Lili Haydn is as sweet and sophisticated as her music. Known as "The Jimi Hendrix of the violin," Haydn has released her third album Place Between Places.

March 12th 2008
By: Kindah Mardam Bey

Lili Haydn is as sweet and sophisticated as her music. Classical in roots, an eclectic at heart, Lili Haydn is a talented singer and violinist that has worked with the likes of Herbie Hancock (Grammy award winner for Best Album 2008), Josh Groban, Tom Petty, and will be at Coachella Festival this year to perform with headliner Roger Waters (Pink Floyd). She has also been the voice and violin for the last two films composer Han's Zimmer has done soundtracks for, and will do the same in the final instalment of the Pirates Of The Caribbean. Known as "The Jimi Hendrix of the violin," Haydn is just about to release her third album Place Between Places on April 1^st. She will be having a CD release party that will be hosted by Bill Maher (Politically Incorrect) and will coincide with the 60^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. Aside from that impressive roster of whirlwind events, Haydn is also a humanitarian and an advocate for change.

Born to creative parents, her mother was comedienne-author Lotus Weinstock and her father was indie filmmaker David Jove. It was Lili's close relationship with her Mother which has shaped much of who she is. Lili lost her Mother in 1997 to a brain tumour, and Lili was the soul caregiver for the last year of her Mother's life (a beautiful remembrance of Lotus can be found here ). We are the sum of our experiences, and it is those times of unbelievable and complex life changes that reveal to ourselves the depths and strengths we are constructed from; Lili Haydn's music and commitment to humanitarian causes is clearly a driving force in the dedication to her Mother's memory.

Lili speaks about the loss of her Mother "I was shaken into another reality; time didn't make any sense to me. In a way it was a new beginning, and the violin was a touch of grace given to me; I fused together my ambition with my heart and my reverence. This realization was the second best gift my Mother gave me; the first was being her daughter."

Haydn found her capacity to perform in front of an audience early on as a child actor, but one day had a dream at the age of seven, that she could play the violin. Her Mother rented a violin, and wrote a song for Lili to play, and almost divinely inspired, Lili could instinctively play from the depths of her soul, and has never stopped. She has found the discipline of learning classical violin immensely rewarding, but when she arrived in University, to which she graduated from Brown with a degree in Political Science, Haydn discovered a more modern context for her violin.

She explains "If classical players go out of the box, they are looked down upon, so my first time in a jamming session was so rewarding to jam with people who enjoy your creativity. It was such a liberating discovery, like my own personal 1960s; it felt as if you could kiss everyone you were ever attracted to. It opened me up to pop, jazz, funk and many other forms of music." 

After Haydn's liberating experience, she was able to delve into a more eclectic career as a violinist. Now she is a violinist, a singer and songwriter who has such diversity to her skills that she can wow a multitude of equally diverse audiences. It is the music that is so compelling to Haydn, and you can see it when she performs; a sweetly natured calmness is your first impression of Haydn offstage, but on stage she is a pensive, compelling spiritual force that has such an intensity that one expects her to change the course of weather with her performance. Haydn might have been dubbed a sorceress with such a connection to her playing had she, and her violin, lived in ancient times.

For Haydn, music is a spiritual experience "shortly after my Mother died I started on my spiritual journey with music. Music has the power to heal. Even before I perform on stage, I spiritually connect with the music and I strengthen my intent into my voice. My purpose, and greatest hope, is to open people's hearts to music."

Over the years, Haydn has managed to pour that intent and spiritual connection into her music for a greater purpose, which is where her humanitarian efforts come into place. A beautiful and inspiring song ‘Children Of Babylon' on her new album Place Between Places, has been performed by Lili for the Global Security Institute (www.gsinstitute.org) at a UN affiliated peace conference to help draw attention to the causes focus on nuclear arms control, non-proliferation and disarmament. 

"This cycle of killing and retribution just has to stop; and I wish there was something I could do. The song cries ‘If only the sound of the violin could stop the violence, I'd play for you now...' For me the way to make a difference is to serenade people. My hope is that my music will touch people's hearts and connect them to their own humanity, thereby making them more compassionate."

As mentioned, Haydn is pairing with Amnesty International for her CD release party to celebrate the 60^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights which was penned after the atrocities of WWII. Although Lili spent most of her life in California, she is pleased to lay claim to her Canadian roots when she says the Declaration was wrote by Canadian John Peters Humphrey.

Haydn believes that it might be a good time in history to expand the declaration. She makes reference to the Saffron Revolution in Burma. "The Burmese government is one of the most oppressive regimes in the world, and has the most child soldiers. It is China and Russia's support that keep this power in place. Burma is important to me; you see thousands and thousands of monks protesting through peaceful means and they are being gunned down. Such a Ghandi attitude in these days is a rarity. The Olympics, held in China this year, are an important time to observe that China could stop funding human rights abuses. If China weren't supporting Burma, then the chain reaction would crumble. It is about the rule of law being governed by the rule of morality." Haydn cites an excellent organization called The Elders, who consists of thirteen well-known humanitarians such as Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, and so on, who have setup a campaign called Every Human Has Rights (www.everyhumanhasrights.org) as a great way to participate in changing the world.

Knowing that Haydn is a humanitarian, I thought it might be fitting to ask her about the Davos question. "What one thing do you think that countries, companies or individuals must do to make the world a better place in 2008?" (http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm)

Lili answers "Redirecting the worlds' military spending towards humanitarian spending." We had spoken about Canadian humanitarian Romeo Dalliare previously and his efforts in Rwanda during the Genocide, which brings to Haydn's mind a quote from Dallaire that she had previously heard "carrots are much more effective than sticks."

As Lili Haydn has managed to make all elements in her life cross paths, our discussion on her humanitarian efforts leads us back to her music, and her spirituality. The album title, Place Between Places is taken from a line in a song about her Mother, from her previous album. Haydn discusses the reference of the album name "Place Between Places is my heart. The phrase to me means a moment of awareness, where you are not reactionary, where you take a moment of breath and accept a moment of bliss. It is a homage to the journey, like the saying ‘success is a journey not a destination,' how getting to a destination is perhaps an illusion and not the true goal, but the journey of how to get there is the most important part." I think I would have to agree with Lili Haydn, as listening to her music, both in the magic she draws from her violin, and the ethereal sound she draws from her voice, is indeed like a journey in itself.

 
Best Advice Lili Haydn was ever given: "Get out of the way."

Favourite Book: Gabriel Garcia Marquez Love In The Time Of Cholera
Books she is reading currently:
Joseph Campbell Power Of Myth
Douglas Roche Global Conscience
David Sedaris Naked
And a collection of short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Read The AnEVibe Review of Place Between Places