Opera Philadelphia composer-in-residence Nathalie Joachim calls Philly “a historic music city”

Joachim is an assistant professor of composition at Princeton who has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the St. Louis Symphony, and Spoleto Festival USA, among others. She received a Grammy nomination for her first album, Fanm d’Ayiti, an extensive work for flute, voice, string quartet, and electronics that draws on her Haitian heritage.

SPIN Magazine described Joachim’s second full-length recording, Ki moun ou ye, co-released in 2024 by Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records, as “one of the year’s most creatively and personally ambitious albums.” The accolades are a byproduct of her attraction to the collective aspects of music, especially the way that storytelling can create community.

“We are the only beings with an imagination,” she says, an ability that allows listeners to become engaged by even the most “normal” stories. Joachim, who calls herself a griot, aims to “tell a story in such a way that it leaves space for others to find themselves in it.” Her storytelling isn’t a narrative, “fed to us” with a specific outcome in mind; she sees herself as “a receptive vessel who absorbs and reflects the community experience back” to the listener. She is a Juilliard-trained instrumentalist who isn’t trying to be “the best” singer, flutist, or composer, but instead to use her tools in an “authentic way.”

Philly does “big things quietly”

Having lived in New York City and Chicago before landing in Philly, Joachim says she sees some similarities between those cities and her new home, but New York City’s musical community is so large that it’s much less tight-knit than ours. She calls Philly “vibrant” and wonderful,” with the “can-do” attitude that makes it possible for musicians to collaborate.

“I love living in Philly,” she adds, calling it a place where people do “big things quietly” and noting that, while not everyone realizes it, the roots of many aspects of American culture can be traced back to Philadelphia. Moreover, since “Black culture continues to push the needle everywhere on the planet, Black making is globally culture-shifting and culture-making.” It would take “mental gymnastics” to deny Philly’s global impact: “Even if we think about just Eurocentric contributions, it’s undeniable that the Philadelphia Orchestra has been one of the world’s best for generations.”

Residency highlights

Opera Philadelphia’s 10-year-old composer-in-residence program, supported by the Mellon Foundation, is a perfect example of the city’s continued commitment to musical innovation and excellence. The residency gives composers a detailed, highly individualized opportunity to develop and create new music. Joachim’s tenure in this role includes two concerts and composing a portion of a new opera.

The November 19 program in the Wanamaker Grand Court, part of Opera Philadelphia’s PIPE UP! program, will be curated from her own works, including selections from her first album and portions from a forthcoming opera which focuses on concepts associated with liberation, through the lens of the histories of Haiti and the United States of America. Tickets starting at $11 are available (all seating is general admission).

“It’s important right now to think about what freedom really means,” she says, noting that Haitian art-making has always been central to island’s history and liberation, and that Toussaint L’Ouverture’s successful campaign against the French reverberated throughout the world, showing both the enslaved and the enslavers what was possible.

Her second residency performance will feature music by other artists, giving the audience a glimpse into how fellow creators inspire her. Finally, she is a contributor to the world premiere Complications in Sue, which runs February 4-8, 2026 at the Academy of Music. The project, which has a libretto by Pulitzer and Tony Award-winner Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop) and is based on an idea by MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Justin Vivian Bond, depicts the life of a woman named Sue who has a split personality. The title role will be played by Bond, and four opera singers will play characters from Sue’s life. Ten composing luminaries—Andy Akiho, Alistair Coleman, Joachim, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Rene Orth, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Kamala Sankaram, Dan Schlosberg, and Errollyn Wallen—are collaborating on this piece, each writing music for one scene. Joachim describes the experience of providing one of the “puzzle pieces” as “really exciting.”

New collective experiences

She has nothing but praise for Anthony Roth Costanza’s efforts to expand Opera Philadelphia’s audience with a “Pick Your Price” ticket program. “The diversity of people in my first Opera Philadelphia performance made it so much more fun ... people booing, screaming and laughing made it much less rigid.” To her, the only aspect missing from Philadelphia’s music scene is a “big” West Indian presence, preferably with an “all-out parade.” Given her love of collective experiences, let’s hope she decides to make it happen, and soon.