"Strife and Joy" performed by Emma Back

“Strife and Joy,” creates for listeners an intimate experience of impermanence, receptivity, conflict and creation, delving into the intersection of the personal and universal as a way to heal, find hope and move forward through challenging times. Through layers of vocals and strings, Emma Back’s dynamic, live-looping performance gathers listeners in a web of haunting melodic storytelling and rhythm.

“Charming sensibilities, excellent structuring and arranging, as well as her ability to confound emotionally will likely bring listeners back for repeat encounters.” –Jordan Adams, Seven Days VT

The idea of “Strife and Joy” emerged during a solo Songwriting retreat in the Vermont woods in February 2019. After writing an album (Little World, 2019) that focused on conflict and social issues, Back decided to delve into the more internal, emotional experience of being human, seeking to unmask the connection between the two extremes of suffering and bliss that form much of our life stories. Through inquiry and imagery, Back’s latest work offers heart-wrenching melodies that spiral rapidly between dark and light with more simplicity, space and focus on harmony than her earlier work. In her live-performances, Back has her audiences write reflections on “Strife and Joy” throughout the evening. She draws these writings from a jar in between songs, encouraging audience participation, dialogue and community connection.

About Emma Back:

Back is a Classically and Jazz-trained violinist and vocalist and has been performing since the age of seven. Sheuses a loop pedal to create lush layers of rhythm and harmony, accomplishing a sonic and poetic lyricism that reaches deep into the past and far into the future simultaneously. With a background in Avant-Guard improvisation and poetry, her multi-dimensional performance features vocal percussion, melodic storytelling, jazz and klezmer inspired violin riffs and harmonic influences ranging from Eastern-Europe to American Roots. Produced by Colin McCaffrey, Back’s 2018 debut full length release “Little World” investigates how to heal personal and global conflict through bearing witness to issues of feminine power, racial and religious oppression, war and ancestry. In addition to her performing life, Back is the founder of She Sings Out Loud, an organization that supports female-identifying singers, public speakers and performing artists in finding authentic expression onstage while healing from culturally inherited patterns and personal blocks around being seen and heard.