We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful PaviElle French. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with PaviElle below.
Alright, PaviElle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
My most meaningful projects are my compositions that were born out of my introspective journeys (beginning with, “A Requiem For Zula”, my first chamber composition, written in my deceased parents’ honor in 2018) and also that came out of response to the Civil Unrest in Minneapolis, after the murder of Mr. George Floyd. In June of 2020, I began writing the album “SOVEREIGN”. I found out that I had won a McKnight Musician Fellowship and purchased the tools to self-produce an album: a computer, keyboard, and a Maschine Drum machine. By the beginning of the following year (2021), I won a Jerome Artist Fellowship and began gearing up to record “SOVEREIGN”, with my bandmates, at Studio 8VB.
These pieces just seemed to continue to blossom, as I was able to have a documentary film crew (Peter Myers) document the recording process. “I Am Sovereign,” was released in 2021. Then in late 2021, I began writing its companion piece, “The SOVEREIGN Suite”. I was able to bring some of the Twin Cities’ greatest artists on one stage for “The SOVEREIGN Suite”, world-premier concert at the Fitzgerald Theatre, in May 2022. That same year, a month after The SOVEREIGN Suite premiere, I also premiered another chamber composition, “Sands of Time,” commissioned by The SPCO, and Bill and Susan Sands, which talked about ‘Love’ in all of its forms.
At the top of 2022, I was chosen by the American Composer Forum to be an Artist-In-Residence from 22-24. It was a Twin Cities Community-based Residency through the American Composers Forum, funded by the NEA, entitled: Liberation! Uplifting Our Youth. In this residency, I collaborated with six different organizations: TruArtSpeaks, Walker-West Music Academy, Purple Playground/Academy of Prince, The Schubert Club (who commissioned “The SOVEREIGN Suite”), The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (who commissioned both, “A Requiem for Zula,” and “Sands of Time,”), and The American Composer Forum.
I was able to do three residencies with the youth arts organizations that I collaborated with, and create music, movement, or spoken word pieces together, using the lyrics, and philosophies related to, “The SOVEREIGN Suite.” This all culminated with a series of performances, and a very fulfilling, enlightening, inspiring, and beautiful experience for me that was life-changing, and affirming to me as to why I am passionate about the art/education/cultural work that I do. This residency culminated in February 2024, with a world-premiering of my commissioned piece for (youth) string quartet attached to the residency called, “Liberation’s Suite (2024),” which will be released soon through Hal-Leonard Publishing; and a toolkit though ACF which I have created videos for students to show them how to create Midi music.
In 2023, Peter Myers and James Christenson, film my next piece, “The SOVEREIGN Suite Video”, which features 7 songs from the one-hour and fifteen-minute piece. Then I won a Mark Award alongside Drew Lerdal, for a song we wrote together called, “Redemption,” which won Best Social Justice Track of 2023. This was a very moving experience to be honored for the advocacy work/activism work I do as an artist. This was something that kept me motivated to continue to write music that reflects the times (like Nina Simone, fiercely said).
From all of this work that I am now deeming, “The SOVEREIGN Series (2018- ),” I was able to secure funding to build a curriculum based on the residency work that I have been in for the last 2 years called, “The SOVEREIGN Curriculum”, in 2023. I am currently (2024) working in collaboration with arts and music educators/consultants: Laura Krider, Shekela Wanyama, and Natalia Romero Arbeláez, currently, as we are about 10 months into the project.
Something in my spirit tells me that this will be my next 10-year cycle of work, and I just won a MacDowell Fellowship on April 17th, 2024! For my time in residence (24-25), I am planning to work on a one-woman show, based on “The SOVEREIGN Suite,” so once the Curriculum is finished, I can begin to pilot this work, through a mini-tour, and be able to perform the piece as a companion to the curriculum. I’m just following my dreams and where they lead me, and this journey has opened my heart and mind. Nothing is more meaningful than that. This work has allowed me the room to try, to do, to grow.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
PaviElle French has a myriad of events slated for 2024 including: “The SOVEREIGN Suite” live at Icehouse Minneapolis, MN, on April 26th, 2024 from 9-12pm; Film Screening of, “The SOVEREIGN Suite Video,” + Panel Discussion at the Minnesota History Center, on May 19th, 2024 from 3-5pm; A Juneteenth Celebration at Minneapolis Institue of the Arts in June 2024 (more info soon); and a live performance with her six-piece band at the Hopkins Center for the Arts ‘Summer Series’ in July 2024 (more info soon)!
Also, PaviElle hosts her own radio show on 88.5 KBEM FM Radio Minneapolis-Saint Paul called, “Luca’s Juke Joint,” part of Jazz88’s 12-Hours Blues Block, which airs every Friday from 9-11 pm on Jazz 88, and streaming live on Jazz88.fm.
Info:
PaviElle French is an Emmy Award-winning (2014), interdisciplinary artist/educator, who is from Rondo – a historically Black neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota.
She is a recipient of the 2023 Mark Award for Social Justice/Impact Track of the Year, “Redemption,” a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow (21-23); a McKnight Artist Fellow (2020); and has received a Sage Award for Dance and Choreography (2016).
She was a First Year Global Artists Initiative, Artist in Residence, at MacPhail Center for The Arts (2021); an American Composers Forum Grant recipient for her classical composition, A Requiem for Zula (2018), written in celebration of her Mother’s and Father’s life.
