Maestra Nachef addresses the audience from the stage at Carnegie Hall in 2013
Dr Joanna Medawar Nachef is renowned as the first woman conductor from the
Middle East. She has had a distinguished career in music performance, teaching and cultural exchange across the world. Her journey took her from a town in Lebanon to leading the choir at Carnegie Hall.
You were born in Beirut, before you moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Do you have strong memories of your early life in Lebanon? I have most wonderful memories of my childhood and youth in my beloved native land, Lebanon. I was born and raised in the lovely town of Ashrafieh. My family and I would spend all our summers in my mother’s village of Bikfaya and would regularly visit my father’s village of Sirjbail in the Shouf Mountains. My father, Michel