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Rhiannon Giddens

www.rhiannongiddens.com

Artist Bio


The acclaimed musician Rhiannon Giddens uses her art to excavate the past and reveal bold truths about our present. A MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient, Giddens co-founded the Grammy Award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, and she has been nominated for six additional Grammys for her work as a soloist and collaborator. She was most recently nominated for her collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi, there is no Other (2019). Giddens’s latest album, They’re Calling Me Home, is a twelve-track album, recorded with Turrisi in Ireland during the recent lockdown; it speaks of the longing for the comfort of home as well as the metaphorical “call home” of death, which has been a tragic reality for so many during the COVID-19 crisis.  

Giddens’s lifelong mission is to lift up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been erased, and to work toward a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins. Pitchfork has said of her work, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration,” and Smithsonian Magazine calls her “an electrifying artist who brings alive the memories of forgotten predecessors, white and black.”

Among her many diverse career highlights, Giddens has performed for the Obamas at the White House, served as a Carnegie Hall Perspectives curator, and received an inaugural Legacy of Americana Award from Nashville’s National Museum of African American History in partnership with the Americana Music Association. Her critical acclaim includes in-depth profiles by CBS Sunday Morning, the New York Times, the New Yorker, and NPR’s Fresh Air, among many others. 

Giddens is featured in Ken Burns’s Country Music series, which aired on PBS in 2019, where she speaks about the African American origins of country music. She is also a member of the band Our Native Daughters with three other black female banjo players, Leyla McCalla, Allison Russell, and Amythyst Kiah, and co-produced their debut album Songs of Our Native Daughters (2019), which tells stories of historic black womanhood and survival. 

Named Artistic Director of Silkroad in 2020, Giddens is developing a number of new programs for the organization, including one inspired by the history of the American transcontinental railroad and the cultures and music of its builders. She recently wrote the music for an original ballet, Lucy Negro Redux, for Nashville Ballet (premiered in 2019), and the libretto and music for an original opera, Omar, based on the autobiography of the enslaved man Omar Ibn Said for the Spoleto USA Festival (premieres in 2022).

As an actor, Giddens had a featured role on the television series Nashville.

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Contact

Agent - North America

Agent - AUS // NZ

Tour Dates

Oct 02 2023
Paramount Theater
Charlottesville, VA
Nov 05 2023
American Railroad - Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens
Fairfax, VA
Nov 10 2023
Balboa Theatre
San Diego, CA
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Nov 12 2023
Valley Performing Arts Center
Northridge, CA
Nov 15 2023
Bing Concert Hall
Stanford, CA
Nov 16 2023
Mondavi Center
Davis, CA
Nov 17 2023
Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
Feb 10 2024
Maison des Arts - Créteil
Créteil, France
Feb 11 2024
Doornroosje Main Hall
Nijmegen, Netherlands
Feb 13 2024
Paradiso
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Feb 14 2024
Ancienne Belgique
Brussels, Belgium
Feb 17 2024
Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany
Feb 18 2024
Lido
Berlin, Germany
Feb 19 2024
Kulturkirche Köln
Köln-nippes, Germany
Feb 21 2024
Barbican Centre Car Park - Silk Street
London, United Kingdom
Feb 22 2024
Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Feb 23 2024
Pavilion Theatre
Glasgow, United Kingdom
Feb 25 2024
Vicar Street
Dublin, Ireland
Mar 14 2024
Prior Performing Arts Center, College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, MA
Mar 16 2024
Beacon Theater
New York City, NY
Mar 19 2024
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY EISENHOWER AUDITORIUM
University Park, PA
Mar 20 2024
Memorial Hall OTR
Cincinnati, OH
Apr 15 2024
Chan Centre For The Performing Arts
Vancouver, Canada
Apr 17 2024
Patricia Reser Center for the Arts
Beaverton, OR
Apr 19 2024
Meany Hall for the Performing Arts
Seattle, WA
Apr 21 2024
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA
Apr 22 2024
Golden State Theatre
Monterey, CA
Apr 23 2024
UCSB ARTS AND LECTURES
Santa Barbara, CA
Apr 25 2024
The Theatre at Ace Hotel
Los Angeles, CA
Apr 27 2024
The Rialto Theatre
Tucson, AZ
Apr 28 2024
Mesa Arts Center
Mesa, AZ
Apr 30 2024
Longhorn Ballroom
Dallas, TX
May 02 2024
The Paramount Theatre
Austin, TX

News

07/28/2023

Rhiannon Giddens Shares “Yet to Be,” Featuring Jason Isbell, from New Album You’re the One, out August 18 on Nonesuch

Rhiannon Giddens Shares “Yet to Be,” Featuring Jason Isbell, from New Album You’re the One, out August 18 on Nonesuch "Yet To Be" WATCH | LISTEN Rhiannon Giddens has shared…

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05/09/2023

Rhiannon Giddens Announces First Solo Album in Six Years, You’re the One, out August 18 on Nonesuch Records

Rhiannon Giddens Announces First Solo Album in Six Years, You’re the One, out August 18 on Nonesuch Records (more…)

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05/08/2023

Rhiannon Giddens Awarded Pulitzer Prize in Music for Omar

Rhiannon Giddens has been awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her opera, Omar, alongside her co-composer Michael Abels.   from pulitzer.com Premiered on May 27, 2022 at the Spoleto Festival…

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