Leila Adu contributed to Zachary Woolfe’s 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Choral Music in the New York Times
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Chatterbird presents the virtual world premiere of Mahakala Oratorio, by composer Leila Adu. Join us for this free event as chatterbird presents this one-of-a-kind video project, featuring contributions from interactive media artist Aaron Sherwood, along with the talents of Videographer Lauren Balthrop and Recording Engineer Kevin Edlin.
Mahakala Oratorio will feature 14 chatterbird musicians, led by conductor Joe Lee, along with the vocal talents of Rebekah Alexander and Leila Adu.
Following the world premiere, chatterbird will host a virtual Q&A panel with Adu, chatterbird musicians, and others involved in the recording process. The Q&A will be facilitated by Colleen Phelps, the Host of “Classically Speaking” on Nashville Public Radio.
Mahakala Oratorio’s inspiration draws directly from the Buddhist deity of the same name. Leila Adu adapted Plainsong Pujua of Mahakala, originally compiled by Lama Chimé Shore from ancient texts from the late Ven. Namgyal Rinpoche and the late Ven. Kalu Rinpoche, describing Mahakala as a tool to empower listeners to consider the idea of radical compassion in this era of social, political, and environmental extremism. “There are abusive states, new in the world. Look now all around! There are abusive states careless of all life, immersed in selfish wants. Burn the fog of apathy, burn the fog of apathy, burn the fog of apathy!” The music itself reflects Leila’s genre-mixing style, which draws on the traditional music of New Zealand; her informal training in punk, indie, and hip-hop as well as freely improvised music in the African-American free jazz tradition; and formal training for chamber ensemble and orchestra.
This project is supported in part by New Music USA, Tennessee Arts Commission, Metro Arts, Puffin Foundation West, LTD., and MediaTHE Foundation.
To find out more about Chatterbird or experience Mahakala Oratorio post-première:
http://www.chatterbird.org
Mahakala Oratorio Première & post-concert Q&A
- To find out more about Chatterbird or experience Mahakala Oratorio post-première: http://www.chatterbird.org
- Following the world premiere, chatterbird will host a virtual Q&A panel with Adu, chatterbird musicians, and others involved in the recording process. The Q&A will be facilitated by Colleen Phelps, the Host of “Classically Speaking” on Nashville Public Radio. Register HERE for the post-concert Q&A: https://bit.ly/3a3velH
Thursday, December 17: 7PM CST / 8PMEST (Fri Dec 18: Wellington NZ 2-2.30PM/Perth Aus 9-9.30am)
Watch Mahakala Oratorio Première
On Wednesday, October 28, 2020, Leila Adu-Gilmore’s Freedom Suite will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of the beginning of The London Sinfonietta’s new season.
The London Sinfonietta begins its Southbank Centre season with a concert of music by established and emerging black composers, co-curated by leading composer and new music thinker George Lewis and experimental vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener.
Partly inspired by the seismic changes in society over the summer, this varied and powerful programme addresses a range of under-represented points of view: Hannah Kendall’s unsettling Verdala explores the experience of the British West Indian Regiment in the First World War in her typically uncompromising and richly textured style, while Courtney Bryan’s intensely rhythmic Sanctum explores the sound of improvisation in Holiness-preaching traditions. The exciting music of Cuban composer Tania León begins the programme, while George Lewis’ energetic Assemblage provides a taste of what’s to come in his upcoming commission for the London Sinfonietta.
This concert is part of London Sinfonietta’s 2020/21 season curated as a response to the times in which we live. Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on Wednesday 28 October, or watch the streamed video recording from Wednesday 25 November, the event brings new music not heard in the UK before to new audiences.
Jason Yarde Rude Awakening (arr. Yong) 6’
Leila Adu-Gilmore Freedom Suite I and II 10’
Hannah Kendall Verdala 6’
Tania León Indígena 9’
George Lewis Assemblage 15’
Courtney Bryan Sanctum (arr. Bryan) 12’
Elaine Mitchener vocalist
Vimbayi Kaziboni conductor
London Sinfonietta
Useful Chamber performs “Negative Space” from Freedom Suite
Last season, Long Beach Opera launched a successful new series of “UnGalas.” This year, Leila Adu joins the continued series, titled 2020 Songbook with a live and fully virtual new music extravaganza premiering on Sunday, November 15th, 2020 at 5pm PT.
