Nathalie Joachim

Nathalie Joachim is a Grammy-nominated performer and composer. The Haitian-American artist is hailed for being “a fresh and invigorating cross-cultural voice”. (The Nation). Her creative practice centers an authentic commitment to storytelling and human connectivity while advocating for social change and cultural awareness, gaining her the reputation of being “powerful and unpretentious.” (The New York Times)

Ms. Joachim is co-founder of the critically acclaimed duo Flutronix and has performed and recorded with an impressive range of today’s most exciting artists and ensembles, including Gabriel Kahane, Miguel Zenón, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the contemporary chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird with whom she held tenure as flautist for many years. As a composer, Joachim is regularly commissioned to write for instrumental and vocal ensembles, dance and interdisciplinary theater, often highlighting her unique electroacoustic style. Recent commissions include new works for St. Louis Symphony, Yale University’s Schwarzman Center, Sō Percussion, Roomful of Teeth, and Imani Winds; and forthcoming are new works for Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Spoleto Festival USA. Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti, an evening-length work for flute, voice, string quartet and electronics that celebrates and explores her personal Haitian heritage, received a GRAMMY nomination for Best World Music Album. The highly anticipated release of her sophomore album, Ki moun ou ye – an intimate examination of ancestral connection and self – is slated for release in 2024.

As an active educator, Ms. Joachim is devoted to supporting creative pedagogy with intention. She is Assistant Professor of Composition at Princeton University, and has held faculty positions at The Hartt School at The University of Hartford, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Perlman Music Program and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. She has also served as a mentor for The Juilliard School’s BluePrint Fellowship with National Sawdust, Luna Composition Lab, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her youth music education workshops focused on creative collaboration and igniting the spirit of composition in young people have led to innovative educational initiatives, including the 2020 release of Transformation, an album co-created with students at New York City’s Special Music School High School and the Kaufman Music Center.

Ms. Joachim is a United States Artist Fellow and currently serves as an Artistic Partner with Oregon Symphony.  She is an alumnus of The Juilliard School and The New School.

Photo by Josué Azor