Mali Irene
Mali Irene, (aka Malesha Taylor Browning) is a versatile vocal artist, composer, curator and educator. Her work spans from traditional and contemporary opera to experimental improvisation and cross-disciplinary public art. Among her numerous musical compositions with electronic producer Salah Ananse, Mali is the vocalist and composer of Rite to Freedom, the soundtrack currently installed in the public art exhibition, Praise House Project. She is the recipient of the prestigious National Black Arts Festival Horizon Award in Music for her collaborative public art compositions which were on exhibition at the Hammond House Museum of Fine Art, San Diego Museum of US, Art on the Atlanta BeltLine and (BRIC) Brooklyn Information and Culture. Mali is also apart of Yvette Jackson’s Radio Opera Workshop performing in Invisible People, Fear is their Alibi, and recently Left Behind which premiered at the 66th Biennale di Venezia- Experimental Music Theater. In traditional opera she has performed and covered principal roles with Los Angeles Opera in the productions of Don Carlo, Manon, Il Trittico: Sour Angelica and Porgy and Bess. She has also performed as Adalgisa in Norma with Union Avenue Opera and the role of Annie in Francesca Zambello’s filmed production of Porgy and Bess with San Francisco Opera. Among concert work, she has performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Pacific Symphony Orchestra to name a few. Mali Irene has been a guest and/or adjunct lecturer at Harvard University, Scripps College- The Claremont Colleges, Spelman College, multiple California State Universities and Clark Atlanta University. Malesha is the Founder of museSalon Collaborative who was the Public Art 2021-2022 Curator-in-Residence with Art on the Atlanta BeltLine. Her TEDx talk entitled, “What Do You See?” is apart of her developing auto-ethnography, Transcending Performance: Exploring Black Liberatory Praxis in Vocal Arts. Follow her work at www.maliirene.com.
