Leila recently teamed up with hip-hop artist and 2022 Forman/Philadelphia Foundation Art Works Grantee, BL Shirelle on a new piece called “The 2,100.” #US, a podcast produced by First Person Arts, showcased the collaboration on their latest episode, which can be streamed on streaming platforms and here
Category: News
latest news
This summer Leila took a research trip to Ghana, also returning to her father’s birthplace in the Kumasi region. Her research is part of a West African four-year research insight program Afrinum project headed by Emmanuelle Olivier at the school of social sciences in Paris (l’EHESS) funded by the French National Research Association (L’ANR’). Leila’s previous projects and publications at her research lab Critical Sonic Practice Lab
Radio New Zealand Broadcast
In other Aotearoa news: Leila’s soprano and piano setting of Tusiata Avia’s poem “Massacre” about the 2019 mosque shootings features on Radio New Zealand. “World Premiere of 21 x 21 by soprano Jenny Wollerman and concert pianist Jian Liu artfully pairs Aotearoa’s female composers and poets in 21 newly written songs celebrating the unique cultural and social kaupapa of Māori and Pākehā.” Jenny’s project will release all 21 songs as an album and songbook of scores.
Program Note “Massacre”
There is a pristine colonial manicured garden city filled with a radical underbelly of musicians, artists, and activists; this is Christchurch. I grew up in a place where I encountered racist experiences from being a little girl being called the ‘N’ word at school and countless other microagressions that I thought were normal and that made me feel like I did not belong; this place is also Christchurch. These competing notions of this place I called home shaped how I view the world today. I’m proud of this community and the interconnectedness that people showed each other during and after the 2011 earthquake, yet these two Christchurches still exist and lead to the events that inspired this piece.
When I was asked by Jenny Wollerman to work with a New Zealand female poet, I thought of Tusiata Avia who I’d met years before in New York. When I saw her poem Massacre I immediately knew that this was a song I could write: it resonated on so many levels. When the Christchurch massacre happened, I’d just started teaching at NYU. I heard a Muslim leader on the news say that the public could support the community by going to mosque in solidarity, and I’d never been to one. I went to the NYU mosque and saw the community—everyone mourning, a girl in tears because she felt so scared that people were coming to attack them. They asked me to speak on behalf of faculty, and as someone from Christchurch, along with interfaith leaders, a Christian priest, a Muslim imam and Jewish rabbi. The feeling of togetherness was palpable. When I saw this poem, I knew that I needed to make this a piece of music as a remembrance. This is not an easy poem or piece, but it’s real. The massacre really happened and we must never forget that ignorance can take violent forms, and that we must be vigilant in our daily quest for peace. The piece begins with the ‘Thursday 14 March’ section, with dreamy birdlike piano to lower driving chords becoming blurred, with an abstract vocal style including microtones influenced by Māori waiata. In the next selected section ‘Sunday 17 March,’ I demonstrate the opposites and irony of the poem as I move through different textures from vocals and piano that edges towards schmaltzy and romantic juxtaposed with brutalist Russian Ustvolskayan style piano. The piece developed into arpeggios reminiscent of Schubert’s Wintereisse but laced with Arabic scales.
Listen Radio New Zealand’s broadcast of 21×21: Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts 2022 and Avia and Adu-Gilmore’s “Massacre” on RNZ
Poem Excerpt: “Massacre”
When I arrive in Auckland and Hine learns that I have moved back to Christchurch
she asks me if I know it is a bad place
it is built on a swamp
many bad things have been done to Māori there
Read the full text of Tusiata Avia’s poem “Massacre” published in The Spinoff: Read Tusiata Avia’s “Massacre”
New Works
In other Aotearoa news, Fellow USA-based New Zealander Henry Wong Doe commissioned Leila for a new piano and electronics composition exploring the concept of home through her childhood in Aotearoa and the object of the piano itself. The recording project was funded by Creative NZ for kiwi composers in Aotearoa and abroad: Penelope Axtens, Leonie Holmes, Gemma Peacocke. Poulima Salima and Alex Taylor. will be released by Rattle Records and will be released by Rattle Records.