The 2020 Songbook is a ticketed fundraising event featuring the premieres of up to twenty newly commissioned works created by emerging composers. The only parameters given to the emerging composers are that the piece be a reflection of an event or experience from 2020, be between 3-5 minutes long, and feature voice plus instrumental or electronic accompaniment if desired. The resulting 2020 Songbook will serve as an artistic time capsule of this very unusual time, as well as contribute to the creative economy by encouraging the creation of new works. The event will include world premiere performances of the new pieces, behind the scenes moments of creation, and interviews with the many artists and performers involved in the project.
The commissioned composers will be mentored by Anthony Davis, Annie Gosfield, David Lang, George Lewis, and Du Yun, who among them have won three Pulitzer Prizes, a MacArthur Genius Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship and have premiered some of the most interesting and dynamic contemporary operas presented in the 21st century.
Commissioned composers include Anahita Abbasi, Leila Adu, Benjamin Beckman, Jessie Cox, George N. Gianopoulos, Phillip Golub, Clifton Joseph Guidry, III, Carla Kihlstedt, Sonja Mutić, Marcus Norris, Shahab Paranj, Hunter Prueger, Tomeka Reid, Bahar Royaee, Aida Shirazi, Niloufar Shiri, Olivia Shortt, Theresa Wong, Katherine Young, and Bethany Younge
All About Jazz News
Published: 2014-07-18
Belts and Whistles hits Cameo Gallery on Wednesday July 23 at 10pm for their joint label launch and album release party. The Brooklyn and NJ based electronic and improvised tape cassette label drops its first album, Emotional Performance Motorcycle, from The Miz’Ries.
Electro-kraut digital hardcore supergroup, The Miz’Ries: uber-americo noise nerd Quinn Collins plays broken records on a turntable with crazy effects, mad genius inventor Jeff Snyder plays his own analog synth creation whilst Neuseelander songstress Leila Adu sings and plays electronic drum pads. The Miz’Ries have been described as “a noise band that plays 3-minute pop songs”, and as “the music that plays in the club the bad guys hang out in”.
Over the past year — singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improvisor and Miz’Ries’ member — Leila Adu has toured New Zealand, Japan and featured in Spin Magazine with Lord Echo aired backing vocals and percussion with popular 90’s alt-rock band and Beastie Boys’ labelmates, Luscious Jackson, on MTV VH1 and Late Night with David Letterman. Leila previously won MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week, is this year’s Orchestra Wellington’s (New Zealand) Emerging-Composer-in-Residence and recorded albums with Steve Albini and for the Italian National Radio. As founder and lead designer of Snyderphonics, Jeff Snyder designs and builds unusual electronic musical instruments including the Manta, which is played by over 150 musicians around the world; the JD-1 Keyboard/Sequencer, which was commissioned as a specialty controller for Buchla synthesizers; and the custom analog modular synthesizer on which he performs in The Miz’Ries. He frontsOwen Lake and the Tragic Loves as his electro-country alter-ego. The Miz’Ries turntablist, Quinn Collins is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music combining rigorous formal processes with rock energy. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the orkest “de ereprijs,” members of Bang on a Can, TRANSIT, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Loadbang and TV Buddha.
Brooklyn based, Tristan Shepherd/Michael Foster Duo kick off the night. Composer, improviser and turntablist from Dearborn, MI, Tristan Shepherd most recently, curated “Incidental Music”, an exhibition of site specific installations and performances at the Fragmental Museum’s project space: a 4 story, 50,000 sq. ft. former zipper factory and has performed at Roulette, MoMA PS1 and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In this pairing, multi-instrumentalist, Michael Foster, plays sax and amplified small objects. Foster works within the fields of free improvisation, composition, noise, punk, and industrial music and video, with gigs and tours with Weasel Walter, Steve Swell, Pascal Niggenkemper, Psychic TV, Airway, Chris Corsano, Spiritualized, Kid Millions, Nate Wooley, Sean Ali, Han Bennink, Marina Rosenfeld. Foster divides his time between Amsterdam and New York. Recent live performances include Michael Foster Live at Smokey Bear Cave on Youtube and Tristan Shepherd Live at the Control Room on Vimeo.
