Naomi LaViolette: Songwriting in the Rose City

Naomi LaVioletteSONGWRITER IN THE ROSE CITY | BY DARCY CASTRO

A gifted songwriter and versatile pianist from Portland, Oregon, Naomi LaViolette makes music at the intersection of creativity and empathy. She’s a natural giver and peacemaker at heart, and her musical projects lift up the stories of others while striking a distinctive balance between soul-searching angst and gratitude. Her critically-acclaimed recordings have earned her comparisons to Norah Jones, Sara Bareilles and Sarah McLachlan.

Through the art of songwriting and storytelling, LaViolette creates original pieces that pull from the vulnerable depths of her life experience. She can express the shared joy found in natural spaces, love and friendship, spiritual journeys, and also bring empathy and light to challenging topics like death, miscarriage and loss in relationships.

LaViolette gained the national spotlight while learning and preserving the songs of Steven Goodwin, a composer with earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease. Her collaborative work with Goodwin became the Saving His Music Project and received prominent press coverage, including a feature on CBS Sunday Morning. Their record The Nature of Love spent three weeks on the Billboard New Age chart.

Currently, LaViolette is working on a new full-length album of cover songs. The songs were selected with input and collaboration between LaViolette and her Patreon community during the COVID lockdown, each song recorded solo by LaViolette featuring only piano and vocals, a tribute to the intimate and emotional nature of the pandemic era. Each song aligns with LaViolette’s musical mission, with timelessly important lyrical content creatively reimagined and expressed through her vision and compositional style.

LaViolette’s roots are deep in classical music – she has a master’s degree in classical piano performance – but has also immersed herself in the study of jazz standards, folk songs, soul, pop and gospel. She has released four solo albums, including her debut Naomi LaViolette (2012), You’ve Got Me (2013), Written for You (2017), and Live at The Old Church with Members of the Oregon Symphony (2019), as well as multiple singles. A published choral composer, her works have been performed and recorded by many choirs around the US, including the Oregon Repertory Singers’ album Shadows on the Stars, winner of the American Prize.

The Rose City is fortunate to have Naomi LaViolette among its ranks of hometown notables, with a songwriter and performer that has the style, compassion and creativity of this established artist. Learn more at NaomiLMusic.com. You show me who I am, and who I could be My heart will open wide, completely As we learn to live in an intimate place Of compassion, acceptance, and grace

- “Forevermore” by Naomi LaViolette

Photographs provided Naomi LaViolette