to benefit the Brooklyn community after Hurricane Sandy.

At the Living Room tonight, Alejandro sang a collection of her songs, several of which were written when she was 14 years old. She performed solo, accompanying herself on her ukulele and the house piano, so her lyrics were easy to hear. What does a teen-ager sing about? Apparently, she has already been smitten by teen love and infatuation. That is not so unusual, but her remarkable talent was showcased in how her heartfelt singing finely articulated her passions, adventures and inquiries of life. After impressing the audience with her seriousness, perhaps to remind us of her youth, she closed with a goofy song based on the movie Star Wars. She is a child after all.