SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE: Traditions and Trailblazing With Nathalie Joachim
SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE: Traditions and Trailblazing With Nathalie Joachim
BY LISA HOUSTON
“Currently Joachim is riding a wave of success for her album Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti), which The New York Times called ‘an evening-length artistic exploration of matriarchy, drawing Haitian folk and popular traditions into the world of contemporary classical music.’ The reverse could also be said, that contemporary classical music is being drawn into Haitian folk and popular traditions. Either way, it is a cross-pollination and celebration that prompted Steve Smith of The New Yorker to write, ;No more joyous chamber-music collection has arrived this year.’
The work is both musical expression and personal anthropology. “In a way it is a tribute and celebration of the musical lineages of women of Haiti,” Joachim says. Some of the songs feature spoken-word excerpts from Joachim’s interviews with musical luminaries such as Emerante de Pradines, Milena Sandler, and Carole Demesmin, and, more personally, Joachim’s own grandmother, who passed away in 2015, which Joachim says was “a loss in my musical life, not just a loss in my personal life.”