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A DC-BASED COMPANY, and at our core:
DEVELOPING AND PRODUCING ORIGINAL WORKS OF MUSIC-THEATRE,
FOSTERING ARTISTS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT,
AND ENGAGING WITH THE COMMUNITY IN PARTNERSHIP
Changing the Conversation Through the Arts
Evelyn Simpson Curenton
Evelyn joins the Alliance team, having earned many titles including composer, arranger, pianist, organist, vocalist, artistic director, lecturer, producer, and clinician. Her versatile skills consequently make her one of the most sought-after musicians. She is Company Music Director.
We are grateful and honored ‘Miss Evelyn’ has joined our company as of Fall 2022 as both Composer and Music Director, after leading a wonderful collaboration in the development and production of Voices of Zion: The Black Georgetown Cemeteries Project by the team Ronald Walton, Composer, and Jarrod Lee, Librettist, in the Spring of 2022.
A native of Philadelphia, she began playing the piano at the age of two and began her studies at the age of five. By the time she was nine, she was accompanying her renowned musical family, The Singing Simpsons of Philadelphia, in public performances.
Evelyn graduated from Temple University where she earned a Bachelors Degree in Music Education and Voice.
Ms. Curenton was commissioned to complete seven arrangements for the Carnegie Hall concert featuring Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman and the Chorus and Orchestra of New York’s acclaimed Metropolitan Opera. She has also been commissioned to write works for George Shirley. Many additional orchestras and ensembles have performed her works in the U.S., including the Philadelphia Orchestra, The National Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Minnesota Orchestra, The U.S. Marine band. Many other distinguished musicians, including the late Duke Ellington, her late sister and Naumberg winner Joy Simpson, Hubert Laws, Denyce Graves, John Blake, Angela Brown of the Metropolitan Opera, and David Murray, have also performed works by Evelyn Simpson-Curenton.
Under the umbrella of New Music-Theatre, Evelyn is beginning work on an opera about Toussaint and the Haitian Revolution and will be part of the collaborating creative team on the expansion of the project paying homage to artist Jacob Lawrence and his Northern Migration Series.
As part of her ongoing passion for ethnomusicology and cultural stylistic vocal and instrumental styles, she has been invited to join our ongoing work, The Afghan Womens Project. For a complete list of works, including her impressive discography, go to her website HERE.