Leila Adu was recently voted MTV IGGY’S ARTIST OF THE WEEK “For starters, this young New Zealander of Ghanaian descent treats genre distinctions in much the same way that Godzilla treated those little cities made out of cardboard… boiling down Middle Eastern melodies and classic vocal jazz into something like a minimalist opera starring Nina Hagen, Diamanda Galas, and Eve Libertine.” — MTV Iggy
Little Richard’s naughty niece reinstates the piano as the original rock ‘n’ roll instrument with a contemporary twist. With a voice like hot treacle on broken glass, whether singing of love or social change, fans return to Adu’s concerts to be “taken away to a parallel dimension of music and thought.” Leila Adu has produced four acclaimed albums, written for and sung with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, toured and had radio play in the UK, mainland Europe, the US and Australasia. Adu’s latest music video single ‘Fortuna’ has been featured on MTV Iggy and she has performed both solo and with piano and with her live band at live studio sessions and has been interviewed on the BBC, as well as radio stations in America, the UK, Italy and Australasia.
Based in the United States, Adu also lived in Europe over the past five years in her birthplace of London as well as Rome, Italy where she recorded “Ode to the Unknown Factory Worker” for the Italian National Radio label (RAI/Tracce.) In 2011, after “Ode’s” international album release tour, Adu visited family in New Zealand after the Christchurch earthquake and performed a charity concert supporting Trinity Roots in Featherston for Christchurch Women’s Refuge. Adu has recently composed the soundtrack for “Strawberries with the Fuhrer” for BBC Knowledge TV channel and the NZ Film Festival. Impressed with her combination of pop and classical, Adu has been offered a doctoral scholarship for music composition at Princeton University starting in the Fall.
Background
Adu 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 Adu’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, Daniele De Santis (MDF) & Riki Gooch.
Adu 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.
“Adu’s music reflects her own rich and diverse identity, blending indigenous sounds from the South Pacific and Ghana with tangibly fantastical instrumentation – a sonic funhouse of second glances and expanded perceptions.”
–Art Nouveau Mag
