Nathalie Joachim on her latest album, 'Ki moun ou ye'

If you were to look at her resume, you might be intimidated by Nathalie Joachim. She began playing piano at the age of 4, flute at the age of 9, and by 10, she was studying at Juilliard in their music advancement program.

Joachim co-founded an urban pop art flute duo called Flutronic, and she has also played flute for Eighth Blackbird, a Chicago-based chamber ensemble. She is also an assistant professor of composition at Princeton University.

But Joachim is no stuffed-shirt snob when it comes to music. When you speak to her, you can feel her excitement about the possibilities in music. You can hear her enthusiasm for the way music tells stories and connects us.

That's what she's been exploring on her last two solo albums. In 2019, she released her Grammy-nominated album, Fanm d'Ayiti, an album that celebrates the voices of Haitian women like her grandmother. In this session, Joachim talks about how she has continued to strengthen her bond with Haiti on her new album, Ki Moun ou ye, which she wrote mostly in Haitian Creole.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.