American singer songwriter Josephine Foster has tried on many hats over the years, studying opera and classical repertoire, teaching singing, even performing at funerals. When asked about her past, the Colorado-born chanteuse replies, “All my life chapters have been small but significant. Teaching as well was never full time nor my vocation, though I love to mentor and transmit.” She candidly says “who knows, someday I may accept professorship in a school of free musical arts.”
Her sound is as contemporary as it is timeless, and she’s bringing it to Florence on March 2, when she’ll perform solo at boho-rock underground venue Circolo ARCI Il Progresso. The concert is part of ongoing indie initiative Is it Folk?. (Josephine definitely is, for the record.)
But Josephine’s voice is not just folksy—it is of an almost otherworldly nature. In November 2018 she released her studio album Faithful Fairy Harmony, with 18 tracks ranging from ritual prayers, blues laments, vestal hymns and jubilant benedictions. Josephine has a clear vision:“I have produced all my albums except one early pop exercise that fortified my wish to never again relinquish that authority. Sometimes I collaborate as producer but it is always my role when recording my songs. It is much in common with directing a play, once upon a time I enjoyed stage direction.”
Within the very backbone of her music, present and past collide, projecting the listener into a dimension where the very concepts of time and space fade and expand. Her impressions on the current state of the world and her responsibility as an artist are, however, very straightforward: “Today is exponentially more complex and the responsibility can no longer be forgotten. If we are still and quiet, it’s okay to deconstruct, as the world is overburdened by us. Otherwise carrying some torch of the past is not a burden when it is light—art is a living flame that I am personally nurtured by in the present works of distant souls. It is a communion dissolving the boundary of time; that’s what drew me to music from the beginning. Whatever life-nourishing spirit or matter we can share for the future in a personal way is valuable.”
The songstress has performed all across Europe as well as lived in Spain with her former partner singer-songwriter Victor Herrero, whose lead guitar also features in her latest release alongside Gyða Valtýsdóttir (cello), Chris Scruggs (pedal steel), Jon Estes (bass), as well as cameos by members of The Cherry Blossoms and others.
When asked if her opera studies have somehow brought her closer to the Italian language she smiles: “I sang many Italian arias, which are still very much beloved to me. I’m very glad to be in Florence soon, yes indeed.”
Josephine Foster live in concert
Saturday, March 2, 9.30 pm
Circolo ARCI Il Progresso, via Vittorio Emanuele II, 135
10 euro with ARCI membership
