A New Season of Music Making

🍁As summer has quickly given way to fall, I’m reflecting on a season filled with music, collaboration, and opportunities to share stories that deserve to be heard. From performances across New Jersey and Delaware to new recording projects, and an upcoming Carnegie Hall debut, there is much to share! Be sure to check out the fall events calendar at the end.

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Summer Highlights

The State Opera of New Jersey

In June, I joined The State Opera of New Jersey in Princeton, NJ for an afternoon of opera and musical theater. It was a pleasure to share the stage with fellow artists and reconnect with audiences through repertoire that continues to move and inspire.
Watch Bernstein's "Glitter and Be Gay"
Read the review

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A Summer with SODELO

My summer continued with the Southern Delaware Orchestra, including two performances in Cape Henlopen and Milford, and finishing our tour at the newly rebuilt Freeman Arts Pavilion. Singing excerpts from Mark Hagerty's United Sounds of America album with SODELO against the backdrop of Delaware’s coastal communities made these concerts especially memorable. 
(Featured on Tracks 1, 6, 10-12)

At the Freeman Arts Pavilion, we joined artists from across the state for This Is Delaware: An Arts Celebration for DE250 – an evening honoring the role of the arts in Delaware’s history and imagining the creativity still to come.

Carnegie Hall Debut

Guest Artist with the Bridgetower Project
Saturday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m. | Weill Recital Hall

This fall brings an especially exciting milestone: my Carnegie Hall solo debut as a guest artist with the Bridgetower Project. I will perform selections from my album African Romances in Weill Recital Hall as part of an evening dedicated to restoring the legacy of Afro-European violin virtuoso George Bridgetower.

The concert brings together two artistic threads especially close to my heart: recovering overlooked chapters of Black classical history and carrying those stories into the present through performance.

I’m deeply grateful to join this extraordinary group of musicians and storytellers for the occasion.

Explore the Bridgetower Project
Purchase Carnegie Hall Tickets

New Recordings
 

“Ardessia”  ·  Track 15
from Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence

I’m honored to be a featured vocalist on composer Jonathan Whitney’s newly released album, Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence.

Released September 4, the album illuminates the lives and legacies of Black people connected to Delaware’s historic Cooch Estate. My featured track, “Ardessia,” is an intimate vocal and piano portrait honoring a beloved caretaker whose presence remains part of the estate’s living memory.

This project reflects something central to my own work: using music to bring overlooked histories forward with humanity, care, and voice.
Stream “ARDESSIA”
Explore the Project

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“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”
from Hymns, Psalms, Spiritual Songs, Vol. 2 

Another recording arrives in just a few days: I sing Dr. Anwar Ottley’s arrangement of the beloved hymn “My Faith Looks Up to Thee,” performed with Pro Musica, the premier choir of Washington Adventist University. Many thanks to my high school classmate and dear friend, Anwar, for the invitation to join this beautiful project.

Watch a clip from the recording session

The recording is expected to be released around October 10, which is the same day as the live album release concert. See event details below.

For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
African Romances, Op. 17 

My debut solo album, African Romances, has been entered for consideration for the 69th Annual GRAMMY® Awards in the Best Classical Solo Vocal Album category.

First-round voting begins October 12. As a Recording Academy voting member, I always look forward to discovering the remarkable music released each year. This season, I’m especially grateful that my project rooted in scholarship, artistry, and cultural memory is part of that wider musical conversation.

The album brings Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s rarely recorded 1897 settings of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry into contemporary listening – giving renewed voice to a historic collaboration between two young Black artists working across continents, nearly 130 years later.

Explore the official FYC page

🍁 Fall 2026 Events Calendar🍁 

🎵 Saturday,  October 3 · 7:30 p.m.

Bridgetower Project at Carnegie Hall
Featured Guest Artist
Weill Recital Hall · New York, NY
Selections from African Romances
Tickets

🎵 Saturday,  October 10 · 6:00 p.m.

Pro Musica of Washington Adventist University
Featured Guest Artist
Album Release Concert: Hymns, Psalms, Spiritual Songs, Vol. 2
Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church · Takoma Park, MD
Free admission 

🎵 Sunday,  November 1 · 2:00 p.m.

Voices Unveiled: Music in Poetry, Image, and Dance
With pianist Rebecca Wilt and fellow Delaware artists
Ethel L. Sayre Recital Hall at OperaDelaware · Wilmington, DE
Free admission · Details

🎵 Sunday, December 6 · 3:00 p.m.

Handel’s Messiah
Soprano Soloist
Tindley Temple United Methodist Church · Philadelphia, PA
 
For updated event information, please continue to visit my Events Calendar.

Thank you for continuing to listen, attend, share, and follow the journey. I look forward to seeing many of you this fall.

With gratitude,
Makeda

Archived Newsletters
- Summer 2026
- October 2025