Alicia hall Moran : Bio

ALICIA HALL MORAN, soprano, brings diverse influences and passions together in a rich, quintessentially modern artistic brew. With degrees in music from Barnard College/Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music, she balances performances in the realms of opera, art song, cabaret and jazz, while consistently finding outlets for her love of literature, composition, and new and challenging music in her performance series, I LIKE:, and in venues throughout the world.

Alicia's talents for composition and improvisation can be heard in concert, recital and cabaret, but also on albums by Jason Moran for Blue Note Records, notably The Field on Same Mother and Milestone on Artist in Residence.

She has co-directed, composed for and performed within landmark commissions by The Philadephia Art Museum (Live: Time by Jason Moran with guitarist Bill Frisell, recently reprieved in Belgium for Middelheim Jazz Festival), and The Walker Art Center (The Bandwagon: Milestone), in addition to collaborative work with historian/filmmaker Simon Schama (Rough Crossings at Symphony Space, NYC), painter Adam Pendleton (The Revival for Performa07; three scenes for ArtistSpace, NYC), and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (CHAPEL/CHAPTER), garnering both a Bessie Award for Musical Collaboration and a New York Times special mention for Moran within the review hailing the dance ...the most affecting, the most disturbing, the most powerful and the most compassionate....a riveting experience.

Regarding the traditions of her great, great uncle Hall Johnson--legendary choral director, composer and preserver of the Negro Spiritual, and years of training with opera stars and classical greats Shirley Verrett, Adele Addison, Betty Allen, Hilda Harris and Martina Arroyo, without being tethered to the classical repertoire, Alicia's performances transcend expectation. Her singing and theatrical sensibilities lead purely into a sensual, musical world where the lyricism of Marvin Gaye and the high drama of Puccini collide.

Alicia Hall Moran has studied most recently with Irene Grubrud and David Jones.