New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Rhiannon Giddens is the guest on the latest episode of Sing for Science, the science and music podcast from Talkhouse hosted by Matt Whyte, in which musicians talk with scientists about science as it connects to their most famous songs. The focus of the episode, titled "At the Purchaser's Option: Listening for the African Diaspora in American Music," is the opening track to Giddens's 2017 album, Freedom Highway. Giddens, Whyte, and ethnomusicologist Dr. Portia Maultsby discuss "At the Purchaser's Option," the African origins of the banjo, and the connection between African and African American music. You can hear their conversation here via YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts:
Rhiannon Giddens will tour the UK this spring, joined by multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. The tour starts in Aberdeen on April 27, with shows in Edinburgh, Gateshead, Perth, London, Norwich, Birmingham, and Essex. They follow the last two concerts of Giddens' Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall and bookend the Boston Lyric Opera run of Omar, her opera with Michael Abels, in May. They precede the 2023 Ojai Festival, of which she is Music Director, in June, and a trip to Italy for festival sets in Spoleto and Umbria in July.