“Leila Adu’s Two Songs for Voice and Orchestra, with the composer herself as a piquant soloist in music whose expressive beauties were contrived with considerable subtlety.”
— Sounz News

• Created and performed music for voice, clarinet, jew’s harp, harmonica and found objects in collaboration with French Butoh dancer, Camille Mutel, as part of the SOMA Series, Teatro Furillo Camillo, Rome, 2008.

• Performed, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the vocal part of Leila’s own composition, Chaitou Feng/Pour Mon Tortionaire based on poems by female poets in Chinese and French as a prize from the SOUNZ Contemporary Awards, 2005

“Centred on her percussive piano playing and an astonishing voice there’s little I can compare it to. Lyrically too, there’s something refreshingly unpredictable about Leila Adu… she seems to be writing from inside a range of personas and inhabiting a variety of voices as well.”

— National Radio

• Devised and performed site-specific, live music and dance piece Emporium, with dancers, Julia Milsom and Julie van Renen, with performances in the shop windows of Buana Satu, on Aucklands KRd and Wellingtons Rex Royale on Cuba St, 2006/2005.

• Forty Degrees Something, music composed and edited by Leila Adu, screened at The Film Archive, and as part of a dance film compilation at The International Film Festival, 2005.

• Created electro-acoustic with live vocals, piano and percussion soundtrack (1hr duration) for Plunge, an aerial and dance piece in collaboration with director Tom Beauchamp (director MTA at Toi Whakari) and the NZ School of Dance, 2005.

• Performs live at Civic Square as part of improvising synthesizer trio, Delete! to accompany a retrospective of short films by artist, Joanna Margaret Paul a joint production with The City Gallery, Wellington, 2004.

• Received Highly Commended Award for the instrumental ensemble piece Night Ports, Detachment in the Victoria University Composers Competition, 2003.

• Won the Fringe Festival Best Musical Act Award for Leilas Space Cabaret, piano songs with brass, strings and wind, Wellington Fringe Festival, 2002.

• Sung and composed Sari performed with Gamelan Padhang Moncar, Yogyakarta Music Festival, Java, 2002.

• Where Will I Fly Us? Site-specific pre-recorded electro-acoustic and live vocal piece, performed at The Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, 2002.

• Composed and performed ‘Cecilia’s Gift’ and ‘Great Spirit’ for organ, harp and voice at St. Cecilia’s Concert Series, Sacred Heart Cathedral, 2001.

• Received the Most Promising Female Musician Award at the Regional Smokefree Rockquest, 1996.