Moira Smiley and Friends

Event information

Moira Smiley tours her new, acclaimed album of folk songs with string quartet, The Rhizome Project: Percussive, plaintive, lush string arrangements are woven through Appalachian, Anglo Celtic, and original songs. She is joined by a string quartet curated by acclaimed duo BALLADESTE (Tara Franks and Preetha Narayanan). Brought together by their shared ethos in connecting people through sound - in performance and participatory events; Moira Smiley, Balladeste and guest strings (Flora Curzon and Laura Moody) will perform Moira’s arrangements interwoven with original repertoire.
THE RHIZOME PROJECT is the velvet ferocity of voices & strings, very old folk song and their power to remind us of our shared ‘sugar-in-the-ground’ – an unsentimental, underground connectivity that defies a divisive era.
Moira will also be joined by Cowley-based FEISTY CHOIR.

About Moira
Moira Smiley is renowned for her mastery of the voice and ability to inspire singers of all levels. She is a celebrated educator, teaching at leading musical institutions and inspiring singers of all backgrounds. She’s published over 100 choral works that are sung by millions of singers worldwide. With a deep respect for the cultural roles of singing, Moira blends teaching, composing, and performing to empower communities and celebrate the transformative power of music.
Known for her rich voice and dynamic stage presence, Moira has collaborated with some of the most celebrated names in music, including Tune-Yards, Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen. As a member of Tune-Yards, she has performed on major platforms such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Later with Jools Holland. Recently, she performed & recorded for Laurie Anderson’s ARK.
She is regularly commissioned to write choral & chamber music works, with millions singing her music around the world. Moira has been featured in TED conferences, on BBC Radio and TV, NPR, ABC Australia, and live at countless venues from Carnegie Hall to the Royal Festival Hall. Smiley is known for enchanting audiences whether on stage, atop glaciers, inside ships or in cozy kitchens from Norway to Tasmania.

Moira's words about the Rhizome Project
"An album, a collection, a bundle, a root system, a packet of seeds, a rhizome…

Making a music album — maybe especially in an era when most of us listen to singles, playlists and fragments — can invite a listener into a collection of ideas or feelings that make more sense when gathered together. Curating an album of folk songs that ‘formed me’ helps me make sense of the new sounds I create today. Gathering these songs, these stories and these pictures helps me know why certain songs (and people) keep nurturing and challenging me across decades — allowing me to remain a ‘resonant reed’.

I feel very lucky to have grown up with a sense of songs as shared treasures, like stones, shells, leaves and other tiny things gathered on a walk to share later with others. In the album’s accompanying book (The Rhizome Song Stories) are highly subjective, personal stories of one musician’s way of making sense of the world. This book accompanies The Rhizome Project album, but I also believe it can travel solo.

Several of the songs in The Rhizome Project were the first songs to allow me the confidence to sing alone, while others outlined elemental ethics that my little voice could grow into. I remember realizing sometime around age 10 that I belonged to generations of little voices raised bravely and plainly – close to the natural world, and singing in spite of our insignificance. Therefore, songs raising a hand of protest also reminded me to catch wonder and awe in the other hand.

I am a worker bee for music, an introvert and dreamer who travels to make my living. One of the lessons of being in my forties is how deeply shaped I am by the landscape and people I come home to. I look to certain neighbors and friends to remind me of the myriad creative and practical ways to be human – right here, right now, in all the mess, the ordinary, painful and precious.

The Rhizome Project celebrates all the powerful ways we are connected, though, like the rhizome roots, those connections may be hidden or forgotten. "

Listen: https://moirasmiley.bandcamp.com/
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcYziccV2MeVHCYbz6k6bKQ
About: https://moirasmiley.com/