End of Year update & Looking Ahead to 2023
Sing Sistah Sing! Tales of Transatlantic Freedom
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “A stunning piece of work…you could hear a pin drop through the thrall in which she holds the audience, spellbound” - Musical Theatre Review
2022 has brought so many exciting projects and surprises!
My last update was before our premier of the newest show in my ever-growing Sing Sistah Sing! series. Tales of Transatlantic Freedom explored the sound and stories of the African diaspora in the brilliant purpose-built Pianodrome. This new exploration of musical styles, voices, stories explored our interconnectedness across oceans, centuries and experiences.
My new artistic team was a blessed gift from above. Howard Moody as my co-creator and musical partner, John Paul McGroarty of Yard Heads theatre company as director, and my new production team led by Alexandra Lort Phillips at Yard Heads.
The experience was beautiful, and we were surrounded by such wonderful fellow artists and musicians. It was like the Edinburgh Festival Fringe of old, eclectic, fun, unexpected, open, challenging and most of all supportive of one another. I am so grateful to Tim Smith and Matthew Wright of the Pianodrome for inviting us into their most beautiful artistic world.
The good news is that the reviewers and audiences loved the show and really engaged with the content. As a result, we have been invited to debut the show in the USA on the 18th of February 2023 in Boston with the National Center for Race Amity (no stranger to earlier Sing Sistah Sing! productions) at Boston’s iconic Museum of Fine Arts. This is a great opportunity for us to live and spread the Transatlantic message whilst also discovering new music and stories of the extraordinary African Diaspora contributions in the New World.
We are excited to bring the show to new audiences in 2023 and beyond, watch this space for new performances coming to a venue near you!
Following quickly on the heels of the Fringe performance was our Edinburgh opening of the OMOS project short film and workshops at the Royal Scottish Academy.
It was an incredible night and wonderful for us all to be back together again to share this beautiful piece highlighting Black Joy, Black creative performance and it’s hidden connection to Scotland. We had a wonderful audience, the response was again full of excitement as we all discovered new ways to communicate and create. I am forever grateful to Pollyanna and Adam Castle for bringing me on to this project. The Glasgow debut of OMOS is in March 2023 and there will as always be additional workshops in conjunction to the opening. Watch this space for exact dates and details.
I rounded off the season, with, Richard Lewis going back to the original Sing Sistah Sing! in Munich. This was more of a hybrid performance as we were in the first week of Advent, so we decided to add aspects of our Christmas Show to the mix. It was a wonderful night at the Amerika Haus and strangely a new challenge to return to doing the show in German! But how much fun it was to make music together again and bring a little African American Holiday cheer to the Munich audience! Definitely a new holiday show in the works.
The big surprise of the season came just recently - I was included in the Hot 100 List for Scotland! This is a yearly list of the most influential artists and creatives in Scotland. I was included for my work on the OMOS project. That was important for me as OMOS celebrates Black and LGBTQ+ creativity in Scotland. I am most honoured to be among such esteemed Scottish creatives it was an unexpected inclusion!
Looking forward to 2023 there is much for me to be excited about, first up Lohengrin at Theater Chemnitz in February and March, this production was twice cancelled by Coronavirus, so I’m looking forward to being back as Ortrud.
After Tales of Transatlantic Freedom in Boston, I return to my beloved Scotland as part of the Lammermuir Community Opera Festival, in new opera Catriona and the Dragon, by composer Lliam Paterson, Laura Attridge libretto-direction and conducted by Sian Edwards. This, believe it or not, is my first operatic engagement (outside the EIF) with a Scottish company since moving to Scotland in 2005! Further details here.
Next up is Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha for the Luminato Festival in Toronto. This is also a production that was delayed due to Covid. Produced by the brilliant Volcano Theatre this will be a career highlight for me. A new role, Monisha, a black female led artistic team, a black cast and composer and my first performances in Canada! I look forward to exploring the role and working with this most amazing team in June. If you happen to be in Toronto, I hope to see you at a performance, and with any luck this production will “have legs” and be performed internationally in the future.
Summer brings a new Nevis Ensemble tour in July. As an ambassador for Scotland’s Street Orchestra I am always excited when I get to travel and perform with these amazing musicians. Our mantra is “bringing classical music to everyone everywhere”. This tour will for the first time include local musicians who perhaps have never performed with the ensemble. A detailed list of the tour and for ways to become part of the orchestra for this tour please follow this link. I’m already counting sleeps!
I am looking forward to 2023, may the new year bring you health, joy, peace and MUSIC!
#JoinThe Celebration
- Andrea