Category: News

Grammy Consideration

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date October 17, 2020

Leila Adu-Gilmore’s collaboration with Cellist Amanda Gookin has been met with widespread acclaim, and the album featuring her work is now up for Grammy consideration in several categories:

BEST CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTAL SOLO

BEST CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL COMPOSITION
Dam mwen yo by Nathalie Joachim

BEST ENGINEERED ALBUM, CLASSICAL
Garth MacAleavey, Mike Tierney

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR, CLASSICAL
Amanda Gookin, Louis Levitt

The seven works on this album were the first Forward Music Project commissions. This embodied performance is best summed up in The WholeNote album review, “It is the highest level of artistry that can realize a message, a story, or an emotion while seeming to have not performed it at all.”

Forward Music Project shares stories that need to be heard and brings new sounds to ears around the world.

News

The Kennedy Center Arts Across America

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date August 19, 2020

Amanda Gookin presented Leila’s solo cello piece, “For Edna,” along with a handful of other composers during a concert at the Kennedy Center last week.

Jannina Norpoth performed works for solo violin by Contemporary Black Composers and Amanda Gookin presented selections for solo cello that elevate stories of feminine empowerment through her initiative Forward Music Project. The two joined composer Dameun Strange from American Composers Forum to talk about the practice that has led them to prioritize representation and social consciousness in their programming, commissioning, and performing.

View the full promotional page here and listen to the concert below:

Roulette 2020 – 2021 Commissioned Artist

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date August 18, 2020

Leila Adu has been selected alongside eleven other artists to create and present new works this coming season at Brooklyn’s Roulette.

Roulette remains an essential and centralized place for artists to realize their creative visions, even in times of great uncertainty and as such, they began to work with artists in early March to build a safe, exciting, and unique body of new work. Pianist, singer, composer, and improviser Sonya Belaya, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson, composer and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, artist and interdisciplinary designer Crystal Penalosa, and jazz performer and vibraphonist Joel Ross have been selected for year-long residencies. Commissioned artists include song-writer and vocalist Leila Adu; vocalist Ganavya Doraiswamy; alto saxophonist and composer Darius Jones; multidisciplinary performer and sound artist Luisa Muhr; sound artist and composer Teerapat Parnmongkol; interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist Mary Prescott; and composer and saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins.

Each artist will present at Roulette in 2020–2021. The performances will be broadcast live from our theater, with the possibility of a limited in-person audience depending on what safety and public health guidelines allow.

Belvedere Chamber Music Festival

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date August 18, 2020

Maeve Brophy, piano

Leila Adu’s piano solo, Colour Wheel, was recently featured at this year’s socially-distanced and remote Belvedere Chamber Music Festival. The mission of the Belvedere Chamber Music Festival is to perform masterpieces of 20th and 21st century music as well as new works by emerging composers. In addition to performances, the festival also offers educational opportunities for young composers and performers through lectures, masterclasses, and private instruction.

Listen to the work above and find each movement at the following timestamps:

0:08 I. Headbanging(ly)
1:48 II. Clear Stream
3:47 III. Rags
4:36 IV. Quip
5:23 V. Mirage
6:32 VI. Woods
8:26 VII. Danse
9:26 VIII. Hope and Fear

Enjoy!

Billboard Classical Charts

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date August 8, 2020

Leila Adu-Gilmore’s composition For Edna, featured on cellist Amanda Gookin’s new release, Forward Music Project 1.0, debuted at #6 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart. The release features multimedia works for solo cello that elevate stories of feminine empowerment, commissioned by Gookin, who writes: “For mothers. For sisterhood. For brave storytellers and quiet listeners. I sing, I gasp, I fight, I breathe life into the work of these fearless artists. I founded Forward Music Project for you. And you are not alone.”

In For Edna, Adu-Gilmore sought to encapsulate the strength of women. “At first, I was going to write something physically and aurally demanding – hard. I then realized that our strength is perseverance and endurance, adaptability and openness, and connection to others.”

