Nathalie Joachim

Nathalie Joachim is an American vocalist, flautist, and composer born in Brooklyn, New York. She is a Grammy-nominated artist whose music spans a broad range of genres, including indie-rock, pop, and classical. Some of her works include Discourse, "Land Bridge", and Fanm d’Ayiti.

Joachim attended The Juilliard School and later pursued graduate studies in audio production and sound design at The New School. She is the co-founder of an urban pop art flute duo called Flutronix and also served as former flutist of Eighth Blackbird, a Chicago-based chamber ensemble. She is currently touring her most recent work Fanm d’Ayiti. When she is not touring, Joachim is involved with a variety of different musical education programs; she is the Director of Contemporary Chamber Music at the Perlman Music Program and holds other faculty positions at Princeton University and the University of Hartford, among other institutions.

Early years and education Joachim was involved in music early on in her life. She began her journey into music by playing the piano when she was four years old. At nine years old she began to play the flute. She began participating in the Juilliard School's music advancement program when she was 10 years old and was later accepted into its pre-college division. Following her involvement in the pre-college division, Joachim was admitted into and later graduated from Juilliard’s college division. In addition to the Juilliard School, Joachim credits Tower Records for generating her interest in hip-hop, jazz, and electronic music.

Works "Land Bridge" "Land Bridge" (2016) is a full-length visual and musical composition realized in collaboration with Canadian choreographer Helen Simoneau. Narrated through the lens of caribou, the work span themes of identity, heritage, and assimilation. Discourse was originally planned to be premiered in spring 2020 but is currently scheduled for spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fanm d'Ayiti Fanm d’Ayiti (2019) is an evening-length composition for flute, string quartet, electronics, and voice. It consists of 11 tracks and is also Joachim’s first featured solo album. The piece was inspired by a visit back to Haiti in 2015, the first time Joachim had returned since the passing of her maternal grandmother. Upon returning, Joachim was reminded by the widespread prevalence of the voices of Haitian women in the landscape and countryside, in particular. Moreover, the album features an all-girls choir from the hometown of Joachim’s family. Each of the eleven tracks are sung in kreyòl.

Beyond the album itself, Fanm d'Ayiti constitutes an ethnographic research undertaking. Joachim noted that the work progressed through her conversations with family members and others belonging to the Haitian community. She began the project by asking her parents to recall popular musicians that were female. Utilizing this list as a starting point, she then pursued further research of these artists and met with them if they were alive. Joachim shared with the Recording Academy, "I found such a kinship in their stories as artists, and specifically female artists, really trying to make it in a field where women's voices are ever-present but really under-represented." She is also the Director of Contemporary Music at the Perlman Music Program and is on the Board of Trustees for the Kaufman Music Center.

Eighth Blackbird Eighth Blackbird is a Chicago-based sextet that originated as a group of six students from the Oberlin Conservatory. The group was founded in 1996 and continues under the direction of founding members Matthew Duvall and Lisa Kaplan. Over the course of more than two decades, the chamber ensemble has won four Grammy Awards for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance. Joachim auditioned for Eighth Blackbird in February 2015 and later was accepted into the chamber sextet as flutist in July of that year. When asked about participating in the chamber ensemble, Joachim stated, "At the time, I felt fulfilled as an educator through Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program and as a creator through Flutronix, but I found myself longing for a chamber music home. There is a connection that a chamber music setting provides that is truly unique, and for me is the real bread and butter of performance. Eighth Blackbird captures that like no other ensemble in my opinion, so I jumped at the chance." Joachim concluded her tenure with Eighth Blackbird at the end of 2019.

Honours Joachim received a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album for her recent composition Fanm d’Ayiti. Some of Joachim’s most recent and prominent works include "Land Bridge", Discourse, and Fanm d’Ayiti.