Episode Description
Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson, award-winning teaching artist, and global performer serves as Co-Founder and Artistic Director at the acclaimed music and art institution in Harlem USA, The Mama Foundation for The Arts, home of the Longest Black Off-Broadway Theater Musical in the history of American Theater. Mama, I Want To Sing! After attending The Manhattan School of Music for Jazz Vocal Studies and graduating from the American Musical And Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for Musical Theater studies, Ahmaya traveled singing on world stages in various productions including Porgy and Bess and starring in Mama I Want To Sing! Amaya and her mother Vy Higginsen, creator of the musical Mama I Want To Sing!, came back to their home village of Harlem where their family has lived for over 100 years. They built a 501(c) 3) Non-Profit music and arts institution passing on their knowledge and history of the music and theater industry, building curriculums that have now served thousands of youth and adults with free music and performance education for the past 20 years. With the continued mission to preserve African American music as an “art form” through the next generation, Ahmaya gathered students from her Harlem institution and founded the award-winning “Sing Harlem” a commercial traveling ensemble and choir in which she currently serves as an Artistic and Musical Director. She has booked, curated, and musically directed opportunities for the group with SZA on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the 60 Annual Grammy Awards. Twice with Chance The Rapper on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Ariana Grande- Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and more. Additionally, they have performance credits with Pharrell Williams, Alesia Cara, Lykke Li, and Madonna, headlining Brooklyn’s AFROPUNK, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the APOLLO theater, and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. In 2021 new to the faculty at the conservatory of music at SUNY Purchase, Ahmaya currently serves as the Musical Director of the SUNY Purchase Soul Voices Course and Ensemble.
Guest Biography
Musical And Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for Musical Theater studies, Ahmaya traveled singing on world stages in various productions including Porgy and Bess and starring in Mama I Want To Sing! Amaya and her mother Vy Higginsen, creator of the musical Mama I Want To Sing!, came back to their home village of Harlem where their family has lived for over 100 years. They built a 501(c) 3) Non-Profit music and arts institution passing on their knowledge and history of the music and theater industry, building curriculums that have now served thousands of youth and adults with free music and performance education for the past 20 years. With the continued mission to preserve African American music as an “art form” through the next generation, Ahmaya gathered students from her Harlem institution and founded the award-winning “Sing Harlem” a commercial traveling ensemble and choir in which she currently serves as an Artistic and Musical Director. She has booked, curated, and musically directed opportunities for the group with SZA on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the 60 Annual Grammy Awards. Twice with Chance The Rapper on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Ariana Grande- Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and more. Additionally, they have performance credits with Pharrell Williams, Alesia Cara, Lykke Li, and Madonna, headlining Brooklyn’s AFROPUNK, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the APOLLO theater, and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival.
Host – G. Keith Alexander
Born and raised in Chicago, G. Keith Alexander as a young boy had dreams of becoming a disc jockey and eventually became music director, afternoon jock, and leader of the launch team for his native city’s new station WGCI. His baritone delivery has also resounded over the airwaves of Disco 92 WKTU, 98.7 KISS-FM, former jazz station WRVR, Inner City Broadcasting’s WBLS in the Big Apple, Clear Channel’s Jammin’ 105, and Infinity’s New MIX 102.7.
G. Keith is also the host of “What’s Hot! HarlemAmerica with G. Keith Alexander”, the first podcast hosted on the HarlemAmerica Digital Network. He talks with a great variety of influential black voices in the entertainment industry like Gloria Gaynor, Keith David, Dionne Warwick, Darrin Henson, Phylicia Rashad, and more.
Episode Description
Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson, award-winning teaching artist, and global performer serves as Co-Founder and Artistic Director at the acclaimed music and art institution in Harlem USA, The Mama Foundation for The Arts, home of the Longest Black Off-Broadway Theater Musical in the history of American Theater. Mama, I Want To Sing! After attending The Manhattan School of Music for Jazz Vocal Studies and graduating from the American Musical And Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for Musical Theater studies, Ahmaya traveled singing on world stages in various productions including Porgy and Bess and starring in Mama I Want To Sing! Amaya and her mother Vy Higginsen, creator of the musical Mama I Want To Sing!, came back to their home village of Harlem where their family has lived for over 100 years. They built a 501(c) 3) Non-Profit music and arts institution passing on their knowledge and history of the music and theater industry, building curriculums that have now served thousands of youth and adults with free music and performance education for the past 20 years. With the continued mission to preserve African American music as an “art form” through the next generation, Ahmaya gathered students from her Harlem institution and founded the award-winning “Sing Harlem” a commercial traveling ensemble and choir in which she currently serves as an Artistic and Musical Director. She has booked, curated, and musically directed opportunities for the group with SZA on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the 60 Annual Grammy Awards. Twice with Chance The Rapper on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Ariana Grande- Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and more. Additionally, they have performance credits with Pharrell Williams, Alesia Cara, Lykke Li, and Madonna, headlining Brooklyn’s AFROPUNK, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the APOLLO theater, and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival. In 2021 new to the faculty at the conservatory of music at SUNY Purchase, Ahmaya currently serves as the Musical Director of the SUNY Purchase Soul Voices Course and Ensemble.
Host – G. Keith Alexander
Born and raised in Chicago, G. Keith Alexander as a young boy had dreams of becoming a disc jockey and eventually became music director, afternoon jock, and leader of the launch team for his native city’s new station WGCI. His baritone delivery has also resounded over the airwaves of Disco 92 WKTU, 98.7 KISS-FM, former jazz station WRVR, Inner City Broadcasting’s WBLS in the Big Apple, Clear Channel’s Jammin’ 105, and Infinity’s New MIX 102.7.
G. Keith is also the host of “What’s Hot! HarlemAmerica with G. Keith Alexander”, the first podcast hosted on the HarlemAmerica Digital Network. He talks with a great variety of influential black voices in the entertainment industry like Gloria Gaynor, Keith David, Dionne Warwick, Darrin Henson, Phylicia Rashad, and more.
Guest Biography
Musical And Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for Musical Theater studies, Ahmaya traveled singing on world stages in various productions including Porgy and Bess and starring in Mama I Want To Sing! Amaya and her mother Vy Higginsen, creator of the musical Mama I Want To Sing!, came back to their home village of Harlem where their family has lived for over 100 years. They built a 501(c) 3) Non-Profit music and arts institution passing on their knowledge and history of the music and theater industry, building curriculums that have now served thousands of youth and adults with free music and performance education for the past 20 years. With the continued mission to preserve African American music as an “art form” through the next generation, Ahmaya gathered students from her Harlem institution and founded the award-winning “Sing Harlem” a commercial traveling ensemble and choir in which she currently serves as an Artistic and Musical Director. She has booked, curated, and musically directed opportunities for the group with SZA on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the 60 Annual Grammy Awards. Twice with Chance The Rapper on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Ariana Grande- Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and more. Additionally, they have performance credits with Pharrell Williams, Alesia Cara, Lykke Li, and Madonna, headlining Brooklyn’s AFROPUNK, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the APOLLO theater, and Chicago’s Ravinia Festival.
