Compositions

Lindsey’s pieces combine many styles of music together, including West African Drumming traditions, Afro-Cuban traditions, Western Classical and New Classical Music, as well as popular styles such as Country, Blues, Rock, Folk, Reggae, R&B.

Her graduate thesis, “Yiriba Ye Variations” combined a Bambara folk song from Mali with New Classical music, orchestrated for strings, percussion and vocals. It premiered in 2003 at Tufts University.

Her piece “MamaLele” was nominated for a “Just Plain Folks Award” in 2009. This accapela piece puts African rhythms into words. It was premiered at the Berklee Performance Center in 2001 with Joe Galeota’s West African Drum and Dance Ensemble. In 2005, the Songweavers Women’s Chorus performed it at the Capitol Center for the Arts. In 2011, the Scholarship Vocal Ensemble of Concord Community Music School performed the piece with Lindsey. The track is on her album “Dónde Está mi corazón”.

She continues to write both instrumental and vocal music in many styles, crossing different musical genres. She studied composition with Prof. David Rakowski, Prof. Yehudi Wyner, and Prof. John McDonald .  African drumming mentors include: Babatunde Olatunji, Sikiru Adepoju, Joe Galeota, Abdoul Doumbia, Papus Zani Diabate, Issa Coulibaly and her mom Grace Schust, who first taught her to drum.