Malala, commissioned and Premiered by the Cornell University Chorus, Robert Isaacs, conductor, is inspired by the extraordinary Malala Yousafzai, (born 12 July 1997). Malala was given its World Premiere by the Cornell University Chorus in Bailey Hall at Cornell University on October 31st, 2015.

Recent Performances: 02.29.2020 New York, NY; 03/01/2020, Orange, NJ
Ember Ensemble, Deborah Simpkin King, Artistic Director & Founder

Malala is the young Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. At the time of the premiere of this work at Cornell University, she is 18 years old. Malala is known mainly for her human rights advocacy for education for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan. At the time, many girls' schools were being destroyed by militants in the Swat Valley. Malala was shot by the Taliban in 2012 in retaliation for her advocacy, After she was shot, Yousafzai was rushed to the United Kingdom for medical treatment. Following her recovery, she and her family resettled in Birmingham, England. Malala Yousafzai's advocacy has since grown into an international movement.

This work weaves several of Malala's words spoken in public along with the inspirational vowel sounds of her name.