Rhiannon Giddens is an American musician. She is a founding member of the country, blues, and old-time music band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, where she is the lead singer, fiddle player, and banjo player.
An alumna of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Giddens is also a 2000 graduate of Oberlin Conservatory at Oberlin College, where she studied opera.
In 2005, Giddens, who at that time was spending time competing in Scottish traditional music competitions specializing in the Gaelic lilting tradition, also known as mouth music, attended the Black Banjo Then and Now Gathering, in Boone, North Carolina.
Giddens became the only original member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops as of November 12, 2013. She began pushing further into her solo career.
Giddens participated in “Another Day, Another Time”, a concert inspired by the Coen brother’s film Inside Llewyn Davis in 2013.
She was named one of the 2017 class of MacArthur “Genius” Fellows. The organization noted, “Giddens’s drive to understand and convey the nuances, complexities, and interrelationships between musical traditions.
In July 2020, Giddens was named Artistic Director of the cross-cultural music organization Silkroad (arts organization).
Giddens wrote the libretto and served as a lead composer with help from co-composer Michael Abels. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world premiere of Omar was postponed until 2022.
Rhiannon Giddens Ethnicity: What is Rhiannon Giddens ethnicity?
Rhiannon Giddens is multiracial in ancestry. She is of European-African-American descent.