Joan Henry at the U.N.
Vocalist, actress, dancer, composer, poet-lyricist, percussionist and choreographer, it’s hard to think of a style she doesn’t cover. Joan Henry’s credits span the National Tour of Camelot with Richard Harris, the West Side Story 30th Anniversary Company, TV-movie Everyday Heroes, Walt Disney’s Pocahontas, appearances with guitarist Kenny Burrell, Pete Seeger, Paul Winter and R. Carlos Nakai, and a slew of recordings including two jazz albums with stellar jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette – Earthwalk & Music for the Fifth World, alongside John Scofield and Living Colour’s Will Calhoun and Vernon Reid. She also lists two solo CD’s – one of traditional songs, one of stories —co-produced with her son— and a contemporary offering,New Mountain with longtime musical ally Gus Mancini.
Formal studies began at age 4 with years of conservatory training in the District of Columbia and years with the professional Children’s Theatre of Washington. Moving north to NYU School of the Arts, she was later on scholarship with Vocal Arts Foundation (NYC), the Jacob’s Pillow Jazz Project (MA), Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble (NYC) and countless professional dance studios in New York and Boston. Her writings received a Golden Poets award in 1989 &’90.
As a performer, her talents have been honed by the hands and works of Gerald Freedman & Graciela Daniele, Jerome Robbins & Allan Johnson, Talley Beatty, Danny Sloan, Lynn Simonson, Ray Evans Harrell and John Mace of the Julliard School. She credits Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ella Fitzgerald, Flora Purim & Milton Nascimento as key inspirations that influenced and guided her musical life, explaining, “Buffy’s career in particular showed me that is was possible to do what I do – to blend our native culture and ideas into contemporary music and be successful with it. She was someone I could identify with, and she encouraged me later in life. All four of these singers, though, did that in their own way – they all had something to say, they all understood their voices as instruments of a Master Orchestrator in relationship to the rest of their band, and all four dissolved barriers with the simple power of their voices.”
Ms. Henry is both hahesh’kah (lead drummer) and dekanogisgi (traditional song-carrier), and a Native Women’s Traditional dancer. Encouraged by her elders, she founded acclaimed traditional drum group Mothers of Nations Singers & Dancers (later known as Sky Woman Singers) – the first women’s drum ever invited to the National Native American Veterans Powwow in Washington DC and the first to preside at Indigenous Peoples’ Day Opening Ceremonies for the United Nations – where Ms. Henry has since presented on healing & spirituality among First Nations women and offered opening prayers & song for the International Day of Peace and the World Indigenous Forum.
When not traveling to perform solo or with Mancini and friends, bringing life to Noyeh-Ongeh, Mother Earth, a Native /jazz/fusion band that goes beyond the ordinary concert…Ms. Henry continues to teach and lecture at schools, universities and museums, works with women & youth in indigenous communities in the US & Canada and directs youth programs in upstate New York She and her family make their home on Spruceton Mountain in the Northern Catskills, where they welcome this season’s Thunders. It is her prayer that she honors Tsimilano of Musqueam, Shanadii of Jicarilla, her own Grandmas Kathleen Elicia & Valentine Mabel, and the many other elders who have guided her by continuing ”to sing our world new every morning – and sing it to sleep each night.”
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