Category: Featured

Always, Already There @ Haus de Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

This week, Leila is performing and presenting research at the Haus de Kulturen der Welt/House of World Cultures (HKW), in the Afrodiasporic Incubator Series “Always, Already There” curated by George Lewis.

Decolonizing Electronics

Leila is part of the “Decolonizing Electronic Music” panel at HKW, alongside lectures and concerts with a host of international composers and performers in this weeklong intensive.

Composing While Black, Berlin Edition

Leila is singing a small ensemble version of her song cycle Freedom Suite with the International Contemporary Ensemble as vocalist/pianist for “Negative Space” and “Ghost Lullaby.” This song cycle rests on themes of racial justice, Indigenous rights, and international borders. Stunning baritone Damian Norfleet is performing the final song in the triptych, “Different Strokes.”

New York Philharmonic AfroModernism Series at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York

Leila gave pre-concert talks for “Alyssum” (2014) for string quartet plus harp before performances by the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Peabody Institute, DC with an interview by Nathalie Joachim before the performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoMA), NYC.

Recent Performances with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)

“Alyssum”

“Mahakala Oratorio” with Alice Teyssier (soprano) & Leila Adu-Gilmore (mezzo-soprano) 

Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music

One of the world’s most beloved music festivals, Tanglewood is the famed summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its training academy, the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as the Boston Pops.

The Fromm Concert at Tanglewood

July 25, 2024, 8 PM
Seiji Ozawa Hall
Lenox/Stockbridge, MA

Leila ADU-GILMORE United Underdog
Miya MASAOKA Praying for a Sign
Trevor WESTON A.N.S.
Valerie COLEMAN Portraits of Josephine
Nathalie JOACHIM The Race 1915
Tania LEÓN Indigena
Steven MACKEY Afterlife

Featured on NPR and NBC, Leila Adu-Gilmore wrote about how she composed United Underdog amid the pandemic and the racial upheaval of the last several years. “I was moved to honor those people who work hard and struggle daily — together yet apart — for the common good of all of us,” she said on her website.

Nathalie Joachim’s The Race 1915, a piece for solo cello and electronics, echos the themes in United Underdog and was inspired by the works of 20th century African American artist Jacob Lawrence, who was known for his raw, challenging works.

The TMC Festival of Contemporary Music seeks to showcase up-and-coming, path-finding, and groundbreaking new composers whose works we believe will define the next evolution of classical music. Leila’s piece is peformed with music by Pulitzer-prize winning Cuban composer Tania León, fellow American Arts & Letters Awardees Trevor Weston and her Princeton PhD composition mentor-friend Steve Mackey.

Resonance FM London interview on Saturday May 25 (corrected times below) about Leila Adu Trio ft. Publiquartet’s Moonstone & Tar Sands album on Dexter Bentley’s show Sat 18 May, 12-1.30pmUK (7amEST/11pmNZ) Hello Goodbe Show

Weekly Live YouTube Video Series

“Moonstone” Leila Adu Quintet ft. Jacob Bills 

Summer Happenings

Tanglewood Debut: Leila’s “United Underdog,” originally commissioned and premièred pianist by Min Kwon and featured on NPR and NBC. Leila Adu-Gilmore wrote about how she composed United Underdog amid the pandemic and the racial upheaval of the last several years. “I was moved to honor those people who work hard and struggle daily — together yet apart — for the common good of all of us,” she said on her website. Leila’s piece will be performed by a Tanglewood fellow, alongside works by Miya Masaoka, Trevor Weston, Valerie Coleman, Nathalie Joachim, Tania León and Steven Mackey at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Lenox/Stockbridge, MA
July 25, 8PM Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music

Magdalene Opera, West Coast Premiere Magdalene wildly meditates on transformation and desire scored by the collective voice of fourteen women composers: Leila Adu, Ruby Kato Attwood, Danielle Birrittella, Sheena Birrittella, Christina Courtin, Gabrielle Herbst, Molly Joyce, Emma O’Halloran, Tanner Porter, Ellen Reid, Kamala Sankaram, Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, Annika Socolofsky, and Gyða Valtýsdóttir, set to Marie Howe’s poems.
June 4 – 8, 8PM Magdalene @Redcat, Los Angeles 

On Saturday Leila is interviewed on Resonance FM London Streaming Radio Station about Moonstone & Tar Sands album on Dexter Bently’s Hello Goodbe Show, Sat 18 May, 12-1.30pm GMT!

Moonstone & Tar Sands just had it’s first write-up on stalwart NZ reviewer Graham Reid’s Elsewhere. 

‘Working here her trio and the PUBLIQuartet on strings, the pianist/singer skirts between genres (piano jazz, sung poetry, the melodrama of Broadway-like tunes) and – although they are quite dissimilar – the connection which comes to mind is Nina Simone for the expansive and exploratory vision.

On Negative Space she sings, “I’m no militant, I’m a peaceful kinda girl. I don’t aim to stake out my claim I just wanna do my thing about the place, but I exist in a negative space”…

For their intimacy and dense lyrics, these are songs you can imagine in a cabaret or hip nightclub setting, maybe even in a recital more than a larger concert setting.

Something as quiet, serious and cathartic as the stately, string-enhanced Tar Sands requires close attention: “I’m going on holiday, gonna sunbathe my troubles away so my pen, can cut a page again and move on.

“I bathe in music today to wash the pain away. Eyes are peeled like an onion skin, no surprises. Button up your mouth for what I’m about to say, stupidity is a silly word but pride and vanity go a long way.“I’ve seen the coward in the mouth of the wolf. And the fear and the blame. Kindness starts only with the self. Care for the mind every day . . .’

Listen to the live version of “Tar Sands” on today on the LEILA ADU YouTube

Henry Wong Doe released his new album Perspectives, featuring “DOM” (labelled as Home in the tracklist) by Leila Adu-Gilmore on November 9th.

The album features recent commissions for solo piano featuring works by Gemma Peacocke, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Alex Taylor, Poulima Salima, Leonie Holmes, and Penelope Axtens.

“This album celebrates the artistry of six New Zealand composers. The recent pandemic presented significant challenges to musical artists, causing many to reflect on their values and identify what is most important to them. As we come to appreciate the importance of interpersonal connection, music becomes increasingly important as a way to bring people together and express our shared humanity.

In 2022, I invited each composer to write a work illustrating their perspective on recent times, and it has been wonderful to discover their unique voices and sensibilities through music.” – Henry Wong Doe

The album was released on Rattle Records and can be streamed or purchased on Bandcamp.

Doe will be performing the premiere of the work at:
Interactive Series: Immersive Piano and Electronics
Thursday, November 30th at 8PM at The Paulson Center, 620
181 Mercer St, New York, NY 10012

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