Dr. Joanna Medawar Nachef started at EC as a part-time instructor in 1989. In 1996 she was hired full-time as a professor of music in charge of the choral department, her title has been Director of Choral Activities for 14 years.
“Because of the civil war that took place in Lebanon 30 years ago, my parents have not thought about bringing us anywhere other than raising us in Lebanon and have planned for us to have a future there, but the war caused us to consider where else we will have a future. We went to Switzerland for a while but then discovered that the United States is a wonderful place to live. We immigrated here and been really an amazing experience,” Nachef said.
Her mother started her on the piano at a young age. She wanted Jo Anna to become a musician but didn’t have the opportunity to do so. Her mom wanted to fulfill her dreams in her daughter. Nachef did it because she believed the talent and the desire to make music is a part of her life. She started playing the organ and piano at her church at the age of 12 years. She started small groups of singers at the high school in Lebanon.
When she came to the United States she took a conducting class at EC with Dr. Jane Hardester.
“I discovered she was quite moved by my talent and just said to me “You are a natural conductor”, I was only 18. I didn’t listen to her, went back to Lebanon and she writes me “What are you doing about your conducting”. So I put a group of singers together, we did some concerts and sent her a letter, well I’m at least conducting something” Nachef said.
She came back to the states nine months later, went to Cal State University Dominguez and finished her degree in Piano performance. Received her masters degree from USC then her doctrine in conducting choral and instrumental in 1985.
She teaches three different choirs, one is the concert choir, which is a mixed choirs that attracts students from all disciplines, you don’t have to be able to sing a solo or read music very well, but have the desire to sing. second is the more advanced group, which is called the premier choral that represents EC on campus, off campus and doing tours. They need to audition, read music and have a good voice.
The third is the women’s choirs, she calls them “voices of angels”, which consist of students from EC and women from the community who come to spend 3 hours to learn some beautiful music. She will be taking several singers from each group totaling 85 singers to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York this week.
“Life is a performance and not a rehearsal, so you have to live your life doing the best you can right now not waiting, saying: ‘I’ll give half my energy.’ No, I believe in living every moment and giving all that I have. I walk into class giving 150 percent not just 100 percent and I hope to get that back,” Nachef said.