For more information and to purchase the album, visit the Bright Shiny Things website

News

New Music USA Grant Awards

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date August 7, 2020

Chatterbird, a Nashville-based chamber music ensemble focused on exploring alternative instrumentation and stylistic diversity, will collaborate with New Zealand-American composer Leila Adu to commission and perform a 20-minute chamber opera for two female soloists and a 12-member ensemble. The world premiere will take place in Nashville, Tennessee in November 2020. In addition to the ensemble and vocal soloists, the performance will feature guided improvisation from a local youth choir of eight to fifteen middle and high school students.

Adu’s new work will explore themes of environmentalism as seen through multiple lenses: her own cultural background (born of New Zealand and Ghanaian descent), that of the Buddhist faith, and the perspectives of our nation’s indigenous peoples. The composer’s genre-mixing style reflects this multi-faceted thematic element. Her major areas of influence include the traditional New Zealand folk music of her childhood; her informal training in American genres like punk, indie, hip-hop, and free jazz; and her formal training in notated music for chamber ensembles and orchestras.

A professional visual artist will create a motion-based, interactive art component to accompany Adu’s work, and a second artist will used recycled material to create murals based on thematic components.

Read more about the project at New Music USA

News

‘flowers or die’ EP — out now!

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date February 8, 2020

Leila breaks into 2020 with a new EP that proves yet again, she won’t allow herself to be boxed into just one genre or style of music. The new release, flowers, or die, explores the nuances of singer-songwriter territories, while breaking away from the generic form that this style of music is often critiqued for. In an EP that folds together four lilting, keyboard driven-protest songs, Leila manages to showcase a kaleidoscope of ideas that simply must be listened to on repeat.

In celebration of the ‘flowers, or die’ release, Lauren Vanzandt-Escobar has created a limited series of one-off hand-made paper with embedded and collaged etchings in Veracruz, Mexico.

All proceeds from the album will go to the clean-energy charity 350.org.

flowers, or die out now on Belts & Whistles label through: Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and Bandcamp

Listen to the single “Tar Sands”

<a href="http://beltsandwhistles.bandcamp.com/album/flowers-or-die">flowers, or die by Leila Adu</a>

News

Feb 8: Leila Adu ‘flowers, or die’ EP Release Show with Jon Toscano & Dylan Greene

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date January 30, 2020

flowers, or die EP

This year has already been a strong one for Leila – following the January run of her collaboration in the opera Magdalene, Leila breaks into 2020 with a new EP that proves yet again, she won’t allow herself to be boxed into just one genre or style of music. The new release, flowers, or die, explores the nuances of singer-songwriter territories, while breaking away from the generic form that this style of music is often critiqued for. In an EP that folds together four lilting, keyboard driven-protest songs, Leila manages to showcase a kaleidoscope of ideas that simply must be listened to on repeat.

All proceeds from the album will go to the clean-energy charity 350.org. In celebration of the release, Lauren Vanzandt-Escobar created a limited edition selection of hand-made paper with embedded etchings in Veracruz, Mexico. Photo by Rodrigo Vazquez, Mexico City.
soundcloud.com/leila-adu
facebook.com/LeilaAduMusic
twitter.com/leilaadu
instagram/leilaadu
www.leilaadu.com

flowers, or die is out on February 8th via Belts & Whistles Records

// Leila Adu Trio with Jon Toscano & Dylan Greene //

Leila Adu sings her original songs for piano and voice joined by bass-player Jon Toscano & drummer, Dylan Greene, for an set of impressionistic ballads and stridant protest songs that have been compared to Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley. Hailing from New Zealand, Britain and Ghana, Leila has toured the world with recent shows in Paris and Accra, released five acclaimed albums, including two for Italian National Radio and ‘Dark Joan’ recorded by Steve Albini; was voted MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week, and has performed on BBC’s World Service solo, as well as performing in Luscious Jackson on ‘Late Night with David Letterman.’ WNYC’s John Shaeffer describes Leila’s music as “art pop”: “she pulls it off because she is a genuinely good singer, with a velvety, soulful voice, and because she is an accomplished composer who’s written music for symphony orchestras, string quartets, and the like.”
Jon Toscano: www.jonathantoscano.com/
Dylan Greene: http://hunterchee.com/

