John Malveaux: Lara Downes and NPR Music Announce Amplify With Lara Downes, A New Video Conversation Series With Leading Black Musicians

LARA DOWNES AND NPR MUSIC ANNOUNCE

AMPLIFY WITH LARA DOWNES,

A NEW VIDEO CONVERSATION SERIES WITH LEADING BLACK

MUSICIANS

The bi-weekly series, created and hosted by Downes, will offer intimate, personal

conversations with visionary artists of color making art that is both in, and of,

this time of transformation, turmoil, representation and reflection

Guests to include Rhiannon Giddens, Anthony McGill, Helga Davis,

Davóne Tines, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason and family

Series premieres Saturday, October 17 on NPR Music.org

and NPR’s YouTube and social media platforms

Introducing "Amplify With Lara Downes" on NPR Music 

https://musicuntold.com/index.php/lara-downes-and-npr-music-announce-amplify-with-lara-downes/

OCTOBER 16, 2020 - NPR Music and Lara Downes announce the launch of AMPLIFY With

Lara Downes, a new bi-weekly series of intimate and deeply personal video conversations with

visionary Black musicians who are shaping the present and future of the art form, premiering

Saturday, October 17 on NPRMusic.org, YouTube, and social media platforms.

Created and hosted by pianist and artist/citizen Lara Downes, and co-produced by NPR Music’s

Tom Huizenga, this series invites viewers to experience raw, revealing, and open-hearted

conversations reflecting on how artists are responding and creating in this time of profound

challenge and change. Downes and her guests—initially including MacArthur Fellow vocalist

and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, 2020 Avery Fisher Prize-winning clarinetist

Anthony McGill, multidisciplinary artist Helga Davis, and boundary-breaking vocalist Davóne

Tines, with other guests such as Sheku Kanneh-Mason and family to follow—connect and

reflect on highly relevant themes ranging from music and mission, legacy and lineage, to

transformation and change.

Says Downes of the series: “In this time of our collective reckoning about historical inequities in

American life and art, I’m excited to amplify the voices of extraordinary artists of color, shining a

bright light on a diverse and rich future that is, in the words of James Weldon Johnson, ‘full of

the hope that the present has brought us.’”

ABOUT LARA DOWNES

Pianist Lara Downes has been called “an explorer whose imagination is fired by bringing notice

to the underrepresented and forgotten” (The Log Journal). An iconoclast and trailblazer, her

dynamic work as a sought-after performer, a Billboard Chart-topping recording artist, a

producer, curator, activist and arts advocate positions her as a cultural visionary on the national

arts scene.

Downes’ musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of history, family, and collective

memory, excavating the broad landscape of American music to create a series of acclaimed

performance and recording projects that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find

common ground and shared experience.

Downes is the inaugural Artist Citizen in Residence for the Manhattan School of Music, as well

as a Fellow of the Loghaven Artist Residency. Her work has been supported by the Mellon

Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sphinx Organization, the Classical

Recording Foundation Award, the University of California Innovator of the Year Award, and the

Center for Cultural Innovation, among others.

Downes’ artistry has been called “a musical ray of hope” by NBC News, "luscious, moody and

dreamy” by The New York Times, and "addicting" by The Huffington Post. She is equally at

home on major stages including the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston

Symphony Hall, the Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood, and Washington Performing Arts, and clubs

and intimate venues including Joe’s Pub, National Sawdust, Yoshi’s, and Le Poisson Rouge.

Downes’ fierce commitment to activism and advocacy see her working with organizations

including Feeding America, the ACLU, the Lower Eastside Girls Club, the Sphinx Organization,

and Watts Learning Center. She is an Artist Ambassador for Headcount, a non-partisan

organization that uses the power of music to register voters and promote participation in

democracy. 

ABOUT NPR MUSIC

For more than a decade, NPR Music's robust music journalism and award-winning original video

programming has delighted millions of music fans from all genres. NPR Music collaborates with

NPR's news magazines, public radio Member stations and the passionate listener community to

celebrate exceptional music and discover emerging artists. Visit NPRMusic.org to find the

complete Tiny Desk concert series, music feature stories, extensive archives of performances,

interviews and music reviews. Connect with NPR Music on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

AMPLIFY With Lara Downes

Every other Saturday on NPRMusic.org, YouTube, and social media platforms

Schedule of Initial Guests

October 17:

Rhiannon Giddens—singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, Artistic Director of

the Silk Road Ensemble

October 31:

Anthony McGill—principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, 2020 Avery

Fisher Prize winner, and activist 

November 14: Helga Davis—multidisciplinary artist, actress, singer, composer, and host of

WNYC’s “Helga” podcast

November 28: Davóne Tines—bass-baritone, innovator, composer, co-creator of The Black

Clown