On this edition of StudioTulsa, we speak with mezzo-soprano and vocal performance artist Alicia Hall-Moran, a versatile singer at home with opera, art, theatre, and jazz. Hall-Moran made her Broadway debut understudying as "Bess" in the revival of "The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess," but the main thrust of her work is in varied collaborations with a "who's who" of creative types -- from her husband, the celebrated jazz musician Jason Moran, to visual artists like Carrie Mae Weems and choreographers like Bill T. Jones.
Hall-Moran will bring her latest performance piece, "Black Wall Street," to Tulsa through Choregus Productions on Thursday evening, the 24th, at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. The show begins at 7pm. She will perform with a group featuring guitarist Brandon Ross (from the avant-jazz band Harriet Tubman), her husband Jason at the piano, classical guitarist Thomas Flippin, and Slave Relic Museum curator Gene Alexander Peters.
Interestingly, the piece was not originally inspired by Tulsa's "Black Wall Street" Greenwood District, but rather, by her own father, Ira Hall -- a former Oklahoman -- who was among the first African-American financiers to work on New York's Wall Street back in the 1970s.
