AMPlify Choirs present the fifth annual AMPlify Black History Month Concert on Saturday, February 25 at 12 p.m. The annual celebration will feature songs of freedom, spirituals, and peace that uplift the history and culture of black America.

Special guest artist Jayme Alilaw, soprano, joins the AMPlify Choirs onstage. Part of the concert will feature solo performances by Ms. Alilaw.

5th Annual AMPlify Black History Month Concert
featuring AMPlify Zaban and AMPlify Kindezi Choirs
with special guest Jayme Alilaw, soprano
Saturday, February 25, 2017, 12pm
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
294 Peyton Rd SW, Atlanta, GA 30311

About Jayme Alilaw

California-born soprano Jayme Alilaw is praised for her lush and vibrant tone throughout the operatic, classical, and spiritual repertoire, and is a fierce advocate for the performance of works by African American composers. She was the Los Angeles District winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Southeast Regional winner of the National Association of Negro Musicians Vocal Competition, winner and Audience Choir recipient for the Harlem Opera Vocal Competition, finalist in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, quarterfinalist in the America Traditions Competition, and winner of the Performing Arts Award from the Fine Arts Club of Pasadena. Ms. Alilaw is the two time recipient of the Village Voices Chorale Scholarship, and was inducted into Pi Kappa Lamba Musical Honor Fraternity in the spring of 2007.

© 2017 Marsha N. Wilson Photography.

© 2017 Marsha N. Wilson Photography.

Operatically, Ms. Alilaw is equally at home in traditional and contemporary repertoire. Favorite roles include Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Mimi in Puccini’s La Boheme, the title role in Suor Angelica, the title role in Dido and Aeneas, Mrs. Jones in Weill’s Street Scene, and the Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She has sung roles in numerous premieres, including Laura Delano in the UCLA Seminal Institute’s world premiere production of Kenneth Wells’ The First Lady, the Marketing Director in the world staged premiere of Paul Salerni’s Tony Caruso’s Last Broadcast, and Ana Maria in the Atlanta premiere of Roger Ames’ En Mis Palabras. Jayme has been a resident artist with The Atlanta Opera since 2013, singing lead roles in their community outreach tours, and representing the company in collaborations with various Atlanta-based arts organizations, including The High Museum, The Alliance Theater, Museum of Design Atlanta, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, and Dad’s Garage Theater Company. She has been featured soloist in the company’s season preview concert Opera with an Edge, and participated in the 24-Hour Opera Project® in which an opera is written, cast, rehearsed, and performed within the span of 24 hours. As a Sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserves, Ms. Alilaw frequently sang for military ceremonies throughout the United States and Middle East.

Driven by a deep passion for traditional Negro spirituals, Jayme has organized concerts and won awards for her research about African American composers. In 2008, she premiered An Afternoon of Spirituals, a concert collaboration of musicians presenting traditional spirituals at the California African American Museum. In 2008 and 2009, Jayme presented her research on African American art song and performed at the National Council of Black Studies Annual Conference. She was awarded the CSUN Association of Retired Faculty Memorial Award, and second place in the CSUN Annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium for this research. Her writings on the subject have been published in the internet magazine Operagasm. Jayme was also a featured performer at the African American Art Song Alliance Conference in 2012, and will return to sing in February 2017.

Jayme now resides in Atlanta, GA where she is an active performer and maintains a private voice and piano studio. She is the owner of Music After School, an after-school enrichment program that offers instrumental instruction to students in grades Pre-K through 5 throughout Metro Atlanta. Jayme also enjoys collaborating across artistic mediums as a means of creative innovation, and to provide a voice for social justice. She has performed musical responses to photography exhibits, and in the facilitation of discussion about mental health and mental illness awareness. In 2016, she formed the group SO13 with jazz pianist OJ Harper and visual artist Dakoro Edwards. SO13 marries expressive painting with classical vocals and jazz piano, with each discipline informing the other during the creative process. Ms. Alilaw continues to challenge musical boundaries, and be a vocal proponent of works by African American composers.

For more information visit https://www.jayme-alilaw.com/.