Sheila del Bosque Visits Section 36!

Section 36 Music has another visitor! Sheila del Bosque is a talented flutist and composer, and I was so glad she was willing to visit with us and discuss her music, her future goals, and more. I’m sure you’ll love everything she has to say.

So, let's see what happens when Sheila del Bosque visits Section 36!

I really enjoyed your single “Si mi Isla Fuese Niño”. What can you tell me about it? 

This is a song I recorded live with my trio at BPC (Berklee Performance Center) for promotional purposes on the eve of playing in the Next Generation Jazz Festival 2019. It was a song I composed from the nostalgia of missing Cuba and having that idealistic vision of my country and its inner child. The translation of the song’s title is: “If my Island were a child”, and it’s a song about dreams and possibilities. What if my country were a child and where is that happy and dreamy child of my country, were questions I asked myself when I was composing this song. It’s a mix of the Cuban rhythmic elements, with some Jazz harmonies and simple and cantabiles melodies ending in that danceable moment when you feel that no matter what, life and love are the strongest reasons to celebrate, and that’s something that Cuba has to spare.

You’re currently attending Berklee College of Music. What’s the most important thing that is doing for your career?

Opening my tool bag for creativity and making me feel part of a

family where boundaries of countries, religion, or race don’t matter at all. I was born on an Island where the flow of diversity is not very common. I had the opportunity of traveling outside Cuba at the age of 19, taking my music to countries such as South Korea, Mexico, Germany, and the US, but the experience of visiting a country for a short time doesn’t compare with the experience of years nourishing yourself from such varied cultures and a college with a community as diverse as Berklee. I have changed my vision about music and I have started the path of finding my own voice.

As a composer, what do you enjoy about scoring for a film?

Bring life to an image, that’s just a magical experience. Music is a fundamental component of the image, and the support it provides to reinforce the content and the emotion that you want to convey is crucial. It is a job that takes a lot of effort, especially when you start in the industry, cause you start in projects without much budget, where you have to compose, orchestrate, play, mix and master all the music. But you learn a lot from all the process and the experience you gain working with directors and their visions of the world of images.

Who/what would you consider to be your biggest musical influences?

Finding something new and special to tell requires listening to a great number of musicians who have been a reference for different generations. My biggest influences are hard to say cause I listen constantly to a lot of music, but some special people to mention are Orlando Valle “Maraca”, Richard Egües, Chucho Valdés, Osaín del Monte, Hubert Laws, Bill Evans, Emmanuel Pahud, Tchaikovsky and Bach. These influences are so diverse and that’s the result of my music, a unique DNA code that creates my sonic world. 

Other than COVID, what would you say is your biggest career challenge?

I think the most important thing, even more in times of COVID, is not to lose the internal flame of creativity and the desire to be in constant motion. My challenge will always be to be in constant search and experimentation, to know how to reinvent myself, and more than anything, to be consequent with what I think and express in my music.

What are your immediate career goals?

For a long time, I have wanted to make an album with my compositions and some arrangements. The idea is to make an album with the flute as the protagonist from what I call the two shores, Cuba and the US. To make an album that brings together Latin American and American musicians. May the music be able to unite us in a single language that politics has separated so much. I also have a beautiful project to make a repertoire book for flutists about Cuban music. Unfortunately, in our country, Cuban popular music is not given enough importance in the study programs of the academy and I want to break with that little by little. Can’t wait to share more details soon about that but has been a musical dream for a while.

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Those sound like great goals. I can't wait to see what happens with them!

As always, I want to thank Sheila for visiting, and for sending along the pictures to accompany the interview.

I know you’ll all want to follow along with Sheila to see what she's up to. The best way is to follow her online on Instagram, and visit her website. They’re great ways to make sure you don't miss a thing!

You can also visit her Section 36 Music page. There you'll find more links, music samples, and pictures. It's a great way to enjoy everything Sheila has to offer all in one place.

Thanks again Sheila, and good luck reaching your goals!