SongStudio: Young Artists Recital
GET TICKETS
7:00PM
Carnegie Hall | Zankel Hall | 881 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019
SongStudio gives rising professional singers and collaborative pianists a chance to work with some of the world’s most accomplished artists. Experience the program’s annual culminating event: the Young Artists Recital. This remarkable showcase invites audiences to enjoy an inside look as the ambitious singers and pianists explore new ways to hone their craft across the wide-ranging song repertoire. This year, for the first time, the great countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo joins as SongStudio Creative Advisor. The evening’s recital is produced in collaboration with National Black Theatre’s Alternative Learning and Social Impact Department. Part One is written by a.k. payne and acted by Michael Rishawn. Part Two is written and acted by Hope Boykin.
MEET THE ARTISTS
Hope Boykin
Two time “Bessie Award” winner, Hope Boykin was an original member of Complexions, danced with Philadanco, retired from 20 years with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Hope has choreographed for numerous universities and dance companies including The Juilliard School, Kent State, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, Philadanco, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Ballet X, Ballet Black of London, American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Collage Dance Collective, and has created four works for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, with a new work for Paul Taylor to premiere at the Kennedy Center in 2025. Hope was featured on the October 2023 cover of Dance Magazine in recognition of her achievements as a creator, mover, maker, and motivator and created States Of Hope, a fully scripted, evening length, new dance theater work, which premiered at The Joyce Theater in October of 2023 to great acclaim. Hope premiered “The Other Side,” a co-commission with Kennedy Center, in 2021, with a 2024 return for the Kennedy Center and a New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. “The Other Side” brings the award winning children’s book, by Jacqueline Woodson, to life on stage. Hope continues to build on her work, as a writer; blending her words and cadence as a the foundation of her developing movement-language. As a director and dance-maker Hope received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for her own Covid Safe residency #BoykinBubble and in the fall of 2021 she premiered a full evening of her choreography, An Evening of Hope at 92NY in New York City. Hope released “Beauty Size & Color” a short film commenting on what has changed in the first twenty years of the 21st century on PBS.org which was nominated for a 2023 NY Emmy Award, as well as a weekend of her own work, Moments By Hope, ... a concert. Hope serves as Artistic Advisor for Dance Education for the Kennedy Center and Artistic Lead for the Kennedy Center Dance Lab. She is Artist-In-Residence at USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and received the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU Fellowship for 2022-23. In 2024, Hope founded not-for-profit HBArts Collective Inc, a collaborative space where creators refine their craft, build community, and shape the future in music, film, theater, and dance. Hope was nominated for the 2024 Washington DC Mayors Awards, and honored as one of Crain’s Notable Black Leaders. With collaborator Al Crawford, HBArts Collective joined the first cohort of the Doris Duke Performing Arts Technology Lab. Hope firmly believes there are no limits.a.k. payne
a.k. payne (they&she) is a playwright, artist-theorist, and theatermaker with roots in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Their plays love on and engage the interdependencies of Black pasts, presents and futures and seek to find/remember language that might move us towards our collective liberation(s). They hold a B.A. in English and African-American Studies from Yale College and a master’s degree in Playwriting under Tarell Alvin McCraney from fka Yale School of Drama. A 2023-2024 Van Lier New Voices Fellow, their work has been a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award and a 2x finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Their work has been developed with the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The New Harmony Project, Great Plains Theater Conference, and Manhattan Theater Club's "Groundworks Lab." She is currently a resident artist/fellow with National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwrights Residency and Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh Foundation). They are a proud graduate of Pittsburgh Public Schools; grandchild of the Great Migration; descendant of a music teacher and a carpenter, who both march every year with their unions in Pittsburgh’s Labor Day parade; a non-binary & genderqueer abolitionist affected in community by the ‘New Jim Crow;” and of a great lineage of Black women storytellers and living-room archivists; all of which deeply informs, uplifts and amplifies their work as a playwright, community organizer and spacemaker.Micheal Rishawn
Michael Rishawn is an American actor best known for his work on Broadway, television, and film. To date, he can be seen guest starring on CBS’ FBI: Most Wanted, Disney’s Bunk’d, and Netflix’s Raising Dion and Survival of the Thickest. Other TV spin-offs include HBO Max’s And Just Like That and multi-camera comedy series, Crutch, for Paramount+. On stage, Mr. Rishawn has originated roles in several plays including Table 17, which was a Critics’ Pick from The New York Times and won two Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Awards; Handjob; and Jordan E. Cooper’s high-octane Broadway comedy Ain’t No Mo’ produced by Lee Daniels. He can also be seen in John-Michael Powell’s independent feature The Send Off, which debuted at Cinequest and is available on Prime Video and Apple TV. With a slate of national commercials running from Bose, Hennessy, and Verizon, his warm yet engaging voice also moves effortlessly through many literary titles, which can be found on Audible. Visit michaelrishawn.com for more information.Terri Ayanna Wright
Terri Ayanna Wright (Baton Rouge, LA) is a New York-based multidisciplinary artist, with roots in filmmaking, architectural design, and live performing arts. Ms. Wright has a bachelor's in Dance and Computer Science from Fordham University/The Ailey School and a master's in Design & Technology from Parsons/The New School. She has performed on many stages across the globe, most notably as an Ailey II touring company member, an ensemble member for the Metropolitan Opera, and a featured dancer and actor for HopeBoykinDance. In Ms. Boykin’s latest work, States of Hope (2023), Fjord Review described Ms. Wright’s performance as “riveting.” Ms. Wright continues to pursue artistic endeavors that aim to lift the black experience from an Afrocentric lens.