saturday February 8, 7pm
7pm: Leila Adu flowers, or die EP Release Show with Jon Toscano & Dylan Greene,
Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 1
Entry: Doors + Donation
8pm: After-party, Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 0
(Adjacent bar next to Stage 1 on Allen Street with After party drinks specials)
196 Allen Street, New York 10002
Lower East Side
NEW YORK
Facebook Event

News

Tre Zampe’s ‘The Falling, The Frailing’ out on NUNC, Paris

Post author By leilaadu.com
Post date October 19, 2019

Latest Release: The Falling, The Frailing by Tre Zampe

The Falling, The Frailing captures the first musical meeting of improvising trio Tre Zampe, melding the confronting and subtle sound-world of guitarist Richard Comte (France), exquisitely morphing, driving drums of Francesco Pastacaldi (Italy) and warped impressionist ballads of vocalist/keyboardist Leila Adu (NZ/NYC).

With elements of free improv, jazz, noise music and no-wave, this new EP follows a collection of Adu’s poetry on the theme of the interplay between vulnerability and safety, through art, the body, citizenship, and falling in love throughout time.

We, the people, deserve love

We deserve love
peace
honesty
We, the people
are also one billionaire
Does the queen really eat cake every day
Sitting on people and people and people
Is a special kind of internal deafness
A small — mute way
to wade through death
one child at a time

Leila Adu : Vocals, Keyboard
Francesco Pastacaldi : Drums
Richard Comte : Guitar

Recorded by Richard Comte
Mixed by Richard Comte & Francesco Pastacaldi
Mastered by Richard Comte – Studio B, Montreuil
Vocal Production by Jean Charles Versari – Poptones studio, Paris

<a href="http://nunc-nunc.bandcamp.com/album/the-falling-the-frailing">The Falling, The Frailing by Tre Zampe</a>

News

From New York to Accra, Ghana and Back

Post author By Leila Adu
Post date October 19, 2019

Twelve years ago I came to visit New York for the first time. On the recommendation of a music buddy, I headed straight to world music, dance and experimental venue Barbès to see a show, so I’m delighted to be finally playing a duo show with Jon Toscano there next Sunday. Today, afro trip-hop collective Lucked In, has our second single out on London’s XVI Records, with full EP and music video coming up!

Lucked In went on tour to Accra Ghana a couple ago, we played shows and made new friends. Also, our first single was released ‘Debi Debi’

The ‘Nuttin Cold’ single is out now on every digital place that you like to listen to and buy stuff on XVI Records, London

LEILA ADU DUO Sun 10/27, 7:00pm

Leila Adu sings her original songs for piano and voice joined by longstanding NYC collaborator, bass-player Jon Toscano, for an acoustic set of impressionistic ballads and stridant protest songs that have been compared to Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley. Hailing from New Zealand, Britain and Ghana, Leila has toured the world with recent shows in Paris and Accra, released five acclaimed albums, including two for Italian National Radio and ‘Dark Joan’ recorded by Steve Albini; was voted MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week, and has performed on BBC’s World Service solo, as well as performing in Luscious Jackson on ‘Late Night with David Letterman.’ WNYC’s John Shaeffer describes Leila’s music as “art pop”: “she pulls it off because she is a genuinely good singer, with a velvety, soulful voice, and because she is an accomplished composer who’s written music for symphony orchestras, string quartets, and the like.”

flowers, or die out now on Belts & Whistles label through: Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes and Bandcamp

Latest Release: The Falling, The Frailing by Tre Zampe