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A Matter of Black Lives

featuring and curated by Nicole Yarling

Join us in celebrating the tradition of African-American Fiddlers

A MATTER OF BLACK LIVES!

Both entertaining and educational, the multimedia performance celebrates Black string playing from a historical perspective through narration, imagery, music and dance. It takes the audience from the West African origins through modern day Hip Hop.  The performers and the audience are as diverse as the music including performers of all ages, ethnicities and socio economic backgrounds.

featuring and curated by

NICOLE YARLING! 

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Nicole Yarling has called South Florida home for over forty years. She has just completed a 20-year stint as faculty at Florida Memorial University. She is is currently a full-time lecturer at the Frost School of Music. The violinist, vocalist, composer, mentor, and curator has received numerous awards because of her talent, passion, and dedication to young people. The Jazz Journalists of America acknowledged her efforts when she received the Jazz Hero Award for 2015. In 2016, Ms. Yarling was inducted into the South Florida Jazz Hall of Fame. In 2020 she was bestowed the honor as one of the top African American Educators in South Florida. In 2023 she received the Broward County Innovation Grant to produce A Matter of Black Lives: Celebrating African American Fiddlers. In addition, Nicole and fellow colleague jazz pianist Martin Bejerano received the Frost Provost Research award for The Purple Project - Reimagining the Music of Prince.
With her creativity, performance, teaching and encouragement she aids in establishing strong artistic community ties. As a mentor, she established a concert series fourteen years ago called Jazz Encounters, at radio station WDNA in Miami. She has participator as both adjudicator and performer for the prestigious Young Arts organization based in Miami for the past eleven years. In Ft. Lauderdale, Nicole serves as Educational director and host of a monthly fifteen-year-old jazz jam for young musicians, First Friday Jam, sponsored by the Gold Coast Jazz Society. For the past five years Ms. Yarling has served as curator of the Student stage for the South Beach Jazz Festival.

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