LEYLA MCCALLA
ARTIST Biography
Born in New York City to a pair of Haitian emigrants and activists, McCalla developed an early fascination with the country and its culture thanks in part to the time she spent visiting her grandmother there as a child. After moving to Ghana for two years and later graduating from NYU, McCalla eventually drifted south to New Orleans, where she planned to make a living playing cello on the streets of the French Quarter.
“At the time, I didn’t realize how deep the Haitian roots of New Orleans ran,” she explains, “but I very quickly found myself diving into all the cultural and historical connections. And then once I picked up the tenor banjo, I started researching Haitian folks songs, as well, and I was amazed to discover this incredibly rich banjo tradition, which led me to travel back to Haiti again in 2013.”
By that point, McCalla had already risen to fame as a member of the GRAMMY Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, a group she’d spent two years touring and recording with before leaving to pursue her own career, and her dedication to illuminating the Black roots of American culture was only growing stronger. In 2014, she generated considerable buzz with her critically acclaimed solo debut, Vari-Colored Songs: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, which prompted the New York Times to rave that “her voice is disarmingly natural, and her settings are elegantly succinct.” Two more similarly celebrated releases followed, 2016’s A Day For The Hunter, A Day For The Prey, and 2019’s Capitalist Blues, which yielded even more glowing reviews and profiles, as did her 2019 debut with Our Native Daughters, a collaborative project featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, and Allison Russell.
In 2022, McCalla joined the faculty at University of Richmond as Artist in Residence, where she proudly works with a wide variety of students in and beyond the Department of Music throughout the academic year. Early 2023 saw the announcement of her Freedom Series, a series of 4-singles that mediate on the struggle for freedom in our society. “These are the songs that have served as a balm to my personal journey over the past few years as I’ve navigated heartbreak, outrage, grief and hope,” says McCalla. The series will continue into the Fall.
Read more about Leyla McCalla at leylamccalla.com.
Leyla McCalla is a professional classical and folk musician, multi-instrumentalist, banjo player, former cellist for the Carolina Chocolate Drops, singer, songwriter, and solo artist.
ARTIST MUSIC
Released May 06, 2022
Last updated April 20, 2024