Born in Guanabacoa in the suburbs of Havana, my musical training started at the age of 7 when I entered the Guillermo Tomas Music Conservatoire. After seven years, I gained a place at the Amadeo Roldan Conservatoire and studied with Olga Valiente, a graduate of the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow.
At the age of 18, I went to the Cuban Higher Institute of Arts for four further years of study. I was extremely happy to win a number of performance prizes in my final year, including best performance of Cuban music.
During my period at University, I also had my first jobs. I worked as a repetiteur for singers, in a Zarzuela theatre company and gained a lot of musical experience about opera and different musical genres. It was a fast paced environment requiring excellent sight-reading skills. I was also a member of an A capella singing group and was very lucky to travel to New York, Paris and Monaco (performing for the House of Grimaldi).
After my graduation I worked as a soloist, chamber musician, musical director of a singing company and pianist in a Flamenco company. I performed a number of times as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and performed on Radio and TV. I entered competitions during this period, and my biggest prize was winning the Cuban National Union of Writers Award for the best interpretation of Cuban music.
It has always been a dream of mine to do a Masters. I gained two scholarships in Calgary and Alberta in Canada but decided to come to London to the Royal College of Music where I studied for a Master in Advanced Piano (piano and harpsichord) under Nigel Clayton. I followed this course with a further year of study in harpsichord at Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Nicholas Parle. I have a real passion for baroque music and this year changed my vision of baroque performance and also improved my articulation and expressiveness in piano.
In London, I have performed as a soloist and had various musical collaborations. I have been interviewed and performed live on the BBC World Service and Radio 3. I have a duo with the exceptionally gifted and charismatic Brazilian cellist Diego Carneiro, and together we have performed a number of times in London, Brazil and Havana.
I have been interesting in introducing opera to children for many years. I developed a puppet opera project with the singer Maya Sapone and puppeteer Alex Winfield.
The script was based on a fairy tale by Grimm and the music has influences of Puccini, Verdi, jazz modern harmonies, and boogie woogie. The opera has three puppets and has melodies for children and also of interest to adults with a mixture of virtuoso piano and the theme of destructiveness of greed. It was performed at the Tete a Tete Opera festival in 2015.
Based on my experiences with this project I have formed a theatre company called Mini Operas for Mini People to familiarise young children with classical and operatic music.
My new puppet opera has a script by Maria Haik-Escudero and will be performed at the Artsdepot Theatre.
I have been working on the production of my ballet El Cochero Azul ( The Blue Coachman) which will be performed in 2021 by the Cuban Contemporary Dance Company Danza Espiral with choreography by Guillermo Luis Horta.
I have released 2 CDs, “An Afternoon in Havana” (a varied selection of Cuban music). I followed this up with “Alta Gracia” ( a selection of Cuban and Argentinian music featuring music by Lecuona, Piazolla and Guastavino). I have also completed a piano book for children and adults called Light and Jazzy. It features 15 pieces for beginner to intermediate grades.