ACME Spotlight: Bringing the Bling by Mary Au

ACME CO-CHAIR MARY AU, MU NU, LOS ANGELES ALUMNI AUHAUS@GMAIL.COM

Conductor Joanna Medawar Nachef dazzles audiences around the globe

Award winning distinguished artist, conductor and educator Joanna Medawar Nachef (Gamma Sigma, Palos Verdes/ South Bay Alumni) is from Beirut, Lebanon, and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. She is recognized both for her immense contributions to the world of choral music and her humanity. Hailed as the first woman conductor from the Middle East, Joanna has made guest appearances in motion pictures and toured and guest conducted nationally and internationally. Medawar Nachef earned her Bachelor of Arts in piano performance from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in choral music and conducting, respectively, from the University of Southern California. She is director of choral activities at El Camino College, on the faculty at CSU Dominquez Hills, founder and conductor of the Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers and choir director at Peninsula Community Church. She is speaker and citizen diplomat for the U.S. State Department, a charter board member for LA/Beirut Sister City Organization and an alumna of the U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C. She also serves as cultural ambassador between the United States and Lebanon.

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Who is Dr. Bling?

To her friends, students and colleagues, Medawar Nachef is a force of nature who has a great sense of fashion and is always dressed immaculately, with a little bit of sass. Medawar Nachef has an eye for spectacular wardrobes that bring out both her personality and confidence as a performer.

“I wear elegant dresses and look attractive because I want the audience to see beauty and enjoy it on the stage,” she said. “That’s why I insist my singers also dress impeccably.”

Known for her love of sequins — glitter even on her face masks — her shoes, wardrobe, makeup and jewelry are all synonymous with a beautiful presentation. She builds her outfit from the feet up, starting with the choice of footwear, followed by her clothes, and finished with cherry red lipstick by Chanel.

Medawar Nachef believes that “bright colors, like music, can lift the human spirit.” Beautiful jewelry, such as a pair of sparkly teardrop earrings, completes her Dr. Bling maestra look. Everything — including her batons — must be color coordinated. Apart from beautiful outfits, “erect posture is crucial,” Medawar Nachef said. “I teach and live that. It gives our breathing mechanism a chance to work naturally.”

Life is a Performance

As a self-appointed “ambassador of harmony,” Medawar Nachef believes God has blessed her with the gift of music to help unite people and cultures. Her motto as a musician is “Life is a performance and not a rehearsal.”

“My desire is to seek excellence, not perfection,” Medawar Nachef said. “I choose to reflect the music in every fiber in my body as I conduct the music of the masters. My mission is to use this incredible gift of music to make a difference and leave behind a legacy of excellence in the arts and through the arts.

“My responsibility is huge because I want to dissolve these misconceptions that people from the Middle East are terrorists. Music is the universal language and the best tool to unite us all.”

Living Her Faith

Medawar Nachef’s life is a testament to her faith. When she is on stage, she does not want her audience to see her. She wants them to see God in her, like Handel and Bach, who signed off soli Deo gloria, only for the glory of God.

“If God chooses to use me, I am just so grateful that I am an instrument in His hand,” Medawar Nachef said. “I will work on refining my talent and my gift so it can sound beautiful in His ears, and it will show that I am being used for His glory.”

A devout Christian, Medawar Nachef is a member of the Peninsula Community Church in Palos Verdes, where she served as minister of music from 1980 to 1997 and became choir director in 1997.

About Joanna Medawar Nachef Singers

Nachef founded the JMNS in 2015 so that her former El Camino students can continue to share the “universal language of music” with audiences worldwide! The mission of JMNS is to build bridges of understanding, dissolve human misconceptions and stereotypes, nurture tolerance and expand the strands of harmony across cultures between the U.S. and Lebanon through the powerful message of music — people to people through educational and cultural exchanges.

“Guided by the principles of musical excellence and artistic diversity, I want to showcase my choir’s creative flair by performing music from varied eras and genres,” Medawar Nachef said. “Today, perhaps more than ever, we need positive forces that bring people together.”

Selecting Repertoire

For her ensembles, Medawar Nachef chooses repertoire with wide audience appeal to “educate & entertain.” Here are a few examples of her concerts:

Carnegie Hall For her 2018 concert at Carnegie Hall, Medawar Nachef programmed Lord Nelson Mass, “one of Leonard Bernstein’s favorite Haydn masses to conduct at Carnegie Hall,” said Medawar Nachef. “I love the powerful brass that adds the fire to the contrasting lyrical themes.”

Singing Ambassadors in Russia “Folk music can help build bridges of understanding between Russia and U.S. Our visit to Russia gave us a chance to become ‘ambassadors of harmony,’” said Nachef. This joint concert of JMNS and the Pokrov Chamber Choir, a Choral Seasons Project, includes American swing, spirituals and music by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. This singing ambassadors collaborative program with Joanna Nachef and Andrei Goryachev “proves that relations between nations can remain good and rise above any political differences.”

ECC Diamond Jubilee Concert “My vision for the El Camino College (ECC) Diamond Jubilee Concert was to create an evening of music that celebrates the facets of ECC’s musical mosaic,” Medawar Nachef said. “Another facet was to celebrate the legacy of excellence in our music department.” The program was titled “Soul to Seoul, East Meets West: A Time of Hope.”

Conducting Journey

“I have known from a very young age that I wanted to be a conductor,” Medawar Nachef said. “I would watch conductors waving their arms conducting an orchestra and wonder if I could pursue my dream as a woman from the Middle East. My talent and drive, in this land of opportunity, the United States of America, allowed me to follow my passion, with perseverance and determination, and pave a new path for women from my region.

