Half Waif

GLOBAL | LOCAL V:Half Waif (Chatham, NY)with Elori Saxl (Ghent, NY)October 5 at PS21 Pavilion TheaterChatham-based singer, songwriter, and producer Nandi Rose, who records and performs internationally as Half Waif, premieres a brand new work—a collection of songs focusing on themes of fertility and pregnancy loss, motherhood, mortality, and the role of nature in healing. Sonically, the work grows out of her classical training to feature a bold and unique sound, melding pop and folk songwriting styles with experimental production and arrangements. Elori Saxl, an accomplished Ghent-based composer whose work fuses analog synthesis and chamber music, opens the night.GLOBAL | LOCAL: Musical Worlds Meet at PS21Our new season-long series features musicians from across the world and from our backyard. The series examines the intersection of two ideas: the continuing need to open our minds to international art and perspectives, and the growing importance of local community, place, and togetherness in an increasingly decentralized and digitized world. PS21 resides in a hotbed of creativity—the Hudson Valley—and many of its finest musicians will be presented alongside world-class international acts in this summer-long series.ABOUT THE ARTISTFor Chatham-based singer, songwriter, and producer Nandi Rose, writing a song is an act of transformation. As Half Waif, Rose pieces together the patchworks of our darkest and most vulnerable moments with a golden thread, crafting a majestic evocation of the human experience that permeates with a graceful strength. Over the past decade, Rose has built upon her classical training to create a bold and unique sound that melds pop and folk songwriting styles with experimental production and arrangements. It is a form of emotional storytelling that is radically vulnerable and deeply layered, probing into what it means to be alive and in relationship with ourselves and with the world.Since joining the roster of renowned indie label ANTI- Records (Tom Waits, Fleet Foxes, Mavis Staples), Half Waif has released the critically acclaimed records The Caretaker (2020) and Mythopoetics (2021), the latter of which was described by the New York Times as a “chordal anthem” and featured on their Best Songs of the Year list. Half Waif has also made an appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk series and toured internationally.Elori Saxl makes music and film. She released her debut album The Blue of Distance in 2021 and released four subsequent music videos, Wave I, Wave II, Wave III, and Before Blue. She's composed music for classical ensembles, the Guggenheim, Burton, Patagonia, Google, Poler, Dove, the New Yorker, This American Life, Public Radio International, SFMOMA, and more.