Amina Claudine Myers
Amina Claudine Myers (1942) is a pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, master improvisationalist, actress and educator. She has performed nationally and internationally throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America. She is well known for her work involving voice choirs, voice, and instrumental ensembles. Her career in music began in her preteens and throughout high school directing church choirs, singing and playing gospel and rhythm and blues.She began playing and singing jazz in college in and around Arkansas. Myers studied concert music at Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Arkansas and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education. Myers conducts workshops, seminars, and residencies at colleges and universities, nationally and internationally. Her larger works include e.g. – Interiors (a composition for chamber orchestra conducted by Petr Kotík and performed by S.E.M. Orchestra), A View From The Inside (a staged piece showing the workings of the inside mind), Focus (a piece written for piano, voice, electric bass and photographic images from Myers’ home town of Blackwell) and many others. She conducted the symphony orchestras with choruses, composed a few big band compositions performed by AACM musicians. She has performed works written by writer Ntozake Shange and other new works created by Diane McIntyre. Myers has collaborated in ongoing concerts with her soul sister Sola Liu where they are combining Chinese and Afro-American music traditions through singing, playing and dancing. Most recently Myers has been performing original works of jazz, blues, gospel, spirituals, and improvisations for the pipe organ. She has received many grants and awards, including National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. She was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame 2001 and the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame 2010. Myers resides and teaches privately in New York City.
