Spotlight: Amanda Pascali

Amanda Pascali is a singer-songwriter, bilingual translator, and music scholar based in Austin, Texas. Her mixed-race heritage builds the backbone of her musical storytelling. She will perform for the first time in Colorado at Savoy Denver on May 7th, Cottonwood Cottage in Greeley on May 8th, and Chautauqua Community House in Boulder on May 9th.

Photos Courtesy of Jayme Stone

Jamie Lammers: How did you get started in music? How have things built to where you are now?
Amanda Pascali: I grew up around a lot of music, but no one in my family played music. As the daughter of immigrants from two different continents, I felt like there was never really a box where I could fit, so I picked up a guitar and said, “I’m going to create that space for myself.” Now, fast forward, over a decade later, I’m traveling the world, playing these songs, and encouraging anybody who’s ever felt out of place to join me in the space that I’ve created, where we can all be who we are without apologies.

Jamie: In addition to performing, you’re a song translator and scholar? What’s that been like?
Amanda: My Fulbright research was to pioneer the first comprehensive project to translate and revitalize the songs of Rosa Balistreri. She was one of the first Italian women to publicly denounce social inequality through music. My project was the first to ever say, “How about I take these songs, and I translate them, switching back and forth between Sicilian and English, as a way to share these songs with the rest of the world?”

Jamie: You’re also an artist-in-residence at the Library of Congress?
Amanda: I am set to embark on a research trip where I go to the Library of Congress, to the American Folklife Center, and look through the archives of Alan Lomax, work songs, and folk songs from the United States, Italy, and other countries as a way to inspire a new body of work for myself. It’s a great honor, and I’m really excited to look through those archival materials.

Jamie: As a bilingual translator and songwriter, what is your hope in terms of these songs?
Amanda: My native language is English, but I also speak Italian as a second language and have been learning Sicilian through songs and poetry. English is the most widely spoken language in the world, so that’s the working language I use as a bridging tool to disseminate what I think are songs that speak to the most pressing issues of our time, but are written in different languages.

Jamie: What is your hope in sharing this music and this work?
Amanda: Something that always strikes me is people coming up to me afterwards and telling me how much of an impact the songs have made on them, or that I’ve allowed them to access something that was previously unreachable for them. I think music is a perfect tool for bridging people of different backgrounds. What I really wanna do is facilitate a conversation, because there’s always so much to be learned.

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