Meet the Artist: Alicia Hall Moran

I attended the Meet the Artist event with Alicia Hall Moran last Monday at the Macaulay building. Underestimating my time to get to the event, I was late but nonetheless I got a great sense of the type of artist Alicia Hall Moran is and even got to hear some of her songs.

To start off, she talked about a wide range of topics some of which I thought were a little random. But when I started thinking about the deeper meaning behind some of her ideas, I got the sense of what she was trying to say. She said that we can “find ourselves in what music moves us.” I completely agree with her because I think the type of music we listen to reflects on us as a person. She also said that music is not just about selling.  I wish the world of music had more of this mentality because I feel that so many artists write the songs that they do not because they truly believe that it is their best work but because it is the type of music that will sell. Perhaps if more artists had less of this mentality, there would be much better music. She went to Barnard to be surrounded by all these strong, intelligent women but ended up spending most of her time in Columbia with a couple of other men in the music department. I found this pretty hilarious and was also surprised that more women were not pursuing music. She also interacted with the audience noting something unique about some of us. Her energetic personality definitely kept me engaged. Not to sound corny but it was a breath of fresh air to see someone who enjoys their occupation so much.

Now onto her music! She incorporated Motown music with opera which might seem like an odd combination but she put the two styles together very well. Her performance of “Sign, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and “Carmen” was really interesting because I had no idea that she was going to transition between the two genres like that. At one point I thought she was singing not “Carmen” but “Sign, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” in opera which shows just how smooth her transitions between the two generes are. She was a very talented singer and had a very big vocal range.

I really enjoyed Alicia Hall Moran, both her personality and her music. She had a beautiful voice and I really enjoyed the event.