Music is sound, but sound itself is also music.
My name is Rachel Catallo, founder of © EarthPop Studios LLC, and this is my story. From a very young age, I was embraced by sound. My home was infused with folk songs from around the globe and I was raised to open my mind to different traditions and cultures. As a native Seattleite, I grew older, yet the genre described as world or ethnic music became what I sought most to appreciate.
Singing was a natural talent bestowed upon me when I entered the world. I took every opportunity to get involved with local groups where I could express my emotions through the power of the human voice. I became entirely at awe with the rich musical history and spirituality of the Jews, my cultural heritage, and at 11 years of age I began training for my Bat Mitzvah. Through tireless instruction and tutoring, I sang ancient stories about the Life of Sarah (חַיֵּי שָׂרָה), and had in-turn walked through the doors of womanhood.
Though I still felt like a child [at 12], My Bat Mitzvah ceremony was my right of passage and it most certainly caused me to dig deeper into the music and ceremonial practices of archaic Judaism, as well as contrastive cultures around the globe. Listening and studying, led to craving, which ultimately led to seeking-out where I fit-in in the world of music.
The beauty of uncommon folk melodies from around the world saturates every fiber of my being. I connect with music that I do not directly understand- our languages may be different, but our souls are speaking on a much deeper, vibrational level.
I seek to understand this music through my own personal acculturation and collaboration with those on different corners of the world. I have dreamt of a worldwide tapestry of religious, cultural, and musical richness- all woven together through the many facets of art. This not only involves musical performance, but also storytelling, interviews, recorded nature-sounds, and other naturally sampled on-location sound effects.
Growing up, I studied piano and guitar, and got involved with various Chamber, Bel Canto, A Capella and Jazz choirs. Visualizing the life of a performing artist, I began shaping myself through various recitals based on song and dance at the UCLA Musical Theater Conservatory. Eventually, I was guided into the world of Jazz and studied as a trained vocalist through Cornish College of the Arts with Ms. Beth Winter. Due to my extensive training, I performed with an assortment of quartets and quintets in Jazz bars in both New York and Seattle. The exposure I gained gave me a solid foundation to build my life upon.
My love of cultural music allowed me to start singing and collaborating with music producers around the globe. I’ve recorded an assortment of styles including techno/trance, electronic, folk, operetta, ambient/experimental, pop, a capella, jazz, rock, funk and hip-hop.
These experiences led me to the Art Institute of Seattle for a Bachelor of Science in Audio Engineering and Music Production. I record various eclectic music groups, as well as create voice-overs for differing products and/or events. More specifically, I hunt for traditional folk music from around the world that has had very little exposure to the general public. I do not wish to exploit; I wish to musically connect, and preserve the sounds on our planet that will eventually go extinct. I am driven to travel to wherever life takes me in order to record, and learn about different groups of people through their music. My goals lie in the preservation of both a time and space. Like photographers, © EarthPop Studios focuses on Phonography: taking pictures in sound.
Whether its recording tropical birds overseas or traffic at rush hour, on-location sound has become a very important element in my mission to interpret the world around us through sound.
© Earthpop Studios; recording the earth, one sound at a time.
Contact me directly at Naku.catallo[at]gmail[dot]com
Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/rachel-catallo
Myspace Music: https://myspace.com/rachelcatallo/music/songs
Follow My Instagram! http://instagram.com/earthpopstudios
(For more information on Ethnomusicology, click here.)
EarthPop Studios 
Rachel! You are awesome… The world needs this, More power to you and your very unique and original perspective on musical intelligence. I’m glad we were in school together!
That means the world to me Jacques ❤
I’m definitely a fan of the last two paragraphs. Lately, my interests have been in various gamelan and the dutar; are you familiar with the latter, Rachel?
Found this video of the Dutar. Do you have more valuable information?
Pretty nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have truly loved browsing your weblog posts.
After all I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
Hi there. Are you a published researcher of music as well? I am an editor of a research journal. There is an article on musicology of Bukidnon, a tribal group of southern Philippines. I need to link with a researcher on this topic. Please help. Thanks.
While my degree was in audio engineering, I have passionately recorded, studied, researched topics within the realm of ethnomusicology. I have a general post on music from the Philipines (did you see that?) Looks like you want to go deeper. Let me know particularly what you’re looking for so I can offer my assistance.