Akosua is a mezzo-soprano, specializing in romantic and dramatic repertoire.

Akosua Adwini-Poku is a native of Detroit, Michigan with Ghanaian heritage, currently residing in Dallas, Texas. Her rich, expressive mezzo expertly lends itself to Italian arias and art songs, German lieder, French arias and mélodies, as well as solo English-language repertoire, among other genres. Akosua is currently a graduate student at Southern Methodist University studying under internationally-renowned and respected soprano and educator, Barbara Hill-Moore. In April 2024, Akosua, accompanied by pianist Kamilya Akhmetova, performed her first solo graduate recital in the Meadows School’s O’Donnell Hall, featuring the music of G.F. Handel, Edvard Grieg, Margaret Bonds and more. In February 2024, the Meadows Lyric Theatre’s production of Suor Angelica featured Akosua in the role of La Zia Principessa, alongside Sarah Elise Navy in the titular role. In August 2022, Akosua appeared as the Soprano II soloist in the Cobb Summer Singers performance of Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor. During her time at Clayton State University studying voice with Dr. Francisca Vanherle Maxwell, Akosua performed a range of repertoire during recitals on the internationally-acclaimed Spivey Hall stage, including Pauline Viardot’s Haï Luli, “Voi lo sapete, o mamma” from Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Florence Price’s Song to the Dark Virgin, and Melissa Dunphy’s Four Poems of Nikita Gill. In March 2022, Akosua appeared in the pants role of Ernesto in Dr. Kurt-Alexander Zeller's production of Haydn's The World of the Moon (Il mondo della luna).

Akosua has a passion for celebrating the music of female composers of color and, in line with that passion, presented her senior lecture-recital, “Price, Powell and Dunphy: Women Composing in Color” in Spivey Hall on April 19, 2022. This recital featured art songs by Dr. Florence Beatrice Price (“Out of the South Blew a Wind,” “Song to the Dark Virgin,” and “Sympathy”), Dr. Rosephanye Powell (“I Want to Die While You Love Me” and “A Winter Twilight” from Miss Wheatley’s Garden and “Dying” from Then, Here, and Now), and Dr. Melissa Dunphy (“Sorcery,” “From the Ashes She Became” and “You Have Become a Forest” from Four Poems of Nikita Gill).

Akosua was a Carnes Scholar and recipient of CSU’s Visual & Performing Arts department’s Excellence in Music award, and previously served as the Historian and Webmaster of the Atlanta Alumni chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon, an international professional music fraternity. She is also the recipient of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation's 2022 Sara Eikenberry Voice Undergraduate Scholarship for mezzo sopranos. Akosua has previously performed as a chorus member with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Clark Atlanta University Philharmonic Society, Atlanta Schola Cantorum, Wayne State University Women’s Chorus, Xavier University of Louisiana Concert Choir, Detroit Renaissance Singers, and Brazeal Dennard Youth Chorale. Akosua received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Music from Clayton State University (’22), in addition to her Bachelor’s of Arts in Asian Studies from Wayne State University (’13).

LIST OF CURRENT REPERTOIRE