SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK®

Aisha Kahlil

Aisha Kahlil possesses a dynamic, innate power and range in jazz, blues, traditional, contemporary, and African vocal styles and techniques.

Ms. Kahlil’s interest in music was evident at an early age. She was a member of local choirs in her native Buffalo, New York, and during her high school years performed as a vocalist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in several productions, including Porgy and Bess, Carmen Jones, and The Messiah. During this time she also sang the role of Monica in a special WGBH production of Menotti’s The Medium, and performed at Carnegie Hall in Julius Eastman’s avant-garde composition The Thruway. She worked concurrently with the Studio Arena Theatre where she was awarded a full scholarship, and The Buffalo Black Drama Workshop, where she became interested in the music of such jazz artists as John Coltrane, Leon Thomas, Betty Carter, Yma Sumac, and Pharoah Sanders, to name a few.

By the time she entered college as a theatre student at Northeastern University in Boston, it was clear that Ms. Kahlil had an intuitive inclination for vocal jazz. Although her formal training had been in European classical music, she began experimenting with innovative, improvisational vocal techniques. During the same period, she studied voice and music theory at the New England Conservatory of Music, and performed with Ebony Jua, a local jazz ensemble that toured the east coast music circuit. While at Northeastern, Aisha directed M(ego) and the Green Ball of Freedom, Where we at? , a play by Martie charles, and performed and directed Sister Sonji, by Sonia Sanchez.

Following her studies, Ms. Kahlil spent three years in the Bay area, where she worked as a vocalist and dancer with the Raymond Sawyer Theatre and Halifu Productions, while performing and recording with the avant-garde jazz trio Infinite Sound. She then returned to Boston, and there worked with such groups as Stan Strickland and Sundance and The Art of Black Dance and Music, in addition to teaching at the Institute for Contemporary Dance, The Joy of Motion, the Boston Center for the Arts, and as a consultant to the Boston public school system.

Ms. Kahlil’s artistic pursuits have taken her to New York City, where she studied extensively at the Alvin Ailey School, and with Frank Hatchett, Pepsi Bethel, Fred Benjamin, and Emiko and Yasuko Tokunaga. She also appeared in the Joseph Papp off Broadway production of The Haggadah, co – composed and performed in the musical Two Thousand Seasons, and danced with such companies as Titos Sampas’sTanawa. During this time, she also performed with Talib Kibwe( T.K. Blue) and Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), and with Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra.

Since her arrival in Washington, D.C., she has worked with the D.C. Black Repertory Theatre and with Brother Ah and the Sounds of Awareness, and has been a featured artist in the Smithsonian Institution’s Jazz in the Palm Court, in which she presented a special performance of the music of Gertrude “Ma” Rainey; the Queen Mother of the Classic Blues, to rave reviews. Aisha has taught and performed for the African Heritage Dancers and Drummers, as a dancer in Kankouran, and taught at the Dance Place. She also served as artistic director for the Youth Ensemble of Dancers and Drummers at the Levine School of Music, directed and choreographed for the First World Dance Theatre, and co directed and performed for the First World Productions, where she also co wrote with Nitanju Bolade Casel the original production Bright Moments in Great Black Music. As a member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ms. Kahlil has been voted Best Soloist by the Contemporary A Capella Society, for her work on her composition Fulani Chant, and also for her rendition of See See Rider. Her original composition Wodaabe Nights has been featured in the film soundtrack Africans in America, and her composition Fulani Chant has been included in the film soundtrack Down in the Delta, directed by Maya Angelou, as well as the soundtrack Climb against the Odds, a film produced by the Breast cancer Fund. Ms Kahlil’s film credits include Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey and directed by Jonathan Demme, and with Sweet Honey in the Rock and James Horner, has written and recorded original music for the soundtrack of the TNT filmFreedom Song, starring Danny Glover and directed by Phil Robinson. In 2005, Aisha was a finalist with her own band MyKa and the whole World Band in the annual contest Battle of the Bands, sponsored by Discmakers, and is a winner in the International Songwriting Competition’s (ISC) performance category with her original song, The Jewel Light.

Aisha has toured with her band in the islands of Hawaii; performing at the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, at Cassanova’s, and at Studio Maui, where she also taught workshops in vocal improvisation and movement. She has recently presented her signature workshops at the Kripalu Yoga Institute.Journey to My-Ka is her first solo release, and is a compilation of her own original compositions and arrangements. 

Barbara Hunt

Barbara is honored to follow in the footsteps of Dr. Shirley Childress Johnson, who interpreted Sweet Honey performances for over 35 years. Both women shared strong Deaf community ties through the Silent Mission of Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

Barbara was introduced to sign language and the Deaf community while taking a Harry Poe drama workshop with the late actor Charlie Brown, a black male CODA and D’Bora Ware, a young black, deaf, female artist. Sign language classes taught by Eric Malzkuhn, Bob Seremeth, and Mark Goldfarb followed. After graduating from Catholic University (where she met SHIR member Carol Maillard), she worked in the box office and participated in several workshops at the DC Black Repertory Company in Washington, DC. She made the life changing decision to learn American Sign Language and later become an interpreter, so she started working at Kendall Elementary School for the Deaf. She went on to earn her MA in Deaf Education and teach Deaf and Hard of Hearing adults and children at Gallaudet University and the DC Public and Loudoun County Public school systems.

