Ahmaya Knoelle

Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson, award-winning teaching artist and global performer serves as Co-Founder and Artistic Director at the acclaimed music and arts institution in Harlem USA, The Mama Foundation for The Arts, home of the longest Black Off-Broadway theater musical in the history of American Theater, Mama I Want To Sing! After attending The Manhattan School of Music for Jazz Vocal Studies and graduating from the American Musical And Dramatic Academy (AMDA) for Musical Theater studies, Ahmaya traveled singing on world stages in various productions including Porgy and Bess and starring in Mama I Want To Sing! Ahmaya and her mother Vy Higginsen, creator of the musical Mama I Want To Sing!, came back to their home village of Harlem where their family has lived over 100 years. They built a 501(c) 3) Non-Profit music and arts institution passing on their knowledge and history of the music and theater industry, building curriculums which have now served thousands of youth and adults with free music and performance education for the past 20 years. With the continued mission to preserve African American music as an "art form" through the next generation, Ahmaya gathered students from her Harlem institution and founded the award-winning "Sing Harlem," a commercial traveling ensemble and choir in which she currently serves as Artistic and Musical Director. She has booked, curated and musically directed opportunities for the group with SZA on Saturday Night Live (SNL) and the 60 Annual Grammy Awards, twice with Chance The Rapper on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Ariana Grande at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting and more. Additionally, they have performance credits with Pharrell Williams, Alesia Cara, Likke Li, Madonna, headlining Brooklyn's AFROPUNK, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the APOLLO theater and Chicago's Ravinia Festival. In 2021, she joined the faculty at the conservatory of music at SUNY Purchase, Ahmaya currently serves as the Musical Director of the SUNY Purchase Soul Voices Course and Ensemble.