The Cameo Gallery evening ends in a dance party from BABL: a man whose voice box is running on prosthetic peripherals, a man who has outsourced his memory for unprecedented processing power. BABL is a song and a dance calibrated for optimal lumbar gyrational support and skeletal-rhythmic synchronization. He is influenced by the likes of John Zorn, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Pharaoh Sanders, Pharoah Monch, Shostakovich, D’Angelo, Flying Lotus, James Blake, and Bach and has played at The Stone, Carnegie Hall, Lincon Center Out of Doors.
Go into the draw to catch all three acts for free: :WIN A PAIR OF TICKETS at gimmi.io for the joint Tape Release Party for The Miz’Ries and Belts and Whistles Label Launch Party.
Cameo
93 N 6TH ST
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
WED JULY 23
DOORS: 10PM, $8
Visit Website | Purchase
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LEILA ADU Aotearoa New Zealand Shows
Leila was raised in Aotearoa and will be playing a series of shows in intimate venues in the country. She plays first in her hometown of Christchurch at darkroom.
At Te Manawa Museum of Art, Science and Technology in Palmerston North, Leila will play songs on Michael Parekowhai’s Venice Biennale 2011 entry, He Korero Purakau mo Te Awanui o Te Motu: story of a New Zealand river – an ornately carved red Steinway grand piano. Parekowhai’s piece is being exhibited alongside works by Ralph Hotere as part of the Black Rainbow exhibition.
Finally, Leila will perform two songs alongside numerous New Zealand artists, as part of BEYOND THE OHLALA MOUNTAINS | ALAN BRUNTON | POEMS 1968-2002 | BOOK LAUNCH. See details below.
New Zealand LEILA ADU Shows
saturday 15 march, 9pm
Leila Adu
darkroom
336 St Asaph St
Christchurch
thursday 27th March, 7pm
Leila will musically perform Alan Brunton poetry alongside a huge lineup of artists, see details
BEYOND THE OHLALA MOUNTAINS | ALAN BRUNTON | POEMS 1968-2002 | BOOK LAUNCH
Wharekai – Waipapa Marae AK University
16 Wynyard St
Auckland
sunday 30 march, matinee show
Leila Adu
Te Manawa Museum of Art
346 Main Street
Palmerston North
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Lord Echo New Zealand and Japan
Leila features in Lord Echo’s single “Molten Lava” and is singing in the live tour of Auckland, New Zealand, as well as shows in Tokoyo, Niigata and Kyoto, Japan. Check out this sneak preview of the Lord Echo’s Bastard Jazz (New York) and Wonderful Noise (Osaka) release at Spin Magazine: Her voice sounds beamed in from ’60s Brazil, but the production soon ramps up and we find ourselves in the middle of a modern dance floor. Listen and Read More…
saturday 29 march, 12pm – 6pm
Leila sings with Lord Echo
Silo Sessions Presents Lord Echo & Electric Wire Hustle
Silo Park
Corner of Beaumont and Jellicoe Street
Auckland
Currently based in New York and in her third year of PhD studies in Composition at Princeton University, Leila has been chosen to compose a work for . Leila will compose a songcycle for her own voice and orchestra to be performed in Orchestra Wellington’s 2015 season Read More at ORCHESTRA WELLINGTON…
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Letterman and Luscious Jackson Shows
Leila has been singing backing vocals, as well as playing additional percussion and keyboards for Luscious Jackson, famous for their 90’s hits including “Ladyfingers” and “Naked Eye” and for being the first signing to the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal label. Check out a recent performance on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Luscious Jackson’s Shows Coming Up
May 30 — Los Angeles CA — El Rey Theater
http://bit.ly/1jFtjDR
May 31 — San Francisco CA — The Independent
http://ticketf.ly/NGJOSQ
June 7 — Boston MA — The Paradise
http://bit.ly/1gA2dJh
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Why I love NZ: 1
