2025-2026 Season: SOMI

February 14, 2026 @ 7:30 pm

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Somi Kakoma is a Grammy-nominated vocalist, composer, playwright, and actor known for her powerful blend of jazz and African music. Born to Ugandan and Rwandan immigrants and raised between Illinois and Zambia, she draws deeply from her East African heritage. In 2021, she became the first African woman ever nominated in a Grammy jazz category for Holy Room, a live album recorded with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, which also went on to win a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocal Album.

Her 2022 studio release, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba, honored the South African music legend and featured Gregory Porter, Seun Kuti, Angelique Kidjo, Nduduzo Makhathini, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Thandiswa Mazwai. It won a Jazz Music Award for Best Vocal Performance and inspired Dreaming Zenzile, a musical Somi wrote and starred in during a national tour and Off-Broadway run. Her previous albums Petite Afrique and The Lagos Music Salon both received critical acclaim—Salon debuted at #1 on U.S. jazz charts.

Somi has performed with Hugh Masekela, John Legend, Common, and others. In 2023, she became the first East African woman to act on Broadway, starring in Jocelyn Bioh’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding. A Doris Duke Artist and Soros Equality Fellow, Somi is also a TED Senior Fellow, Sundance Theatre Fellow, United States Artist Fellow, and founder of Salon Africana. She holds degrees from the University of Illinois and NYU, and is pursuing a PhD in music at Harvard University.

"It is so deftly written, and performed with such luminous grace, that it's hard to imagine anyone coming away less than transfixed."

—Wall Street Journal

Performing in a quartet setting, musicians’ names TBA







 

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