We were lucky to catch up with Alfonsina Torrealba recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alfonsina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

With much, so much patience and above all a very intimate desire to achieve it, to learn. It is as if what I do, music, knowing that it is language to communicate and to express outwardly, was only achieved from a great inner impulse, from my own individuality. As in everything, it would have been easier to grow up in an environment where this could really be seen as a professional path, something to devote our whole life to, which was not my case. Although my learning process could have been faster, I appreciate the fact that it started late, since it was mainly my will that put her foot down and says: this is what I want to learn, this is what I want to dedicate my whole life to! We need a lot of resilience and creativity; discipline to be constant as learning is slow and very personal. At the same time, I believe that the best orchestral conductors and musicians in general are those able to leave our “musical sphere”, to investigate other areas of knowledge. It is very easy to get locked in ourselves and the demands of our discipline… and we end up turning off a part of us! I think the biggest obstacle may be mentors and teachers who can’t see your capabilities and don’t help you reach your full potential. The problem is that in this quest you can have bad luck or good luck, and advance copiously in your development as a musician, or get stock and even go back with a teacher without vocation (something very common in the old music conservatories).

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am an orchestral and choral conductor, but above all I am a musician with the mission of getting music everywhere. It can be through conducting, teaching or as a performer, singing or playing the flute, conducting the choir of some hidden village. Currently my closest place of action are the young orchestras with musicians who are starting their professional career, not only from the musical direction but as a project manager, trying to value their incredible work and effort, Performing concerts in places where classical and symphonic music is not common. Also, doing online classes to people from literally all continents, especially helping people who cannot access a music school because they have difficult schedules to match, are working mothers or students with many activities.
As a musician who has been in a lot of different places, I think what my greatest perks is the ability to take the leap and “go out”, look for new opportunities in new places, meet all that variety of points of views and ways to feel and connect… Being a nomad, moving from one place to another, makes you empathic and understanding about how to move, to dig in the different communities towards an artistic project. All the people I have known and have known me, absolutely all of them, deserve to live the experience of music, in small and large formats, like orchestral music. Adapting to so many changes gives me the ability to connect with those communities and achieve things together. Also, I think my concern for all musical styles and other disciplines helps me to understand the ways in which Music can actually be in your life, in your profession, in your vocation, in your family, in the organization, even in a major social struggle such as combating individualism and promoting solidarity. In summary, I guess that my biggest brand, in a very complex and perfectionist world as the orchestral conducting one, is the fact that I’m not hiding of being human!…

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Societies and peoples of the world must ask, listen and share music! Learn to research what music you like, do not settle for what they present in a passive way, be critical consumers and themselves feel creative and open-minded to be surprised and touched by any kind of music (whether symphonic, electronic, R&B, bossa nova…). Creative people really want their “creations” to be shared by other people, we seek to do things that transcend the routine of people. That’s exactly what we need with the music. As long as the human being seeks to express his feelings and feelings that are unique, we creative people will have fertile ground on which to work. This is not only translated in practical terms, like going to a concert: it’s stopping to listen, to look, to taste what another person has for you in any time of your daily life.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Yes, something very important. It is true that I said that one of the great skills a good musician needs is to be able to leave our “musical sphere”, to investigate other areas of knowledge, to live a life outside our creative work. The problem is that we have a lot of trouble doing that! At least among my friends and colleagues who share this profession, we live and grow through music: we breathe music, eat music, think about it constantly! It is more difficult than usual for us to separate our professional life from our personal life, our hobbies or our family life. That means that the journey of a musician or any creative will involve having moments where the musical seems to be above everything, like being “in the zone”, where coming out of that moment of inspiration can be very frustrating or annoying. So don’t be angry if your creative friend/girlfriend/boyfriend/son/daughter doesn’t pay you the attention you deserve for a few minutes! :D probably we are onto something at the “creative planet”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alfonsinatorrealba.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfonsina.torrealba/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/raton.cosmico
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfonsina-torrealba-conductor/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaG9yFblVBx0dH4t6fuCZDg
• Other: https://www.torremarstudio.com

Image Credits

photos by Shabnam Kermani and Jesús Martínez