PaviElle’s unique blend of influences, styles, and experiences lends itself to a unique and diverse body of work, spanning music, art, storytelling, and theater.
FEAR NOT || 2014
2014’s Fear Not marked PaviElle’s return to recording after a five-year hiatus. Independently recorded and produced, the album represents a slice of PaviElle’s life experiences, good and bad. In Fear Not, PaviElle succeeds in combining the feel of Black soul music with her own unique voice and musical style.
RUNNIN’
SOVEREIGN || 2021
In 2020, Mr. George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, where PaviElle is a resident. Prompted by the racial unrest in her hometown, and with the pandemic taking place, PaviElle started documenting what she and her community were going through. After being honored with a McKnight fellowship, PaviElle began writing and producing SOVEREIGN on the Maschine, using midi.
SOVEREIGN discusses the turmoil that PaviElle herself was going through at that time of unrest, and the introspective questions she asked herself regarding liberation and freedom for self and for Black, Indigenous, and POC folks. Regarding her truth. Regarding the aftermath of what’s happening in Minnesota, and how so many of us are hurting behind the continuous trauma happening here. With the uptick of State sanctioned violence toward black and POC people like Daunte Wright and Breonna Taylor. In SOVEREIGN, PaviElle speaks about the culture of white supremacy in America, and the country’s history of improper policing and abuse of power toward people in poverty.
CODE SWITCH
MORE TO LIFE
ANCESTORS SAID IT
SANDS OF TIME || 2022
In 2020, PaviElle was commissioned to write another symphony by community art supporters Bill and Susan Sands, in honor of their 50th wedding anniversary. Sands of Time was premiered in June 2022 at the Ordway Center in Saint Paul, MN. PaviElle composed, wrote, orchestrated, and arranged Sands of Time on GarageBand, and Michi Wiancko transcribed the piece. It took 8 months to complete.
THE SOVEREIGN SUITE FILM || 2023
The SOVEREIGN Suite carries the messages of 2021’s SOVEREIGN into an ambitious project focused on PaviElle’s vision of the future.
Parts two and three of SOVEREIGN are combined into The SOVEREIGN Suite, exploring themes of Black Liberation and Black Joy. Over 9 months, PaviElle composed, wrote, and performed the Suite on GarageBand, and the piece was transcribed by Michi Wiancko. The future PaviElle envisions in The SOVEREIGN Suite is a bright one, where Black people are able to reconnect, finding liberty, connection with the land, and reprieve from white supremacy.
Music Video Credits: Written, Conceptualized, and Performed by PaviElle French; Producer/Editor – Peter Myers Camera – James Christenson; Lighting Design – Mark Ruark; Makeup – Ashley Leonard; Production Assistant – Shellae Mueller; Artist Consultant – Ahanti Young; Filmed in 2023 at The Southern Theatre, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
ACF Equity Summit: Lifting Up Our Youth — Interview with PaviElle French II September 2022
Saturday, September 17, 2022 Walker West Music Academy Produced by Claim Our Space Each year, ACF hosts an Artist Equity Summit that centers music creators and examines themes related to equity that impact the field and beyond. Our theme in 2022 is “Lifting Up our Youth.” This event is the culmination of artist PaviElle French’s residency with six St. Paul-based arts organizations working together as a group for the first time. Liberation! Lifting Up our Youth is PaviElle French’s vision, and comes out of our collective need and responsibility to empower our young people and give them a platform. Featured in this video: PaviElle French — Resident Artist, Liberation! Lifting up our Youth, and Stanford Thompson — Vice Chair, ACF.
The SOVEREIGN Suite Conversation with PaviElle French at the Minnesota History Center II June 2024
Join vocalist and interdisciplinary artist, PaviElle French in a screening of and conversation about her film, SOVEREIGN Suite. As a continuation of the 2021 SOVEREIGN album, the SOVEREIGN Suite album and companion film focus on themes of hope for liberty and a unified future for Black people following the political and social unrest during the pandemic and after George Floyd’s death. A community discussion with artists, musicians, and educators will follow the screening. PaviElle French (PaviElle) is a professional vocalist and interdisciplinary artist from the historically Black Rondo neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Conversation panelists include Laura Krider, Dr. Shekela Wanyama, Tish Jones, and Natalia Romero Arbeláez.
SOVEREIGN: ALIGNED || 2025
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 14th, 2025
TO PREORDER VISIT PAVIELLE’S BANDCAMP SITE!
SOVEREIGN: ALIGNED The MixTape (2025), is the project that PaviElle French created while in-residence at her Fellowship at the NEF House located at the MacDowell Residency. She wrote, and recorded this over four weeks in December 2024, and is choosing to release this album in its most purest and rawest state, as the original recordings from her solo time in the NEF house.
These songs were steeped in improvisation and PaviElle is calling this ‘experimental soul.’ She says that she is freestyling as a vocalist because a lot of verses, melodies, and harmony stacking were created on the spot. The demo tracks were also created by PaviElle on GarageBand, as what she deems a freestyle. She builds beats starting with the bass then layers with the drums by hand, then layers with pianos ect., no loops. However long the song is, is the amount of time she freestyled/built the beat. PaviElle says that she made the choice to release these tracks as the demos because she feels the intensity, openness, and heart that she laid down in her original vocals, and production cannot be duplicated in the studio. She says that this is her grown woman album, and is a nod to her favorite childhood singers.
It was an exploration of her own voice as she had the space and time to record intentionally, alone. As this time was transformative for her, spiritually, emotionally, and physically, she feels this was a channeled love letter to herself, and wishes to release it unadulterated, as a love offering to the people. Its about love, heartbreak, grief, change…all the things we as humanity face and work to move on and heal from.
This album is the fifth installment in a cannon of work she incepted in 2020, deemed, the SOVEREIGN Series (SOVEREIGN, I AM SOVEREIGN Film, SOVEREIGN Suite pts. 1 & 2, and The SOVEREIGN Suite Film).
Written, Produced, Mixed, and Performed by PaviElle French
©2025 Doll DeLuca Publishing
