2025 Graduation Alumni Speaker: Leyla McCalla (BM ’07)

Leyla McCalla is a multilingual singer and songwriter; master of the cello, tenor banjo, and guitar; and the alumni speaker at NYU Steinhardt's 2025 Afternoon Graduation Ceremony.

Leyla McCalla holds a guitar — © Chris Scheurich. Courtesy of Leyla McCalla.

Leyla McCalla (BM ’07, String Studies) draws inspiration from her heritage, her surroundings, and global music traditions for her work as a musician, singer, and songwriter.

Born in Queens to Haitian immigrants, McCalla grew up in New Jersey before moving to Accra, Ghana, for two years as a teenager. She knew she wanted to study classical music in college, but she also wasn’t quite ready for the audition process.

“I just didn’t yet have the repertoire in my fingers, so I spent a year at Smith College working on my craft,” says McCalla. “My parents wanted me to stay there, and if I wasn’t so interested in studying music, I probably would have. But I wanted to be in New York City, and I knew NYU Steinhardt could give me the conservatory atmosphere I was looking for.”

McCalla wrote to Marion Feldman, music artist faculty in the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions (MPAP), and “begged to be in her cello studio.”

“I knew what I wanted, and I advocated for myself,” says McCalla. “I got into the program, and it was an amazing feeling; I was really proud that my hard work paid off.”

While in the String Studies program at NYU Steinhardt, McCalla played in several chamber and orchestra ensembles. She lived in Brooklyn and waited tables to make ends meet, and she started going to live music venues where she was exposed to “experimental music, influential styles from around the world, and stuff that didn’t fit into a box.”

After graduating, McCalla spent some time in New York gigging as a freelance cellist, but eventually she felt called to New Orleans.

album cover for Sun Without the Heat. An abstract image of a woman's face. — Cover for Leyla McCalla's 2024 album *Sun Without the Heat.*

“I took a film class at NYU, which got me interested in composing for film, so I thought, ‘Let’s go to New Orleans and figure out my creative voice and where that might lead me,’” says McCalla. “It ended up being one of the happiest years of my life.”

McCalla busked on the streets of the French Quarter and taught cello lessons to kids at the non-profit New Orleans Strings Project. She also read a book—The World That Made New Orleans by Ned Sublette—that discusses the far-reaching effect of the Haitian Revolution on Louisiana, which made her feel curious about and more connected to her own roots.

“New Orleans was a super fertile ground for me; I started singing more, became a more confident improvisor, and expanded my musical vocabulary,” says McCalla, who met the manager of The Carolina Chocolate Drops while busking and joined the group. “I learned that you could blend storytelling and education and performance, and it feels like those things have really sustained me and allowed me to grow my career.”

In 2024, McCalla released her latest album, Sun Without the Heat, which leverages “melodies and rhythms derived from various forms of Afro-diasporic music including Afrobeat, Ethiopian modalities, Brazilian Tropicalismo, and American folk and blues.”

McCalla recently completed an artist residency at the University of Richmond in Virginia, where she created a musical project called “East End Elegy” that explores a local, historic, and largely neglected Black cemetery. She is also the artistic director for Shockoe Institute, a national organization headquartered in Richmond that is dedicated to revealing the enduring impact of racial slavery on our shared American experience.

McCalla will soon begin another artist residency at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She lives in New Orleans, where she is raising three children and working on her next album.

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