Leila is excited to collaborate with Celine Thackston’s chatterbird ensemble in a new piece recalling Ghanaian Ashanti symbology featuring soloist and bassoonist, Maya Stone. Chatterbird was awarded organizational development grant New Music USA alongside new works for JayVe Montgomery and Joshua Dent. Previously, during COVID-19 lockdown, Leila composed and sung alongside soprano Rebekah Alexander and chatterbird’s large chamber ensemble viewable as the audiovisual experience: Mahakala Oratorio
Leila Adu–Gilmore has been awarded one of two national Charles Ives Fellowship’s from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
New York, on February 15, 2022—The American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the 18 recipients of this year’s awards in music, which total $205,000. The winners were selected by a committee of Academy members: Chen Yi (chair), John Corigliano, Stephen Hartke, George Lewis, Augusta Read Thomas, Chinary Ung, and Julia Wolfe. The awards will be presented at the Academy’s Ceremonial on May 18, 2022. Candidates for music awards are nominated by the 300 members of the Academy.
April & May Shows
WoCo Fest 2022 AMAZE
Saturday May 28, 3:00PM
LEILA ADU
AMP by Strathmore welcomes WoCo Fest 2022 AMAZE, produced by Boulanger Initiative and co-presented by Strathmore. Boulanger Initiative advocates and provides opportunities for women composers and all gender marginalized composers through performance, education, and commissions. WoCo Fest 2022 will take place at AMP by Strathmore and tickets can be purchased for individual sessions or full day pass.
Info: https://www.strathmore.org/what-s-on/what-s-on-at-amp/woco-festival-2022-amaze/#bios
Standard Ticket: https://secure.strathmore.org/19974/19984
Full Festival Pass: https://secure.strathmore.org/19974/19975
Carnegie Hall Citywide: Asphalt Orchestra
Sunday May 22, 12:00pm
LEILA ADU-GILMORE CARNEGIE HALL COMMISSION COMPOSITION PREMIÈRE
Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Julia Wolfe caps her Carnegie Hall residency with a one-of-a-kind event in Manhattan’s Bryant Park, featuring new-music marching band Asphalt Orchestra, called “part parade spectacle, part halftime show, and part cutting-edge contemporary music concert … coolly brilliant and infectious” by The New York Times. Also featuring guest artists Pan In Motion, the program includes world premieres by first-time Carnegie Hall–commissioned composers Leila Adu, Jeffrey Brooks, and Kendall Williams, further highlighting Wolfe’s longtime reputation as a champion of innovative new works. Catch the beginning of the performance at the side of the park near the New York Public Library, or join the performers along the way as they march toward the main lawn!
Part of: Carnegie Hall Citywide and Julia Wolfe
Info: https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2022/05/22/Carnegie-Hall-Citywide-Asphalt-Orchestra-1200PM
Bryant Park | Stage
Between 40th and 42nd streets and Fifth and Sixth avenues | Manhattan
New York
Bang on a Can‘s LONG PLAY festival
May 1st, 3:00pm
LEILA ADU
LONG PLAY is an explosion of mind-bending music of the moment.
Over the May Day weekend of 2022, LONG PLAY brings 60+ performances at 8 venues over 3 days to Downtown, Brooklyn NYC: Bang on a Can announces the launch of LONG PLAY, a new, three-day destination music festival. Originally scheduled for May of 2020… Featuring dozens of concerts, LONG PLAY also showcases a dense network of pioneering music venues in Brooklyn – with performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), Roulette, Public Records, Littlefield, Mark Morris Dance Center, The Center for Fiction, outdoor events at The Plaza at 300 Ashland, and more. Bang on a Can’s Co-Founders and Artistic Directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, say of the new festival:
“Right now – this minute – is an amazing time to love music. Musicians and listeners from every corner of the music world are pushing beyond their boundaries, questioning their roots, searching and stretching for the new. There has never been a time when music contained so much innovation and diversity, so much audacity and so much courage. And we want to show you all of it. With the creation of LONG PLAY we are presenting more kinds of musicians, playing more kinds of music, bending more kinds of minds. LONG PLAY expands and enlarges our scope and our reach, and puts more new faces on stages than ever before. It’s a lot of music!”
