Today we’d like to introduce you to Dayren Santamaria.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born in Matanzas, Cuba. My mother was a theater actress and my father a clarinet player, at the age of six, they asked me if I wanted to play an instrument and I quickly chose the violin. I started at the age of seven, at the boarding school of Arts in Matanzas and continued my studies in La Habana where I graduated from the National School of Arts.
In 1995, I started my first professional job as part of the first violin section at the National Symphony Orchestra in Habana. Four years later, I was still searching for my passion within the music and different music styles I was experiencing; then, in 1999, I left the Symphony Orchestra and became a member of a Female Chamber Orchestra, still in the search of what would make me smile inside/out as a human and as a musician I defected on a tour in Tampa, Florida back in 2002.
And there started another chapter in my life. I found amazing friends that became my family in the States. Amanda Garces and Gabriel (Puly) Sequeira treated me like a daughter in so many ways. They showered me with advice, love, strength, and hope; Amanda was always and still is very protective and Puly taught me all the wonderful and rich tradition and classic Cuban most famous songs and standards; his musicianship is amazing! He recorded background music (tracks) for me to start working on my own.
He would teach me the songs and then he would play the piano, then the bass, and added the drum sequences from his keyboard. Still, today if anyone hires me for a solo gig, I bring those tracks to accompany me (there are over three hours of music in those tracks). After I started performing here and there with Puly’s tracks, people started to hire me more and more. They liked how I was blending in my repertoire the Cuban music (with my own and very personal way of improvising) with Jazz and world’s famous standards.
Thanks to Puly, I began to play with a Cuban band at a restaurant on Davis Island and there I found that my passion is to perform Cuban music (while improvising and of course DANCING). I felt so free and happy inside out! That happiness was feeding and restoring my heart and nostalgic feelings. I went on to perform with Tampa’s famous Fred Johnson, Gumbi Ortiz, Belinda Womack, Puly’s band and with other great musicians, at different projects and venues.
Thanks to Amanda, Puly and many other beautiful friends from Tampa, I started to work on my Master’s Degree on Music and Performance at the University of South Florida (USF) and met there my favorite violin teacher Carolyn Stuart. While my English was improving, while I was learning new flavors of food and life, the busy student spirit was filling up part of my heart that was empty from the nostalgy of my family in Cuba and the certainty that my mom was very sad without having her only child close to her.
Once the music department at USF knew I played/performed with tracks, they started to hire me to perform at many of their events. I finished my Master’s Degree in 2005 and that year, my mom came to join me in Tampa, and two years later we moved to Los Angeles. Even though we were in LA, I got hired (and still get hired) a few times to perform at USF events by the beautiful and energetic President Judy Genshaft. Life in LA was very different. We adjusted and are still learning to adjust in many ways.
After arriving to LA, I started working with great groups, and little by little I got to meet wonderful musicians. I got hired to be a member of “Andy Garcia & CineSon All-Stars” and “Jose RIzo’s Mongorama” where I met Oscar Hernandez who because one of my best friends, and I asked him if he could arrange some originals that I had. We did my CD in 2015 with my own very little budget and I loved it because it was like a live performance. We recorded it in eight hours (Day one: Band (four hours). Day two: Lead Vocals/Background Vocals: 2 hours and Violin: two hours).
Currently, I perform with my band “Dayren Santamaria & Made In Cuba”, with “Jose Rizo’s Mongorama”, with “Andy Garcia & CineSon All Stars”, Hubert Laws, and with other bands as well. Besides performing on my own, I am the Musical Director and violinist for a Hispanic TV Show “Noches Con Platanito” (Estrella TV). I became the MD a year ago and it is a very challenging task, where I compose jingles, songs to welcome the guests and do arrangements of the latest hits for each beginning and ending of the segments. It is something new for me and I am loving the learning process … that I believe never ends.
In 2009, I gave birth to a beautiful princess that gives me so much love, strength, and happiness each time I look at her! We are doing homeschooling and sometimes I don’t have enough time to sleep when all of my responsibilities collide, but I love every bit of my life. It makes me very happy that my daughter can come with me when I perform in Tampa or any other city, state or country, and we can still do schooling from every place. One of the reasons we are homeschooling is because of my schedule, and I have always dreamt with performing at International Jazz and Music Festivals with my band, and homeschooling fits perfectly.
The lack of musical representation/booking agent overwhelms me sometimes because I need to focus on booking, negotiations, finding sponsors, posting pictures, flyers … and that’s time that I am not practicing, creating, doing homeschooling with my daughter or cooking for her and my mom. I do believe and understand now more than ever that a good booking agent/manager is essential for an artist in so many ways.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Yes! There are obstacles, many of them, and I pushed them away and/or find a way to improve the circumstances and/or jump over them.
Not having a booking agent is an obstacle. Doing many things on my own (professionally and personally it’s a challenge, that I have to keep overcoming until it is time for a change or for another chapter in my life.
Dayren Santamaria Band Name: Dayren Santamaria & Made In Cuba – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a band leader. My band name is Dayren Santamaria & Made In Cuba, We play Afro-Cuban Jazz. I have my own unique style of improvising and dancing while playing my violin. We did our first CD in 2015, all original music and now are ready for the second CD as well full of beautiful, heartful originals.
The combination of the great melodies, with the arrangements, the musicianship, and talent, with the moves and dances set us apart from other bands. We will be performing this Saturday, December 22, 2018 at Catalina Jazz Club (on Sunset Blvd, Hollywood).
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Even though I have accomplished several or many things (professionally and personally), I would be able to admit to myself that I am successful when I have reached that professional and personal goal.
Professional Success for me is to book three International Music/Jazz Festivals per year, and seven shows in the country (per year). The seven shows, I do … the combination of both its successes for/to me.
Personal Success is to give my daughter the best education, to care about our wellness, nutrition, to keep learning how to take better care of our bodies and minds, to live our lives as healthy inside and outside as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dayren.com
- Phone: 813-220-2190
- Email: yanisel5@hotmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dayrensantamaria/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DayrenMadeInCuba/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/dayrenviolin
Image Credit:
Deidhra Fahey, Analinda Meneses, Lawrence Rush & Artisan Events
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