Celebrating Amina Claudine Myers' Lifetime of Achievement

Pianist, vocalist, poet, and actor Amina Claudine Myers will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award on July 23, 2021 at Vision Festival 25. Born in Blackwell, Arkansas, Amina Claudine Myers' career in music began in her preteens. Throughout high school she directed church choirs, singing, and playing gospel and rhythm and blues. After moving to Chicago in May 1966, Ms. Myers became an early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), composing new works for voice and instruments and carving out a unique path unrestricted by any one genre.

Myers’ first recording was with fellow AACM artist, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, and she continued to develop her unique sound, performing and recording with Muhal Richard Abrams, Lester Bowie and Henry Threadgill. Over the decades she has been recording and collaborating with Archie Shepp, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Orchestra, James Blood Ulmer, Sonny Stitt, Anthony Braxton, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and other well known artists.

She has recorded 11 albums under her leadership. Her recording career combines her gospel and blues inspirations with an improviser's freedom and includes classic albums like The Circle of Time, Amina Claudine Myers Salutes Bessie Smith and her latest solo piano and voice effort Sama Rou (Songs From My Soul).

Relocating to New York City in 1976, Ms Myer's further developed her work involving voice choirs, voice and instrumental ensemble, and a robust exploration of the pipe organ. Her compositions include large-scale works for orchestra and choir, and collaborations with writer Ntozake Shange and choreographer Dianne McIntyre.