We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sabrea Aijalon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sabrea, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I think I was four years old. I grew up singing and was in a pretty musically inclined family but for some reason I didn’t picture pursing being an Artist professionally until after I graduated college. I went to college for musical theatre because for some reason in my brain that was the only path I could go to school for to pursue singing as my career. My thoughts didn’t shift until I started going to musical theater auditions and realized it made me so nervous. I loved performing all my life up until that point. I got in my head and started to question not only my craft but myself. So I decided to put my energy towards the thing that I did feel confident in and the thing that did make me happy, which was my own original music!
Sabrea, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hello! My name is Sabrea Aijalon and I’m a Haitian, Mexican, and Native American performer based in NYC and LA. I’m a songwriter, actress, producer, and filmmaker. I didn’t break into the “Artist scene” until about a year ago where I started performing my original music live all over NYC with my band! Last year I also hit a milestone of having my song ‘Regal’ hit 40,000 streams! In addition to my music, I also run a Musical Theater Cabaret Series in NYC to help new performers like myself break into such a saturated and tough industry. Upon graduating college, I was performing in cabarets myself and honestly my experience was so frustrating. The producers either were charging an absurd amount of money to perform, or to change or song, or even would threaten to kick us out of the show if we didn’t bring a certain amount of people to the performance. So I, along with help of my amazing friend and Creative Director, Daniela Diaz, decided to start a new Cabaret Series titled Solstice Sessions/Selections held at Don’t Tell Mama and 54 Below as a way to break this mold and let performers just come and perform and showcase their talents in whatever way they see fit and not have to worry about anything! New York City is expensive as is, but especially for young adults trying to make a name for themselves and just break into a hard industry, they shouldn’t need extra financial burdens on top of that. It makes me so happy for the amount of performers we get that get to make their Off-Broadway and NYC debuts through the cabaret series and it’s truthfully so heartwarming and fulfilling.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
The best way society can support artists and creatives is by showing their support. I think often times people think if they can’t show up on the day of the event then that’s the end all be all but it doesn’t have to be! There’s tons of other ways you can support creatives besides that day of thing. Resharing a post, liking, commenting, unfortunately we do live in an era where social media holds so much power over an audience so something as small as a like or a comment or a reshare genuinely goes such a long way! Even shooting that person a message like “Hey I’m sorry I couldn’t make it tonight but break a leg, I’m sure it’ll be amazing, can’t wait to hear and see all about it!” Just knowing and getting that reassurance that there are people in your corner and people that want to see you succeed helps a lot too. Anything arts related is so tough and I think a lot of artists and creatives struggle on the mental aspect of things too so having people check in on us automatically is so grounding and just re centers us.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect for me as an artist is finding out I’m not alone. When people reach out to me about a song I post and say that it really resonated with them and helped them out, it makes me feel so seen and heard. It’s a beautiful exchange between a writer and their listeners where both parties are getting this reciprocity of just feeling like an understood human being and that’s always been my favorite part about music.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sabreaaijaloncuriel.com/
- Instagram: @sabreaaijalon
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SabreaAijalon
- Other: Spotify, Apple Music, All Streaming Platforms: Sabrea Aijalon (Curiel)
Image Credits
Daniela Diaz