大象传媒

Rhiannon Giddens has won two Grammy awards for her folk music albums, and a Pulitzer Prize for her opera, Omar, proving that she鈥檚 a musician who can鈥檛 be quickly categorised.

She grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, and as a singer, fiddle and banjo player, she鈥檚 been fired by a desire to chart and reclaim the stories of people whose contributions to American music have been overlooked or erased. Her musical journey originally had a rather different destination: she trained as a classical soprano at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio.

Now she draws on all these musical traditions as a composer for ballet, opera and film. She also finds time for acting 鈥� appearing in the TV series Nashville about the tangled lives of country music stars 鈥� she presents podcasts and has even written children鈥檚 books.

Her music choices include Bach, Dvorak, Duke Ellington and Stephen Sondheim.