“I was discovered by Jane Hardester, my college professor at El Camino College, in 1977 during a conducting class. She looked at me and said, ‘You’ve got that special talent to be a conductor.’ As fate would have it, my conducting journey brought me to ECC where I have been serving for the past 21 years and carrying the legacy of the professor who discovered me.

“When I started out, there were hardly any woman conductors in Lebanon. In fields perceived as being the exclusive or near-exclusive domain of men, the biggest obstacle to overcome as a woman is to work twice as hard to gain the respect and acceptability of male colleagues.”

In 1989, Medawar Nachef became the first woman conductor from the Middle East when she conducted the Pacific Symphony Orchestra at the Orange County Performing Arts Center (now the Segerstrom Center for the Arts) for the 500 Club LebaneseAmerican Organization.

“When I stood before the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, they — all men — looked at me,” Medawar Nachef said. “I am small. I am female. I am a different race. I had to prove to them that I know my score so well and know what’s going to be expected from every instrument. Sometimes, they tricked me. They would play at the wrong time or they would play the wrong key and ask me which note they should be playing — it was all a part of their strategy to see how much I knew.”

With patience and a smile, Medawar Nachef never lost her temper. “I choose to be an inspiration to people and it’s not about me. Music is bigger than all of us.”

When Medawar Nachef conducted the Lebanese Philharmonic, “I had to show them that I am equal to or better than any conductor they’d ever seen,” she said. When leading a group, she aims “to present excellence in the way I dress and present myself. I talk to my audiences, and allow them to be a part of what happens. In Lebanon that was a big change for them.”

Medawar Nachef names Jane Hardester and Francis Steiner as her mentors. Both were pioneers in the field and created a legacy of musical excellence and paved a path for female conductors to follow in their footsteps.

Behind this successful woman

“I owe my success in music to my parents, my family and my faith,” Medawar Nachef said. “My parents instilled in me the desire to follow my dreams and pursue paths that may not have been tread before.”

Her father, Michel Shakeeb Medawar, a noted clockmaker and jeweler known as the Lebanese inventor of a talking flower clock, led his family to immigrate to the U.S. after civil war broke out in Lebanon in 1996. They settled in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Her parents opened Medawar Fine Jewelers in the

Rolling Hills Estates. Her mother, Yolla Akl Medawar, is a glorious soprano and shared her love of music with Medawar Nachef. Yolla Akl Medawar still sings in some of her daughter’s choirs at the age of 80.

About her family

Medawar Nachef met her husband, Hani Elias Nachef, in 1983 when she was invited to conduct an Arabic singing Christmas choir started by Nachef and his friends. They gave nine performances together. The couple has been married for 35 years. Nachef is in the restaurant business and plays the violin, lute & percussion in his spare time. He also is a talented singer. Their daughter is a civil litigator and their son is finishing his college degree to become a pastor.

Memorable Performances

Carnegie Hall “It is the dream of every musician to perform at Carnegie Hall,” said Medawar Nachef, who gave her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and has since returned five more times (2007, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018) to conduct several historic performances with choirs from the U.S., Lebanon and United Arab Emirates. For Medawar Nachef, performing on one of the world’s biggest stages never gets old.

“The thrill of making beautiful music with choirs of different ages, backgrounds and abilities is most magical at Carnegie Hall,” Medawar Nachef said. “And to hear their voices coming back at them; the acoustics of this hall have never, ever been duplicated anywhere else. To walk on that stage where Tchaikovsky, Toscanini, Bernstein have performed, and to be in the maestro suite where they were … it’s only God that allows that to happen.”

To Medawar Nachef, multicultural concerts are a form of soft diplomacy that allow her to fulfill her mission “to build bridges of understanding, dissolve misconceptions (and stereotypes), nurture tolerance and expand the strands of harmony across cultures through the powerful message of music, educational and cultural exchanges.”

Lebanon In 2009, Medawar Nachef traveled to Lebanon to compile Arabic choral music for publication in the U.S. That year she also made her conducting debut in her home country at the Al Bustan Summer Festival in Beit Mery. Additionally, she conducted the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra on three occasions: 2013, 2014 and 2019. One of Medawar Nachef’s proudest moments came in 2014, when she ignited the career of a young Lebanese composer Georges Tomb, 22, who sought her out to critique his music compositions.

“Joanna premiered my career,” Tomb said. “Every artist needs someone to believe in him at first. She was the one giving me this very first chance in my country, where many wouldn’t have risked it.”

Preparation for a Career in Music

What advice do you have for young women interested in a career in conducting? As a woman conductor, it takes the balancing act of a commanding presence and a winning personality. I have always chosen to take the podium with the attitude of collaboration and the complete knowledge of the weight of responsibility that lies strictly on my shoulders. My aim is to never imitate or replace a male conductor, but to represent myself as a refined and well-prepared conductor with a keen sense of fashion!

Young women conductors can succeed if they adopt certain traits. Among them are being an excellent communicator, an effective problem-solver and a team player. Focus on bringing out the best in people and then aligning all of the parts into one whole.

How would you like to be remembered? I want to be remembered as someone who has served my art with complete respect and has left a legacy of excellence in everything that I have done and I have lived my Christian faith and not just preached it.

What are your future plans? After my son graduates from college, I would like to take a traveling professional group around the world and share music that way, because I believe we are ambassadors of harmony, using harmony as that bridge that connects people together. I want to continue to live my life and show them that I’m not just a teacher, I am a performer.

I feel very blessed every time I walk on that stage. I see myself as this young Lebanese lady who dreamed of becoming a conductor, who has been given the chance to do this at this level as the first woman conductor from that part of the world. And not just to do it once, but again and again. And I always feel humbled and honored that God chose me to be that instrument to make music a universal language.