I figure that there may be some people out there who might be interested in the long-form version of what is on my about me page.
Maybe there are some people who want to know the person behind the flute.
If this is you, thank you! Let's start from the beginning. 😊
The Beginning
It all started back in the fourth grade (I was around 9) when my dad got a flute from an old friend of his. My dad was not a musician by trade, but he always appreciated music and started to learn how to play the flute. Growing up as a first-generation Cuban-American, there was always Cuban music playing (especially on Saturday mornings when it was time to do chores).
For those who have never heard Cuban music, there is almost always a flute playing really high and really fast.
I have always been drawn to music—always. From singing songs in Disney movies to always having some sort of toy instrument in my collection, music has always been a focal point in my life.
Did you start right then and there?
Nope. Actually, my first instrument was the guitar when I was ten years old.
Yes, you read that right.
My first instrument was a classical, nylon-stringed guitar.
For my tenth birthday, my mom gave me a CD of classical guitar and I was hooked.
Within a few months, my mom started taking me to 30-minute private lessons, but I quickly lost interest.
When I started middle school, I signed up for band thinking that I could still continue the guitar (I’m not a quitter), but when I got there, the band director said: “I will only allow people who have one year of experience to play guitar or piano so that they could play in Jazz Band.”
At first, I was disappointed, but the next day there was an instrument petting zoo with lots of vendors and older kids showing the beginners the instruments. I took the brochures home and brought them to my mom. I had only one day to decide and the next day, I told my band director that I wanted to play the flute.
His response was, “Nice, that’s a beautiful instrument.”
I feel like I can’t continue this story until I add this one, very important detail:
I have an identical twin sister named Kiara and she is also a professional flutist.
People always ask, “How did you guys end up playing the same instrument?”
This was actually completely by coincidence. I was in the morning beginning band class and my sister was in the afternoon beginning band class. My first instrument was guitar and her first instrument was piano.
We both went into the beginning band wanting to play our first instruments, but we were both told no.
We did not talk to each other about what we wanted to play.
The next day, we went to school like normal (we didn’t have classes together in 6th grade) and when we got home from school, we discovered that we both picked the flute!
By this point, my dad was not playing the flute much anymore, so my first flute was actually my dad’s old flute. I was super excited, but I remember that being in the beginning band was really hard.
In my years of playing the flute (almost 16 years) and teaching and playing other woodwind instruments, I can tell you that the flute is one of the hardest instruments to start with. We had our first week of learning and the next week we had our playing test with Hot Cross Buns.
I could not get a sound and even though I knew how to read music, coordinating fingers with rhythm was always really hard.
Needless to say, I failed my first playing test and no matter how much I practiced, it felt like I wasn’t doing well.
Being the classic overachiever that I am, I practiced my butt off. I was fortunate that my middle school band program was really good, so even without private lessons, I learned so much and was able to improve through sheer determination. There was a point in time where I was 1st chair in the Wind Ensemble and could play my scales faster than everyone else.
14-year-old me thought that she knew everything that I needed to know about the flute. I was really close to quitting.
Boy, was I WRONG!
I went to a high school that was not well-funded and the band program was tiny (like a 20 piece marching band small). The band program was also playing music that was easier than what I played in my award-winning middle school.
This was around the time that my best friend YouTube came out (okay, I’m dating myself a little bit).
Before YouTube, I had no idea what a flutist better than me sounded like.
My eyes were forever opened and I said, “I want to sound like THAT.” 😱😱😱
I had never heard any of the standard flute music and on my quest to find something that was challenging but not too hard, I realized that I needed private lessons.
My parents were very hard workers and understood that I needed lessons, but coming from a large family and having two sisters who are the same age as me, that was impossible.
When it was time for Solo & Ensemble, I pulled up the list that Florida had and I listened to all of the solos that were within my level that could qualify me for the district level and the state level. I knew that I needed help, so I made it a point to use any money that I received for my birthday and Christmas for flute lessons.
My mom at first didn't understand why I wanted to take lessons, but when I told her, she was committed to taking me to lessons every single week from November to February from my sophomore year to my senior year.
