This playlist contains all works from the BIPOC Voice database with a SoundCloud link that we are aware of.

Please report omissions to morebipocvoices@gmail.com.

Works in BIPOC Voices' database

Large Ensembles

Music and words by Leila Adu www.leilaadu.com
Performed by De Coda decodamusic.org

PROGRAM NOTE

Freedom Suite by Leila Adu-Gilmore

Different States
Ghost Lullaby
Negative Space

Performers: De Coda with Leila Adu

dur. 12”

For over half of my life, I have written, performed and recorded songs and improvisations for piano and voice. At times the accompaniment is very simple. In Freedom Suite, I have arranged three songs in different ways, with a goal of capturing their initial simplicity in different ways for each song.

These three songs are on themes of America: The first, Different States, I wrote when I first visited the US for first time in 2007: it is my initial impression, told through a voice of “Other”; a man, perhaps an African-American or an immigrant from Latin America, who has lived, worked and gone to war for this country. The second, Ghost Lullaby, is a song I wrote when I came to the town of Princeton and realized that only a couple of people mentioned Native Americans and that no one spoke of the tribe of people who inhabited the actual space that we lived on while I was there. The third, Negative Space, is a song that I wrote upon hearing of the murder of Trayvon Martin and speaks to the vacuum created for many black people through continued effects of colonialism, slavery, prison and the justice system.

With the skills that I have been expanding through writing more instrumental music recently, I have found the attempt to capture this music a totally new and different challenge, especially to maintain the simplicity of the songs for such a large ensemble, and I am interested to see which techniques work the best. This project is especially helpful for the orchestral song cycle that I am to write next for Orchestra Wellington’s emerging-composer-in-residence (New Zealand). Thanks to De Coda for being kind enough to let me to sing along with them tonight.

Freedom Suite I. Different States - performed by De Coda with Leila Adu

Suite For Chamber Orchestra  Fusion-Danca Brasileira

Dreamscapes - Clarice Assad

LIVE with the Symphony Parnassus - Clarice Assad, piano and voice, Keita Ogawa, percussion

Scattered: Concerto For Scat Singing, Piano &amp; Orchestra

Golijov/Upshaw Workshop

Fixation

Terra Brasilis

The Disappeared

Night Songs

Overture based on Courtship Song

“… a serious triple threat… a veritable musical dynamo.” – San Francisco Chronicle

A bold composer, a brilliant pianist and an inventive vocalist all rolled into one, Clarice Assad floats freely across musical idioms, drawing on an array of sounds from Amazon forest wildlife to operatic arias. A classically-trained pianist, Assad is deeply rooted in the earthy, folkloric rhythms of Brazil, capturing the attention of international audiences with her stunning talent. The term “world music” is redundant when applied to her style, a reflection of Brazil’s musical melting pot heritage of African rhythms mixed with European melodies and harmonies. 