Imani Uzuri, raised in rural North Carolina, is an award-winning vocalist, composer, librettist, improviser and conceptual artist. She composes, performs and creates interdisciplinary works including concerts, ritual performances, albums, sound installations and compositions for chamber ensembles, voice and theater (including experimental and musical theater). Uzuri recently finished her tenure as a Jerome Foundation Composer/Sound Artist Fellow in support of her international travel and research for her forthcoming composing of a large music work celebrating the iconography of the Black Madonna which she is currently developing as a HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP) Fellow. She was a 2018 commissioned composer for Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity where she presented the world premiere of her choral composition “Sustenance” with 31+ voices from around the world. Uzuri is a 2018 Chamber Music America New Jazz Works composer commissionee. Dubbed “a postmodernist Bessie Smith” by The Village Voice, the New York Times calls her work “stirring” and Time Out New York says “Uzuri never fails to mesmerize audiences with her narcotic blend...of ethereal sounds.”
As a 2019 Composer in Residence at Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, Uzuri will visit Black Madonna shrines in Marseilles and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, integrate her research from previous international Black Madonna sojourns and begin developing the libretto and composing the score for her forthcoming aforementioned large music work Songs of Sanctuary for the Black Madonna.
www.imaniuzuri.com
Photo by Petra Richterova
