We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Juliana Child. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Juliana below.

Juliana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Recently, I had the privilege of coordinating a choral performance as part of FemFest, an annual celebration of intersectional feminism in Pensacola, Florida. Proceeds from this year’s event benefitted the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. The performance was entitled “Her Roots: A Southern Woman’s Song,” and it combined communal singing with storytelling to highlight the lived experiences of Southern womxn through the lens of their diverse intersecting identities. People from many different walks of life came together for this project, and the community that we built in preparation for the performance was like nothing I had ever experienced before. The singers poured so much of themselves into the program, and the finished product was shaped by their personal contributions. The music and the stories shared in between pieces were a beautifully honest expression of the singers’ truest selves. These people, most of whom had previously been strangers, united toward the common goal of raising awareness for the cause of feminism, channeled their passion for that cause into their singing, and supported each other wholeheartedly in the process. I felt blessed to be able to create meaningful music while also supporting an organization that provides essential resources for those most in need. To be able to sing about the things we are passionate about and actually back up those sung sentiments with real, tangible action is what I believe to be the most important responsibility of musicians in today’s world.

Juliana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I work full-time as the Assistant Artistic Director of the Pensacola Children’s Chorus, a non-profit community program that serves approximately 300 singers annually in the Florida Panhandle. In this role, I work with singers in grades 1-12 in both group choral and private lesson settings. At PCC, our mission is to foster the personal and social growth of our members and to transform the community through inspirational musical experiences. I believe in the power of music education to build character and instill the values of teamwork, confidence, empathy, responsibility, and accountability in young people, and I also believe that a world in which people of all ages and abilities sing regularly and without fear is a world worth fighting for. Singing is a central part of my identity and has been for as long as I can remember. I grew up singing, dancing, and playing piano, guided by many great music educators in Massachusetts, and I went on to obtain Bachelor’s degrees in music education and voice performance from Ithaca College in upstate New York.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have a theory that the mental health crisis we are currently experiencing in the U.S. is linked to our society’s general deficit in meaningful musical engagement. Singing, dancing, and otherwise responding to music are integral parts of the human experience, but too often people’s natural impulses to participate in music are socialized out of them from a very early age, especially if a person is perceived to have no natural “talent” for music. Abolishing the myth of “talent” is a huge motivator for me in my daily work with young musicians.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the idea that developing literacy in Western music notation was the only way to become a strong musician. I work hard to teach my students to be musically literate, as I still believe that it can open doors and allow musicians to become more independent, but I’ve learned that literacy is not the be-all and end-all. I’ve met performers who may struggle with sight-reading an unfamiliar piece of music or learning a choreographed dance routine, but who feel at home when they are improvising a solo or allowing their bodies to respond to music spontaneously, and I acknowledge that truly inclusive music-making spaces must be affirming for both the sight-reader and the improviser (and therefore must be intentionally accepting of the diverse cultural backgrounds generally associated with those respective means of music-making)!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pensacolasings.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianajoychild/

Image Credits
Destiny Guerra