AMP Announces Third Annual Music of the African Diaspora Festival

Performances to Feature Music Composed, Arranged, or Made Popular by Artists from Africa and the African Diaspora

[Atlanta, February 15, 2022] The Atlanta Music Project (AMP) announces “Music of the African Diaspora,” a month-long concert series featuring AMP’s youth music ensembles showcasing the music of the African diaspora. AMP is committed to celebrating the vast contributions to music by Africans and African Diaspora around the world, bringing together tradition and history with its modern-day influence and cultural relevance. This year’s concert series builds on the success of the 2020 and 2021 Music of the African Diaspora festivals.

“This concert series in particular allows our young musicians to see the beauty and diversity of their own culture represented in a way that inspires them. There’s an innate connection the students have to the composers and music that makes for a very special moment on stage. The energy is contagious, and this series has quickly become a favorite for AMP families and supporters alike.”

– Aisha Moody, Co-Founder & Chief Program Officer

The concert series will comprise eight free performances, that will have a limited in-person audience of parents of the performers, and a streaming option for the community to tune in. These concerts will feature works made popular by composers, arrangers, and artists from Africa and the African diaspora.

AMP’s Preparatory and Youth Choirs will perform pieces by Harry Belafonte, Moses Hogan, and a piece from AMP’S own Senior Youth Choir conductor, B.E. Boykin. AMP’s Youth Orchestras will take the audience on a journey from Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue all the way to the music of Alicia Keys. AMP’s beginning orchestras will perform Kalimba Lullaby, a strings piece that imitates the kalimba, an African instrument also known as a mbira or thumb piano.

There will also be a wide range of solo performances by AMP Academy students that highlight the vast diversity of the African diaspora that include the music of Margaret Bonds, Earth Wind and Fire, the Wiz, and more.

About Atlanta Music Project:

Founded in 2010, the Atlanta Music Project is a non-profit organization providing intensive, tuition-free music education and college and career support for underserved youth right in their neighborhood.

AMP’s mission is to empower underserved youth to realize their possibilities through music. AMP believes the pursuit of musical excellence leads to the development of confidence, creativity, and ambition, character traits that can be applied to one’s academic, professional and personal endeavors.

Now serving 350 students through multiple programs, AMP provides all its students with an instrument, a teaching artist, and classes in band, orchestra, and choir. In addition to three after-school learning sites, AMP’s program includes the AMP Academy, providing advanced musical training to AMP’s most talented and dedicated students; the AMP Summer Series, a music festival and school; and the AMP Youth Choirs & Orchestras.

AMP music ensembles perform more than 50 concerts annually, performing in venues all across Atlanta, from community centers to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. AMP music ensembles have performed alongside international stars such as the Harlem Quartet, electric violinist Lindsey Stirling, pianist Terrence Wilson, soprano Alison Buchanan, and R&B singer Monica. AMP musicians can be seen performing with rapper T.I. on NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. AMP’s young musicians have successfully auditioned for Georgia All-State ensembles, and have concertized as far away as Los Angeles, Aspen, and Mexico City.

AMP is based in the Capitol View neighborhood at the Atlanta Music Project Center for Performance & Education. AMP is a 2018 winner of Emory University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award. In 2016 and 2017 the White House named AMP one of the top 50 after-school arts programs in the nation.