Author: leilaadu.com

The Crossing’s Carols after a Plague, featuring Leila Adu-Gilmore’s composition “Colouring-In Book,” was recently nominated for the 2024 Grammy for Best Choral Performance.

“Colouring-In Book is the story of waking up every day believing that the world will be different and finding that we may, instead, face the same problems,” Adu-Gilmore said. “The repeating black and white pages of the poemare about trauma, and post-traumatic stress, whether collective or personal. The song’s dedication is ‘to every child, teenager & adult who needs to know that they are not alone.’ The beginning of the song repeats ‘there, there’ as in to a child, adding the first letters of the alphabet and the types of words that children use to learn
it. Moving through different life stages, the tension of trying hard
at life increases while the same outcomes repeat (at one time the
singers getting stuck like a broken record). Rather than fruitlessly
saying ‘man up,’ ‘cheer up,’ or ‘it’ll all be okay,’ the piece openly
acknowledges the pain of bad experiences. It is not a hero myth of winning and achieving but a recognition of the struggle of everyday people. By accepting our vulnerability and encouraging compassion for ourselves and others, we are able to make it through the hardest of times.”

The album was released on December 2022 on New Focus Recordings.

Leila Adu Joins Reverend Billy and Stop Shopping Choir members Francisca Benitez and Avery Richards on Manhattan News Network’s The Radical Imagination.

The Radical Imagination looks at radical alternatives of what the United States could be like, offering a safe space in which people can discuss what they imagine in order to transform the criminal justice system, economic system, political system, etc.; understanding that the same issues that affected the country back in the 60s are affecting it in different forms today.

Filmed at Radical Imagination Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) TV studios, the episode airs on Sunday July, 30 2023 at 8 PM EST. Streaming is available after at Radical Imagination on YouTube

This Sunday March 12, Leila plays a solo piano and set at Broad Statements mini-festival in downtown Brooklyn, info below. Bang on a Can recently brought their iconic marathon of new music to Bogotá, Colombia and featured Leila’s Black-Crowned Night-Heron for solo electric guitar as part of their festival. The Crossing also brought Adu-Gilmore’s “Colouring-In Book” to the American Choral Director Association Conference, alongside artists like Jennifer Higdon, Edie Hill, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, Ayanna Woods. Leila will present a composer talk at the New Zealand School of Music in April. She is currently collaborating instrumental and electronic compositions for pianist Henry Wong Doe and clarinetist Alicia Lee.

Leila recently appeared as a featured artist on Reverend Billy’s podcast, Earth Riot, alongside Savitri D, Joan Baez, and Sunder Ganglani. Listen to Earth Riot episode 52 here.

Yes, let’s review life again and again, around & around led by the women.  Because why are we passive in the face of the interruption of life by climate violence profiteers?  Our powerful ally is life itself.  So let’s review.  But not Disney’s “Circle of Life”, which has no toxins or Cop Cities.  Revolutionary life comes out of the bright darkness before birth and then with that 13th bullet returns us to the Earth.  – Reverend Billy

Leila Adu invites Zahra Alzubaidi to share this intimate performance space at The Owl Music Parlor in Brooklyn on Thursday February 2nd.A Brooklyn-based Iraqi vocalist, Zahra Alzubaidi performs a variety of Arabic music styles with a focus on Iraqi maqamat and atwaar. She has appeared with several ensembles in NYC, such as Safaafir & Hamid Al Saadi (Iraqi maqam), Takht al-Nagham (Syrian Music Preservation Initiative), The Brooklyn Nomads, among others. Most recently, she headlined a performance at the Brooklyn Maqam Hang. She has performed in venues including Lincoln Center, Metropolitan Museum, Roulette Intermedium, Rutgers University, and BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center.

Thursday February 2
7:30 Door, 8:00 Show

The Owl Music Parlor
497 Rogers Ave, Brooklyn, 11225

$20.00 suggested donation

Since summer, Leila has been performing with Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir for concerts events in London and New York City.

Reverend Billy said “I’ve never had a piano partner for my sermons like Leila Adu.  She’s paralleled with me on these 15 minutes-long forays for a few months now, including shows in London, and the sermons are evolving because of her presence.”

“I’m getting more in touch with the ‘song in the talk.’  Laurie Anderson once said that preaching is “the landscape between talking and singing”.  More music in the vowels, more percussion in the hard sounds…  The mysterious relationship between how a preacher sings the words and the how the meaning come through, Leila is right there handing it over to the listeners…”

Neil Young also gave a shout out with a photo of Reverend Billy and Leila in Times-Contrarian Earth News.

Photo by John Quilty

The Crossing is excited to announce the album and choir collection Carols After A Plague, featuring Leila’s composition, Colouring-In Book. The choral work album, which is released on New Focus Records, features over 28 new works for choir. Leila signed a publishing deal for the piece and the score will soon be available for purchase through EC Schirmer in 2023.

Contemporary classical news site I Care If You Listen says

Colouring-In Book” by Leila Adu-Gilmore is about confronting personal and societal problems. The full choir crescendoes together, giving way to beautifully syncopated passages before coming into unison once again.

The Cleveland Chamber Choir plans to perform the work at the ACDA National Conference in February 2023 and the score will be available to purchase during the event.

The album can be purchased on streaming platforms on Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.To support artists and performers to receive more of the proceeds, we encourage folks to support through buying on the artist-friendly platform Bandcamp 

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