Valerie Joi’s song delivery is as fluid and focused as her life. She is a minister extraordinaire and her message of unconditional love and acceptance is clear, strong and uncompromising. Listening to her sing, play or direct is an artistic and healing journey in itself.

As the Music Director for Inner Light Ministries, Valerie Joi has featured, accompanied and sung alongside artists such as Rickie Byars-Beckwith, Sista Monica, Charles Holt, Linda Tillery, Tim McAfee-Lewis, Nadine Risha, and many more. As a composer and recording artist, she has been featured as one the Director’s Top Ten Picks at the Monterey Jazz Festival and her music is featured on the television show In the Light as well as in the Showtime documentary Jumpin’ the Broom and the major motion picture film God and Gays: Bridging the Gap.

With an MBA from Rice University and a lifetime of music study and awareness, Valerie Joi is grounded in the practical and the divine. She enjoys combining her professional expertise in business management with her passion for Spirit, education, youth and of course music. Currently, she is a Practitioner of Higher Consciousness and the Minister of Music for Inner Light Ministries where she is responsible for maintaining a musical foundation of ministry. There she developed the Singing Circle Music Ministry Experience, a choral class that facilitates singing from the heart, and she founded and directs the Inner Light Choir. Valerie is also the director and instructor for the Gospel Choir at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Each of these three choirs has 60 – 100 voices.

Recently, the Inner Light Choir received an invitation to participate in a concert in Carnegie Hall. States Dennis Loy, the Conductor-in-Residence for MidAmerica Productions, “The choir received this invitation both because of the quality of musicianship demonstrated by the performers — a clear reflection of their exceptional director, Valerie Joi Fiddmont.”

Obviously, Valerie Joi is not just another musical director. She is not just another musician. First and foremost, she is a music minister, a musician’s musician, teaching and preaching music as ministry and connection. Her CD of original compositions, Singing the Sacred Yes, is a specific invitation to deepen our relationship with the Divine. And her most recent release with the incomparable pianist Tammy Hall, Remembering to Remember: Hymns for the Soul, is a soulful remembrance of traditional hymns to remind us of the beauty in the spiritual heritage of our country.

Valerie Joi is committed to sharing her ministry of love and music with students from all walks of life and she humbly, yet powerfully, calls others to join her in the intent to bless and be blessed through song.