Fueled by more than three decades of Marathon concerts, the LOUD Weekend festival at MASS MoCA, countless world tours and staged productions, Bang on a Can’s LONG PLAY is a supercharged ride through right now – for musicians and audiences alike.
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/long-play-festival-2022-tickets-255193971037
BAM – The Adam
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Sō Percussion’s Brooklyn Bound Jam
Thursday April 14, 8pm (in-person + online)
WITH LEILA ADU, SŌ PERCUSSION, SANDBOX PERCUSSION, BARD PERCUSSION
Our sixth Brooklyn Bound of the season features works by Leila Adu-Gilmore, Andy Akiho, and Kendall Williams, performed by Sō Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Bard Percussion, and Leila Adu-Gilmore.
This event will be streamed here on FB and on YouTube. You may now attend this event in person!
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Read more about the performers here:
Sō Percussion: https://sopercussion.com/events/brooklyn-bound/
Leila Adu-Gilmore:
Website: http://www.leilaadu.com/about/
Sandbox Percussion:
https://sandboxpercussion.com/
Instagram: @sandbox_percussion
Facebook: @sandboxpercussion
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/sandboxpercussion
Bard Percussion: https://sopercussion.com/
Facebook: @bardpercussion
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Now in its ninth season, Brooklyn Bound is a popular series of concerts at Sō’s working studio in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn. When social distance became a necessity, we decided to create a new version and transition to a fully virtual one. Casual and intimate, the concerts feature us and emerging ensembles from our local scene. The groups are encouraged to try out new material, premier new commissions, completely experiment, or just get another performance under their belt.
Brooklyn Bound is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
100% of contributions made during this event will go directly to the New Work Development Program to support commissions by Shodekeh Talifero, Claire Rousay, and Leilehua Lanzilotti!
Tickets: $10 suggested donation https://sopercussion.com/donate/
Online (or In-Person below): Facebook event & YouTube stream
20 Grand Ave,
Brooklyn, NY
Leila recently appeared on The London Sinfonietta Podcast to discuss her recent collaboration with the ensemble and explains the background of the songs that make up “Freedom Suite” that was presented as part of Yet Unheard, a concert program that focused on black composers and was co-curated by George Lewis and Elaine Mitchener.
In addition to appearing on the podcast, Leila also collaborated with The London Sinfonietta to create an educational Composition Challenge designed as a tool for educators. The text setting of her composition “Ghost Lullaby” — reflecting Native American peoples and lands — is used as an example:
On a similar note, Leila also wrote an article “Critical Sonic Practice: Decolonizing Boundaries in Music Research” on themes of decolonization in the Journal of Journal of Continental Thought & Theory: A Journal of Intellectual Freedom in a special issue of Thinking Music: Praxis and Aesthetics.
Leila recently collaborated with cutting-edge and Grammy Award winning, The Crossing Choir as part of their Carols After A Plague project, with their expansive interpretation of carols. Take a sneak peak of “Colouring-In Book” (see full program note and lyrics at YouTube) before the upcoming album release!
Leila Adu is also one of five Black composers who have written the score for Death by Life, a new opera commissioned and presented by White Snake Projects, with online performances on May 20, 22, and 25. The opera explores the intersection of systemic racism and mass incarceration using texts written by incarcerated writers and their families. Learn more on White Snake’s website
Leila Adu contributed to Zachary Woolfe’s 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Choral Music in the New York Times
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