Check Out Suuvi’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Suuvi.

Hi Suuvi, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I first heard a cello the day I came home from the hospital as a newborn. My father was a cellist and determined to make one out of me, too, so it was quite literally a part of my life since birth. I started taking formal lessons when I was two, got accepted to Juilliard when I was ten, moved alone as a teenager to Paris and later Berlin to continue my studies, and came back full circle to NY to do an Artist Diploma at Juilliard in 2019.

All I had ever thought I wanted since I was a kid was to be a classical cello soloist. By my early 20s, I felt that I’d been achieving so many of the milestones I’d ever dreamed of, performing in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Berlin Philharmonie, etc. However, I also recognized that I was no longer fulfilled by the path I was on and felt miserable and lost.

Right after being awarded a Carnegie Hall debut, a prize Juilliard gives one postgrad student a year, I did the complete opposite of what everyone expected me to do and, on a whim, bought a one-way ticket to LA with absolutely no plan besides the intention of training martial arts every day (a big passion of mine) and learning everything I could about music that wasn’t classical music. I knew maybe five people in the city, but I decided to treat it as an experiment where I’d say “yes” to everything that came my way and see how things panned out.

Within a few weeks, I was working with hip-hop and electronic producers and somehow ended up doing two back-to-back tours, one of which was broadcast by Amazon Music and Livenation and had me opening for some of my favorite pop and R&B singers. By this point, something in me started to click, and I realized that I could use the skills, ear, knowledge, and experience I’d developed from my classical training and apply them to any genre of music that interested me. Most of my time since then has been devoted to figuring out how to stick the cello in anything and everything, plus have fun and work with good people while doing it.

LA is one of the most random and spontaneous places I’ve ever seen, as well as one of the most collaborative and creative environments I’ve experienced. It’s a cliché, but it feels like everyone here just wants to make something, and if you want to as well, are cool to hang with, and can bring something artistically valuable to the table, you’ll probably be invited to join the party too. Virtually every project I’ve worked on since I moved here has happened in such an organic and authentic way that I’ve rarely experienced elsewhere- it’s what I truly love about the ethos of this city.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth roads aren’t interesting to me (granted, I’m the person on the plane who actually loves and enjoys turbulence)! I think there’s so much to be said about the right amount of adversity and how it shapes you. There were and continue to be so many challenges along the way, but I like to treat them as life tests where you’re given the opportunity to overcome whatever hurdle is in your way and grow. A friend of mine the other day said he stopped playing video games when he realized that the best video game is life and that treating each chapter of it like a quest you have to master in order to level up makes getting through the obstacles fun.

I used to hide my struggles because I thought people would view them as weaknesses, but now I see them as indelible parts of my story and character that have shaped who I am. I don’t think I would be nearly as resilient, secure, or stoic of a person if I hadn’t had to overcome a lot of low points throughout my life. I was having my best year yet in 2020 when the pandemic suddenly shut down live music and left me without work for nearly two years. I’m comfortable talking about it now, but at the time few people knew that I lost my apartment, ended up hugely in debt, and slept on friends’ couches up until I finished my degree at Juilliard/Columbia. Nobody knew that I took the subway to Carnegie Hall when I had my sold-out recital there and was eating out of a vending machine at the time- which just shows that some of the most glamorous moments are often hiding a reality that people don’t share.

I also struggled with severe clinical depression and anxiety for virtually all my life until this year, when I finally prioritized taking care of my mental health and began addressing a lot of underlying issues I’d suppressed for most of my life. Mental health is still so stigmatized, which I find extremely disappointing because so many of us struggle with it and feel like we can’t talk about it or ask for help without being shamed. I spent years in therapy, self-medicating/harming, and having extreme panic attacks resulting from what I’ve now been able to process and understand were a series of abusive relationships and dynamics I experienced for much of my life.

Coming to peace with my past, along with maintaining a routine of self-care, including Transcendental Meditation, Neurofeedback Therapy, and other healthy practices, has made me the best version of myself I’ve ever been able to offer to the people around me. People nowadays always comment on how calm I am, which is the total opposite of what anyone would have said about me in the past when I was in the height of my neuroticism. I’m proof that you can start in a very low place and actually become a happy and confident person. I say that because I think it’s so important to show an example of healthy, positive change. I would have been cynical of it myself in the past, but here I am now!! I truly hope that anyone else going through it now who hears my story might be more inclined to believe that there can be another path.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
The short answer is “playing the cello”, but there’s much more going on than just that. My work overlaps with so many other worlds, including film, dance, fashion, visual art, activism, education, and more. Within the musical space, I’m known for being an interdisciplinary artist who likes collaborating with other artistic mediums, particularly dance and movement artists, and working across musical genres.

Even before I branched out beyond purely classical music, I was always a maverick within the genre because of my refusal to conform to its structures in everything from how I dressed/looked to my affinity for bringing classical cello into non-traditional venues like nightclubs and warehouse spaces. I’ve been called a disruptor, and I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to maintain an open mind and willingness to learn that have allowed me to adapt and pivot into new spaces more than most of the people around whom I grew up. This has translated into my ability to work with so many different genres musically, as well as a high level of comfort with diverse groups of people from all sorts of backgrounds.

It also means that I’m adept at wearing all sorts of hats and being on both sides of the artist’s life. In addition to my work as a performing and recording artist, I’m also a producer and often am secretly the force planning and pushing for whatever final product people experience in the end. Whether it’s organizing the performance or designing the clothes I’m wearing, I always have very clear artistic visions for whatever it is I’m creating and like having my own creative input in as many aspects of it as possible. This does often mean that I will stay awake way too late and work absurdly long hours (I’m known for showing up on no sleep and working up to 36-hour days), but luckily I love my work, so even this is super fulfilling and something for which I’m grateful.

What are your plans for the future?
New music! I just finished recording several original musical works I’m truly proud of and I’m insanely excited to be releasing and performing them over the next few months. I don’t think I’ve ever spent as much time in the studio in my life as I did this summer, but the result of many 16-hour sessions is an album of twelve pieces for piano and cello by composer Paul Leonard-Morgan and two EPs I made in collaboration with composer/producer Pedro Osuna (both are also dear friends)!

One of the EPs will be my first work featuring solo cello and electronics, a soundscape into which I’ve delved deeply over the last year and am continuing to explore. The second contains an original piece exploring my Cuban heritage that was made in collaboration with BODYTRAFFIC, a contemporary dance company whose choreographer (and fellow Cuban!), Joan Rodriguez, choreographed the work. We’ll be premiering the full piece with all the dancers on October 6 and 7 in LA at The Wallis, and it will continue to be toured throughout the coming months around the country.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.callmesuuvi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/callmesuuvi
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/callmesuuvi
• Youtube: http://youtube.com/@callmesuuvi