PaviElle’s symphonies have been featured at both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and New World Symphony in 2021, under the direction of Conductor Edwin Outwater, and Artistic Director, Michael Tilson Thomas. She has performed locally and nationally and has graced such stages as First Avenue; Ordway Center; and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Arts Across America Series).
PaviElle was voted as Minneapolis City Pages “Best R&B Vocalist of 2015”; her band was named one of First Avenue’s Best New Bands of (2015), and were a featured on both, TPT/PBS “Lowertown Line,” (2017); and MN Original (2018). Growing up in a family steeped in music she says that she ‘wants to make music that honors and represents the Black Arts aesthetic.’
PaviElle honed her craft as a young Artist at: Penumbra Theatre (1999-); Steppingstone Theatre (1997-99); and with the collective EduPoetic Enterbrainment (2000-04). She is a Pillsbury House Naked Stages Grant Recipient (2014); and was a part of the Ensemble Cast of Sharon Bridgforth’s dat Black Mermaid Man Lady – the show (2018) She has been seen in multiple productions of Black Nativity, at Penumbra Theatre, most recently in 2022. She was also featured on Garrett McQueen’s popular podcast, Trilloquy, in 2021.
PaviElle has self-produced an album called, SOVEREIGN, in response to the racial upheaval, and pandemic, beginning in 2020. And she has produced a companion documentary called, I AM SOVEREIGN, filmed by Peter Myers, released in August 2022. She has also launched a Twin Cities Community-based Residency through the American Composers Forum, funded by the NEA, entitled: Liberation! Uplifting Our Youth.
She has been commissioned by The Schubert Club to write, The SOVEREIGN Suite, a continuation of her evolving SOVEREIGN Series, performed in May of 2022. And she was commissioned by the Sands Family, to create a symphony in honor of their 50th Anniversary. Sands Of Time, premiered by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, in June 2022. Presently, PaviElle just finished her second year of both her ACF Residency, and Jerome Artist Fellowship.
PaviElle released The SOVEREIGN Suite Video filmed by Peter Myers, as well as a Soundtrack in 2023. She has most recently won a MacDowell Fellowship in April of 2024, where she’ll have six weeks in residency for the creation of “The SOVEREIGN Suite Show.” And she is currently working with fellow collaborators, toward an all-ages set of curricula, and workshops, based on her work through her SOVEREIGN Series, and work on her 2022-24 ACF Residency.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I watched a lot of musician’s biopics as a young person and talked to both my contemporaries and elder musicians – still to this day. NEVER STOP ACQUIRING MENTORS in YOUR LIFE!!! Talking to other artists is where are power base is in this industry, and can inspire movements relating to racial/gender/pay equity, fairness, compensation, non-exploitive practices…the things that we should be talking about as artists, in connection with venues, production companies, arts organizations, etc.
I think seeing/listening to the stories of other artists and musicians, really helped me with discernment in this industry. Always trust your gut, and always vet anyone interested in your music. Don’t be so eager to make music/art that you can’t see the red flags, or don’t negotiate on behalf of your integrity and dignity.
I have had quite a bit heartbreaking moments in the arts industry, and ownership of your art, and everything that is truly your intellectual property should be protected by you, first and foremost. Even as a young musician, I may not have had the financial means to copyright or publish my own music, but I would burn a CD of the project and send it to myself postmarked with the date I created it and never open it. You might laugh at this but, this is how I can prove that I wrote my music, no matter who’s name is on the credits.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
That you have to be famous to be considered successful as an artist. As I was a child performer, I had these grandiose dreams of stardom, but as I grew, and was raised up in the arts by a major generation of artists of all levels from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, at Penumbra Theatre (in St. Paul, MN), I could see that all of these people around me were absolutely amazing…some of these folks did local or national theatre, some did TV, some did movies, and no matter what their experience background was, their talent level was nothing short of amazing. Everyone that I met and that I worked with, they all had something special to share in their craft. I began to understand that their work is what speaks, not necessarily the prestige. It’s their craft and their commitment and love for the art. That is as successful as it gets, that you have grown into your adulthood and taken your inner child’s love for imagination with you for the ride.
As I look back at my own life thus far I will turn 40 in November, and I have literally done what I said I wanted to do, and so much more that I could even dream of. Would the fame be necessary for me? No. I have won an Emmy, a Mark, and all of these wonderful fellowships, and honors, right in my hometown, working within a community that I have known my whole life. This feels like success to me!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://paviellefrench.com/sovereign-suite/
- Instagram: @pavielle_music
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pavielle.music
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavielle-french-b1b4471aa/
- Twitter: n/a
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaviElle113
- Other: I have absolute permission to use my promotional photos as long as the photographer is credited as: Sharolyn B. Hagen Photography. The SOVEREIGN Suite Video: https://youtu.be/FsakGBg8rVI?si=xiw7G9NBZR4ZD3ul The Sands of Time by PaviElle French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQP1QYwLgKQ I Am SOVEREIGN Film Documentary by Peter Myers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf8H_x4SSnY MNO – PaviElle French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yEG1APKuoI MacPhail Spotlight Series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u84HZOTSNLI
Image Credits
Sharolyn B. Hagen Photography