Maria Isa on Music and Arts Education

photo by B Fresh Photography

How did you get into making music, and how did arts education (or lack thereof) affect you and your music?

I came into making music because I grew up around musicians, and I was influenced by different styles of music through the many vocalists in my family. My grandmother, Aminta Ortiz-Perez from Ponce, Puerto Rico, sang Tango, Boleros, and Plena; my grandfather, Felix Jesus Perez from San Juan, Puerto Rico, played the trumpet and was a vocalist; my aunt, Mila Llauger, sang Jazz back in the 1960s and 1970s, making a name for her in the Chicago Jazz scene, as well as touring with Tony Bennett and many other greats. What really caught my attention were the presence of Salsa artists Eddie Palmieri and the late “King of Latin Percussion” Tito Puente, both of whom would visit my family each time they were booked to perform in the Twin Cities.

La India performed at the Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in 1997, and she invited me (ten years old at the time) to come on stage with her. I heard her being backed by an amazing orchestra, on a big stage, and a packed crowd with tremendous positive energy. It was the best feeling in the world… the warmth of stage lights and great ambiance of the sound.

Leaving a Salsa-Jazz concert, to a home where my brother and older cousins would be holding cyphers over beats, writing in black books capturing the smell of Sharpies, my cousins spinning on cardboard boxes in the basement while the elders drank rum, played dominos, banged congas and continued to talk about the old days in New York and Puerto Rico… I loved it all. It was real, and I knew that performing the fusion that surrounded me is what I wanted to do for a living. These are the ingredients of my stew.

If I didn’t have any arts education I believe I wouldn’t be where I am, as an artist, today. In 1992 my aunt Mila Llauger and my mother Elsa Vega-Perez opened El Arco Iris Center for the Arts in St. Paul, MN. El Arco Iris Center for the Arts is a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve the Afro-Caribbean and Latino cultures through the arts.

I began my arts education there, learning about subjects my school hadn’t provided. I was raised performing and learning about the traditional rhythms of my Puerto Rican ancestry, as well as folklore dances, songs, rhythms and crafts from Mexico, Colombia, West Africa, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Panama. We were taught by some of the best in the field, ranging from local, national and international known artists. El Arco Iris brings together a blend of cultures through the arts and the politics of culture.

Take each opportunity and experience it as a lesson; always study the different sides of a subject. Take advantage of the privilege that is the human mind. As in any field, an education is the most important tool for success, and nobody can have too much of an education.

This post is part of our 60-hour blogathon in support of music development and literacy within the Twin Cities. We appreciate you visiting the site – but before you go, we ask that you consider clicking the Donors Choose banner below and giving what you can to help enrich the lives of a number of local children through music and reading. Thank you. – Culture Bully