11 Questions with Jannina Norpoth

PUBLIQuartet’s Freedom & Faith is GRAMMY Nominated!
Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance

1. Where did you grow up?
   Detroit

2. What made you realize that music was your path?
   I was extremely demoralized and burned out after I finished my undergraduate degree. Filled with doubt, I tried at that point to walk away from my music career, it was only then when I gave everything up that I was able to begin to appreciate what music means to me and that sparked a 10 year journey to find my true creative voice.

3. How would you describe the music that you typically perform/create?
   Eclectic, experimental, electrifying (sometimes literally) and thought provoking.

4. Who are your biggest musical influences?
   Thelonious Monk, Bela Bartok, Trent Reznor, Prince, Jimi Hendrix and A. Spencer Barefield (my dad)

5. What makes your musical life unique?
   My creativity is driven by my own exploration of sound, history and life experience. Genre has never been a boundary for me, I studied classical music, grew up around jazz, discovered rock and roll in my early teens, and later in life found collaborators that would allow me to thrive in all of those areas and more.

6. Has there been one particular moment in your musical career that you're most proud of
   Several years ago I co-wrote a multimedia indie rock song cycle based on Scheherazade for PUBLIQuartet and my band HOLLANDS. It premiered at National Sawdust as part of the New York Philharmonic's Biennial Programming at the New York City ElectroAcoustic Festival.

7. What is your favorite thing about your new album? 
   Our improvisations on Nina Simone

8. Why was it important to you to feature women artists on this album?
   It is no secret that over the centuries the Classical Cannon has favored white men. This was an opportunity to highlight the brilliance of many extraordinary women representing a millennium of music history, and to challenge the boundaries of the classical institution and highlight the narratives of classical composers who found acceptance and preservation through the church, through jazz or extraordinary circumstances. Through this album we celebrate their genius and hope to see them programmed on many more classical stages.

9. What is the impetus behind Freedom and Faith and why did you feel compelled to release this into the universe?
   Freedom and Faith explores resilience spirituality, oppression and love - inspired by the lives and works of Hildegard von Bingen, Francesca Caccinni, Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Shelley Washington and Jessica Meyer. It combines our own classical roots with what we envision American Classical music to be -  jazz, blues, funk, hip-hop, rock and roll and improvisation.

10. What’s the next thing for you?
    Looking forward to an exciting spring with PQ - we'll be promoting Freedom and Faith and performing it in Alaska, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, and more! I'm also looking forward to the premiere of Scott Joplin's Treemonisha an opera that I co-orchestrated with composer and founding member of PUBLIQuartet Jessie Montgomery.

11. Have you decided what you are wearing to the Grammy's?
    No!! Hopefully something as outrageously exciting as I feel about attending!!