A "resonant soprano" .... "one
liked her stage presence".
Bernard Holland, The New York Times
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Dawn Padmore with Darryl Hollister, presented a West
African art song recital at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, on January 10th.
Click here to see and hear!:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/
millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=PADMOREDAW
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Out in January on Songlines Records:
Sean Noonan/Brewed by Noon: Stories To Tell
Dawn Padmore featured on “Pineapple” Track
“Imagine Prime Time joined by Fela Kuti and Bill Frisell, then remixed
by Bill Laswell, and you’ll start to get a hint of just what an intoxicatingly
soulful blast this is.” -Jazz Review
with Sean Noonan, electro-acoustic drumset; Marc Ribot, Aram Bajakian, Jon
Madof, electric guitars; Mat Maneri, viola; Thierno Camara, electric bass, vocals,
percussion; Abdoulaye Diabaté, Susan McKeown, Dawn Padmore, vocals; Jim
Pugliese, Thiokho Diagne, percussion
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Dawn Padmore and Glen Inanga (of the Micallef / Inanga piano duo) perform a joint
recital at Churchill College, Cambridge University (Cambridge UK) in November,
celebrating Abiola Irele, foremost scholar and critic of African, African American
and Francophone literatures. Dawn and Glen performed a world premier of Akin Euba’s
“SPRING” and “SUMMER”. Click here for more information on that event:
http://www.nigeriansinamerica.com/articles/1424/1/ Churchill-College-Celebrates-Abiola-Irele.html
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June/July, 2006
Dawn collaborated with world/jazz drummer Sean Noonan of Brewed by Noon on recordings
of two original songs; she continues to collaborate with Sean, writing lyrics
to two additional songs. Watch for more information on the next CD by Brewed by
Noon to be released in 2007.
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April 27, 2006
Dawn was a featured performer in "A Concert of Shared Multi-Cultures: Akin Euba,
His Circle, and Beyond", presenting art songs by Akin Euba and Joshua Uzoigwe
with Jihea Hong on the piano. (more
information)
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January 20, 2006
Dawn was a featured performer in “Composer Portraits: Bongani Ndodana” at the
Miller Theater (New York City), receiving mention in the New York Times.
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January 16, 2006:
Monrovia, Liberia - Dawn Padmore performed the Liberian national anthem at the
inauguration of Liberia and Africa's first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
on January 16, 2006 in front of over thousands of attendees including dignitaries
such as Presidents Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, John Kufuor of Ghana, Laurent Gbagbo
of Ivory Coast, Olusegun Obansanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, US
Secretary of State Dr. Condoleeza Rice and US First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush.
http://www.liberianobserver.com/news/categoryfront.php/
id/33/Politics.html.
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December 2005:
http://www.wireimage.com
December 11, 2005 - Dawn Padmore performed the Liberian national anthem at a Fundraiser
and Reception Honoring Liberian President Elect Ellen Johnson - Sirleaf on December
11, 2005 at the Gallery at Nubian Heritage in New York City.
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July 2005:
www.sabcnews.com
April 26, 2005, 14:00 - Rarely heard compositions from all over the continent
set the tone for the New Music Indaba's 're-imagining Africa' programme at the
National Arts Festival (Grahamstown 30 June to 9 July 2005).
Uganda's Justinian Tamusuza is composer in residence and award-winning Liberian
soprano Dawn Padmore will provide solo vocal highlights
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West African music intrigues
John Terauds
TORONTO STAR
Following through on a promise of "music that knows no boundaries," Ensemble Noir
launched a three-concert African Odyssey last night at St. George-the-Martyr church
with an intimate encounter between West African folk melody and the Western art
song.
What the overshort program lacked in heft, it made up for in a series of musical
confections smartly wrapped in Liberian-born and New York-based Dawn Padmore's
silky soprano.
She was accompanied a bit stiffly but ably by Toronto's Stephen Clarke on piano.
The program began with Six Yoruba Folk Songs by Nigerian composer Akin
Euba. They were short and pretty, echoing the feel of Samuel Barber's music, but
somewhat lacking in musical contrast.
The audience was then treated to a double portion of Nigerian Joshua Uzoigwe's
Four Igbo Songs, which floated and cascaded on a stream of intriguing syncopations,
marking the highlight of the evening's accompanied fare.
The piano part was written to echo the sound of drums, with an effect that also
had clear echoes of Tin Pan Alley.
Also heard were Sankudwom, three songs by Ghanian composer J.H. Kwabena
Nketia and two unaccompanied spirituals — This Little Light Of Mine and Little
David Play On Your Harp — Padmore giving a superb spiritual bel canto
treatment to the last.
This small taste of West Africa was enough to leave this reviewer wanting more.
And Dawn Padmore should be encouraged to visit us as often as possible…