In every solo & ensemble festival, every honor band festival, and every all-state audition, people would always say, “Oh my goodness, you’re so talented! How are you not taking private lessons?” In one of these festivals in my junior year, I got to play David Maslanka’s Give Us This Day with Gary Green as the conductor and I have to say, this was the piece that made me decide that I wanted to be a professional musician.
And then what?
I went into the end of my junior year wanting so badly to get myself ready for college and in desperate need of an upgrade.
During the summer before my senior year of high school, I went to a music camp and I met a flute teacher who would become my first real flute teacher in college.
In the middle of this camp, my dad surprised me and got me a brand new open hole flute from a local music store. I knew I wanted to go to college for music, but I had no idea how to get started.
Being first-generation Cuban-American and being a part of the first generation in my family that had either gone to college or was planning to go to college, I had no idea where I wanted to apply.
After all of the honor festivals and all-state auditions that I did, I became very aware of my level. I decided to apply to a bunch of state schools and my one reach school (basically my dream school).
After all of my auditions, I was rejected from nearly every school except for one school.
Needless to say, I was pretty heartbroken.
At the very last minute, the teacher that I met at the music camp called me and told me that she really wanted me to go to the two-year college where she taught.
I was offered a full scholarship and an opportunity to play in a woodwind quintet, so it was a no-brainer.
In my first lesson with my teacher, she told me:
“You’ve done really well on your own, but I want to help you become the flutist that you deserve to be.”
My teacher gave me opportunities to work hard, perform often, and play pieces that I never thought I could play. In this two-year school, there was no distinction between Music Education or Music Performance, but I originally thought that I would go into education because I thought it was the “safe” route and I had no idea what someone could do studying performance.
OK, go on…
My perspective changed towards the end of my sophomore year of college when I heard the New World Symphony play for the first time.
They played Stravinsky’s Petrouchka and I instantly fell in love. I decided at that moment that I didn’t just want to be a teacher and I didn’t want to be a band director—I wanted to perform.
I had no idea what I was in for, but when I was met with the decision of either continuing and studying Music Education or Music Performance.
Ultimately, I decided that once I transferred, I would study Flute Performance because I wanted to play in an orchestra and teach flute (like a flute professor).
I went from being one of the best in my small, two-year college to being a middle of the pack flutist in the conservatory-style university where I finished my undergrad.
There, I came to the startling realization that I still had lots to learn and there were flutists out there who had lessons from the beginning.
Two and a half years and three teachers later, I graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Flute Performance.
But it doesn’t end there, right?
Nope.
I decided that in order to do anything important in the music industry, I needed to get a Master’s degree.
I auditioned twice and then decided to take some time off between the degrees (college auditions are really expensive).
During this time, I practiced a lot, I taught at a non-profit organization, and I had a 9-5 job where I was able to save money to pay for applications, transcripts, and traveling.
The universe is funny sometimes…
During all of this time, I kept in touch with a teacher at a university where I did a summer masterclass for two summers (Imagine a whole week filled with flutists, flute music, flute classes where someone would play for an audience of flutists).
She heard me play in the two years that I went and she kept my contact information.
I was shopping around for schools (I didn’t know this was a thing) and I really wanted to go to a top-notch school.
In hindsight, because hindsight is always 20-20, what you want is not always what you need.
I auditioned for different types of schools and in one visit to the university, a trial lesson, and an audition later, I made my decision.
I decided that after two and a half years of hard work, it was my time to go to grad school.
How was grad school?
Grad school was lots of fun and I learned so much thanks to my really amazing teacher, but it was really difficult.
First, I was beating myself up for taking time off from school because I wanted to finish by a certain age.
Second, I was a part of not just a flute studio but a flute family of wonderful people and flutists—something that I never had coming from small schools.
I got to play in masterclasses, I performed in settings that I never thought I would get to perform in (Me? A soloist with an orchestra? No way!), and I went to my first flute conventions (Think Disney World, but everything is flute related).
I’m super grateful for what my grad school journey brought to me and I am so excited to share it with you!
Thanks for making it to the end! 😊
Interested in learning more about flute lessons? Click HERE to head over to my lessons page!
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