Rhiannon Giddens is a Grammy-winning singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. She first gained fame as a member of the acclaimed stringband Carolina Chocolate Drops and since 2014 has pursued a variety of musical projects, including as a member of Our Native Daughters and as a collaborator with Italian musician Francesco Turrisi on They’re Calling Me Home, winner of the 2021 Grammy for Best Folk Album. Giddens composed the score for Lucy Negro Redux, a ballet about the “Dark Lady” in Shakespeare’s sonnets, which toured nationwide and was featured on PBS’s Great Performances. In 2020, she became the artistic director of the Silkroad Ensemble, a musical collective founded by Yo-Yo Ma. Much of Giddens’s work explores Black musicians’ contributions to country music and other American roots-music traditions. She is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius Grant” and won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Omar, the opera she co-wrote about a Senegalese Muslim enslaved in antebellum Charleston. Her latest album, You’re the One, will be released in August. The Museum’s Patrick Huber will lead the conversation with Giddens, interspersed with musical performance. Offered in support of American Currents: State of the Music. Ford Theater. Included with Museum admission. Program ticket required. Free to Museum members.

Members reserve tickets here

Non-members must purchase here

When purchasing admission:

• select the date of this program,
• select a gallery entry time of 10:30 a.m. or earlier or 1:15 p.m. or later,
• select your Experience, and
• select the Songwriter Session as an add-on.

Learn more about Rhiannon Giddens