Distinguished Artist: Rhiannon Giddens

About this event

Due to increasing demand, anyone planning to attend this event who registers after October 22 will be required to show their (free) ticket at the door so we can properly prepare seating and staffing for all guests.

Mount Holyoke College Distinguished Artist for AY26-27 Rhiannon Giddens will give a presentation on her current book project on working-class histories of American music and musical instruments.

To be followed by a conversation with Kijua Sanders-McMurtry (Vice President for Equity and Inclusion) and Adeline Mueller (Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Music), and Q&A with the audience.

Rhiannon Giddens has built an iconic career stretching folk music—and its deep historical roots—into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award winner, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, Pulitzer Prize winner, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens centers her work on lifting up previously overlooked contributors to American musical history.

A founding member of the landmark Black string band Carolina Chocolate Drops and supergroup Our Native Daughters, Giddens is as much curator as creator. She serves as Artistic Director of the Yo-Yo Ma–founded Silkroad Ensemble, hosts PBS’s My Music with Rhiannon Giddens, and hosted the podcasts Aria Code and American Railroad. Her discography on Nonesuch Records includes solo releases, collaborations with Francesco Turrisi, Silkroad’s American Railroad (2024), and What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow (2025) with Justin Robinson.

Her work spans media, from authoring two children's books and scoring Red Dead Redemption II to consulting on the film Sinners (2025), acting on ABC’s Nashville, and appearing in Ken Burns’ Country Music. In 2025, she launched Durham’s Biscuits & Banjos festival to celebrate Black culture outside the mainstream, establishing the Biscuits and Banjos Foundation in 2026 to house her mission-driven work.

Pitchfork calls her exploration "fearless and ravenous," leading NPR to name her one of the 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and American Songwriter to label her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.”

The Distinguished Artist Series is organized collaboratively by Mount Holyoke’s Weissman Center for Leadership and the InterArts Council. This engaging program reflects the center's support of public presentations by scholars, artists, writers, and practitioners who connect the academic work of the college with the public sphere.