She has interpreted plays at Arena Stage, the Folger Shakespearean Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, and the JAW Festival in Portland Oregon. She interpreted both stage productions of ”The Lion King” at the Kennedy Center and was a member of the first, Black, Deaf stage company, ”I Didn’t Hear that Color”. She has interpreted and coordinated interpreting services for the National Black Deaf Advocates, Amercian Asociation for the Advancement of Science, DC Mental Health Services – St. Elizabeth’s Chapel and the annual production of The Messiah at Shiloh Baptist Church. She is proud to be a founding member of The National Alliance of Black Interpreters DC Chapter. She wishes to express deep appreciation to God for a loving family who has supported her new career.

Bassist Romeir Mendez

Bassist Romeir Mendez is a native of Baltimore, MD, and over the years has become one of the most sought after musicians in the Washington DC/Maryland area. Having studied with legendary bassist Steve Novosel at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), Romeir continues a legacy of great bassists from the DC area. Throughout his growing popularity, Romeir has also had the privilege of gracing the stage of some of the world’s most revered venues, such as Carnegie Hall, The Walt Disney Theater and The Sydney Opera House. Romeir In addition to performing with some of the top local musicians, is currently working and touring with Grammy nominated group Sweet Honey In The Rock and has had the pleasure of and continues to perform with world-renowned artists Donald Harrison, Warren Wolf, Tim Warfield, Terell Stafford, Russell Gunn, Duane Eubanks, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Regina Carter, Dionne Farris and Terence Blanchard to name a few. In his career, Romeir has traveled and toured Doha, Qatar, Osaka, Japan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Australia, South Africa, Swaziland, Peru, Jamaica and many other countries. Currently back in the states, Romeir continues to perform both regionally, nationally, and abroad; occasionally leading his own bands at various venues in the Washington DC and Baltimore area.

Carol Maillard

Carol Maillard was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although she originally attended Catholic University of America on scholarship as a Violin Performance major, she soon began writing music and performing with the drama department and eventually changed her major to Theater.

This passion for the stage brought her to the D.C. Black Repertory Company and the beginnings of the vocal ensemble that was to become SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK. Carol is an accomplished actress and has performed in film, television, cabaret and on stage. Her theater credits encompass a wide range of styles from musical comedy and revues to drama and experimental. She has worked on Broadway in DONT GET GOD STARTED , ITS SO NICE TO BE CIVILIZED, COMIN UPTOWN , HOME and EUBIE; off-Broadway with the Negro Ensemble Company, the New York Shakespeare Festival and at the Actors Studio and many regional theatre productions. Recently she Reprised her role as Woman Two for a staged reading of Samm Art Williams Tony nominated play HOME for Project 1Voice.

She can be seen in the feature films Beloved and Thirty Years to Life. On television, Carol has appeared in Halleluiah! , For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide both for PBS; Law and Order: and Law and Order SVU.

Carol served as Conceptual and Creative producer for the 2005 documentary film SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK: RAISE YOUR VOICE ! on the PBS series American Masters. Produced and directed by Stanley Nelson, the film chronicled SWEET HONEY’s 30th Anniversary year. She also produced the accompanying soundtrack for the film.

Ms. Maillard lives in Manhattan and is proud mom to Jordan Maillard Ware (Morehouse grad ) who is an accomplished violinist/composer/producer living in Los Angeles.

Christie Dashiell

With her sultry soulful flare and cutting edge compositions, D.C.-based vocalist Christie Dashiell is surely a rising star. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Greenville, North Carolina, Dashiell is a graduate of Howard University and the Manhattan School of Music. As a member of Afro-Blue, Howard’s premier vocal jazz ensemble, Dashiell appeared on NBC’s “The Sing Off.” She has twice received recognition in DownBeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards as Outstanding Soloist and Best Vocalist in the Graduate College division and was recently selected as a semifinalist in the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Vocals Competition.

In 2016, Dashiell released her debut solo album Time All Mine, which debuted on Billboard’s Jazz Album and Contemporary Jazz Album Charts at numbers thirteen (13) and twenty-two (22). Currently she travels with her own quartet and works with Helen Sung, Marcus Strickland and Twi-Life, and Otis Brown, III. She has appeared as a featured artist on Blue Note Record’s, Supreme Sonacy, Vol. 1, Marquis Hill’s, The Way We Play, and has been seen in concert at The White House, Jazz at Lincoln Center Doha, Qatar, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, the Kennedy Center, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival and Winter Jazzfest in New York City.

Louise Robinson

Louise Robinson is a native New Yorker whose sights were set on being a performer at an early age.

A graduate of Music & Art HS, Louise continued her studies at Howard University, earning a BFA before beginning her professional career at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. With an invitation from actor Robert Hooks, she became a member of the new, D.C. Black Repertory Company Acting Ensemble. It was out of this theatre company that Louise along with Carol Maillard, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Mie, formed the acappella quartet, Sweet Honey In The Rock. The rest as they say, is history.

