Dubbed “Spooky Adu” by Steve Albini (Nirvana, Joanna Newsom, PJ Harvey producer) who recorded her latest solo album, Dark Joan.

“Leila Adu takes you on an aural journey that most progressive rock albums could only attempt” — URB ALT Online

Raised in New Zealand of Ghanaian descent, Adu has produced three acclaimed albums, written for and sung with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, toured extensively and had radio play in the UK, mainland Europe, the US, Australasia, Russia and the Far East.

In 2010 she was voted one of Bold As Love’s TEN SISTAS WHO ROCKED THE DECADE and Time Out CRITIC’S CHOICE for her latest gig with London trio LEILA ADU & THE DON’T’s with punk/improv legends John Edwards & Steve Noble (Neneh Cherry’s Rip Rig & Panic)

Little Richard’s naughty niece reinstates the piano as the original rock ‘n’ roll instrument with a contemporary twist. “Leila Adu’s music is, cryptic, edgy, oscillating between serious commentary and flippant experimentation” — Sheffield Telegraph

With a voice like hot treacle on broken glass, whether singing of love or social change, fans consistently return to LEILA ADU concerts to be “taken away to a parallel dimension of music and thought.”

Since returning to Europe in 2006, Leila performed both solo with piano and with her live band at various venues, as well as recordings from The Orchestra Pit and live studio sessions and interviews on BBC World Service and Resonance fm.

Leila has performed her original songs and improvisations at improv, jazz festvials and rock venues with international artists such as John Edwards, Steve Noble, Hannah Marshall, Nicola Guazzaloca, Mike Cooper, Steve Beresford, Jeff Henderson, Jim Denley, Richard Nunns, Fabrizio Spera, David Long, Jack Body, Alison Isadora, Jan-Bas Bollen, Audrey Chen, Lissa Meridan, Lol Coxhill and Leo Tadagawa. Performers on Leila’s albums have included Tom Callwood, Chris O’Connor, David Long (also Producer of Cherry Pie), Jeffrey Henderson, Chris Palmer, Francesca Mountfort, Lucien Johnson, Nick Van Dijk & Ricky Gooch.

She has performed and composed for dance, theatre, film, gamelan and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and taught children’s workshops in free-improvised singing and conducting. She completed post-graduate studies in 2003 at Victoria University of Wellington, majoring in composition and specialising in Electro-acoustic Music, Ethnomusicology and Orchestration.