We welcomed multidisciplinary artist Samora Pinderhughes to Trinity Laban this November for a masterclass with our BA Music Performance and Industry students.
The session provided an invaluable insight into Samora Pinderhughes’s creative, introspective approach to music and songwriting. He started by delving into the theme of fear as a prompt for storytelling, developing and workshopping students’ ideas on a whiteboard. Samora then led a Q&A session, responding to queries about his songwriting process, as well as his experience and perception of the music industry. Performing a few of his original compositions live, he listened to students sing and perform their original songs, before providing them with feedback.
About Samora Pinderhughes
Samora Pinderhughes is a composer, pianist, vocalist, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist known for striking intimacy and carefully crafted, radically honest lyrics alongside high-level musicianship. The New York Times describes Pinderhughes as “one of the most affecting singer-songwriters today, in any genre” that “turn(s) the experience of living in community inside-out, revealing all its personal detail and tension, and giving voice to registers of pain that are commonly shared but not often articulated.” Samora has collaborated with artists across boundaries and scenes including Common, Herbie Hancock, Glenn Ligon, Sara Bareilles, Robert Glasper, Simone Leigh, Daveed Diggs, Kyle Abraham, Titus Kaphar, and Lalah Hathaway. He has been mentored by Anna Deavere Smith, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, and others.
Samora is the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow, a United States Artist Fellow, a recipient of Chamber Music America’s Visionary Award, and has received awards from Creative Capital, the Kennedy Center, and Sundance. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and is currently getting his Ph.D. at Harvard University. Samora has released the musical projects The Transformations Suite, Black Spring EP, and GRIEF. He is also the creator and executive & artistic director of The Healing Project, a massive multidisciplinary project which was recently awarded a $1 million grant from The Mellon Foundation to expand its work.