Monica Soyemi has performed in many cities in the U.S. and Canada, and has toured internationally in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. This year, Monica will be performing in Tosca at the first ever drive-in opera at the 2020 Phoenicia Festival of the Voice. Most recently, Monica was appointed to serve on the board of the SoHarmoniums Women’s Choir. As an alumna of the Young People’s Chorus (YPC) of NYC, Monica had the opportunity to grace the stages of Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and other notable venues in New York City. Monica earned her Equity affiliation in the role of Sherrie Carter in Woodie King Jr.’s Off-Broadway production of Urban Transition: Loose Blossoms. She is a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), as well as a member of the NAACP Youth Council, and the Harlem Arts Alliance. Monica has also been invited to be a panelist for World of Money, a financial literacy organization founded for children and young adults of color. She is grateful for this opportunity to share her love of music, and hopes these songs bring the world just a little closer together.
Q: What inspired the piece you wrote?
I was inspired to write this piece because of the state of our country right now. We are all more alike than we believe and that we can see. This song and these words celebrate that.
Q: How have you been personally involved in or impacted by social equity issues?
I have been personally involved through organized protesting and educating people through my social media presence. My YouTube channel has garnered over 15K subscribers and I’ve talked about Black Lives Matter as my form of protest.
Q: Is there a favorite lyric or part of the song that is particularly important/impactful to you?
“We are less different than we believe.“
Q: What do you want listeners to take away from your piece?
We’re more alike than we even see and know, so we need to give others the opportunity to share who they are. We may be surprised by what we find.