Louise’s colorful career has taken her up many paths, including performances both on and off-Broadway. Her credits include performing as Ronnette in Little Shop of Horrors – in the L.A., National Touring and New York company productions.   She has also worn the producer’s hat as she, along with Maillard and Smokey Ronald Stevens, produced A Sho Nuff Variety Revue – a series of performances at the infamous Villiage Gate, showcasing some of New York’s finest talent, including Adolph Caesar, Sandra Reeves Phillips, and legendary tap dancers Gregory Hines, Avon Long, and Joe Attles.

Louise founded the Bay Area acappella quintet, Street Sounds, performing on National and International stages for over 14 years.

Louise returned to Sweet Honey In The Rock in 2004, and is honored to return to the stage where it all began. This is where theatre and music combine to offer an experience that explores the creative freedom in us all.

Nitanju Bolade Casel

Nitanju Bolade Casel joined Sweet Honey in the Rock® in 1985. Combining her roles as a dancer/ choreographer/ singer/ songwriter/ producer/ wife/ mother, she has also served the group for over 25 years in the position of Treasurer. The former Assistant Artistic Director of the Art of Black Dance & Music and Director of the Young Afrique Dance Company in Massachusetts, has taught in multiple dance centers, including Boston University, Roxbury Community College, Joy of Movement Center and more recently at Wesleyan University. She has volunteered with the National Association of Music Educators as a public service announcer, and donated the use of her composition, Run to Respond, Inc. (New England’s first domestic violence agency). After years of studying, performing, and cultural organizing in the U.S. and abroad, she co-founded Artistes Des Echanges Africaines, in Dakar, Senegal, which worked in alliance with local artists and organizations to strengthen the cultural ties between African and African American culture. Her film credits include Beloved, Freedom Song, and The Box and in May 2012 she received an honorary doctorate degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary.

Through her publishing company, Clear Ice Music, her compositions have been licensed in multiple disciplines, including the 2006 Australian Broadcasting Company’s educational series, Sing!, Pearson’s Educational series, and Mystic Seaport’s, Black Hands, Blue Seas: The African American Maritime Experience. Nitanju placed as a finalist in the International Songwriter’s Competitions (2006, 2007); The Great American Song Contest (2011); Runner Up in the Song of the Year Contest (2011); and finalist in the 2013 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. As Producer of the Grammy nominated recording, Experience…101, and A Tribute – Live! Jazz at Lincoln Center, she also produced Sweet Honey in the Rock’s most current release: #LoveInEvolution. Nitanju currently resides on the East Coast with her husband, Oso Tayari Casel (a Martial Arts legend) and son, Obadele – (a hard working college student).

Rochelle Rice

Award-winning vocalist, composer, and clinician, Rochelle Rice, is a dynamic and compelling music artist. Her profound and flawless sound is a woven tapestry of jazz- centric contemporary pop and soul. As a consistent voice on the east coast music scene, Rochelle has performed at top venues and events including Strand Theater, The Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, DC JazzFest, Strathmore Mansion, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley.

Described as “beautiful, spiritual music, steeped in Rice’s trademark fusion of jazz, pop, and soul/R&B,” Rochelle released her debut project, WONDER— complete with beautiful original music, a sizzling quartet, and lush strings. WONDER is a strong first showing of what is sure to be compelling music career.

Increasingly in demand, Rochelle’s versatility and unique skills as a singer, composer, and clinician have allowed her the opportunity to work with some of the industry’s most acclaimed musicians, including touring with the internationally renowned a cappella ensemble, Sweet Honey In The Rock®, and performing with Grammy-award-winning rock music icon, Melissa Etheridge. In 2017, Rochelle was invited by the US Embassy in Nassau, Bahamas to present concerts for Jazz Appreciation Month, and to teach master classes and workshops for elementary through high school students and students of the University of The Bahamas. Also, in 2017, Rochelle sang the part of “Ruby Bridges” in the Washington, DC debut of internationally acclaimed award-winning composer, Darrell Grant’s, Step by Step: The Ruby Bridges Suite. Rochelle closed the year as a DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Grantee.

Rochelle received her Bachelor of Music degree in classical voice from East Carolina University, and her Master of Music degree, in jazz studies, from Howard University. While at Howard University, Rochelle was a member of the multiple DownBeat Magazine award-winning premiere jazz vocal ensemble, Afro Blue, and was mentored by the award-winning and well-noted arranger, clinician, and jazz vocalist, Connaitre Miller.

Dedicated to social justice and presenting music that transforms and heals, Rochelle has performed at protests, social justice rallies, and recently sang in honor of the work of Congressman John Lewis and for the Grand Opening and First Anniversary Celebration of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Through her work as Education Program Manager for DC Jazz Festival, she has written curriculum for DC Public Schools and helped to expand the scope of the Festival’s year- round education programming. As a Music Education and Social Justice Advocate, she has been invited to present her interactive and intergenerational programming both nationally and internationally.