Kristi Matal

Kristi Matal grew up in a family that loved music, especially singing harmony. In third grade, she joined her first church choir and as an alto, started learning the vocabulary of group harmony.  At the age of 10, she began guitar lessons, which proved to be a turning point in her musical development. Years later she understood that leading singing around the campfire on family vacations helped hone leadership skills useful in musical environments and in life. Kristi says that hearing choral harmonies ring always takes her “home.” From youth to adulthood, she has sung in church and school choirs, conducted an inter-faith church choir, and has sung as a soloist at special events.

Kristi’s late mother, Ellie, loved literature and poetry and instilled in Kristi a love of writing poetry which blossomed into songwriting. Her father, Cotty, has sung in a barbershop chorus for over 40 years.

In 2020, she joined a community choir as, tragically, the pandemic shut down live choral performances. During that time, Jim Parr, Jr., the choir’s Artistic Director, heard Kristi’s original song, ”Love Beyond Love”, from her album, “Journeys”, and thought the message of friendship and kindness would make a wonderful song for the choir. They contacted Mark Hayes, the internationally recognized composer/arranger, who created a magnificent arrangement. In May 2022, the choir performed the world premiere of the song.
 

Her album, “Journeys”, is available on Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music and YouTube. On the album, Kristi sings her own songs and several covers in a variety of styles:  folk, pop and jazz.

Kristi believes that music truly divides our sorrows and multiplies our joys. Her motto is: “Let’s laugh, and dance and sing!”