Sheila Blanco
Sheila Blanco
Sheila Blanco (Salamanca, 1982) is a Spanish singer, journalist and teacher of singing. She is primarily known for being a vocal coach on the Spanish version of La Voz Kids (The Voice Kids). She went viral for his Bioclassics videos, in which he narrated the story of two of the best classical music composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Biography
Sheila Blanco was born in Salamanca, Spain where she studied classical piano and bel canto at the professional conservatory.
At the age of 16, Sheila began to sing and play her own compositions in bars and concert halls.
In 2005, she graduated in Audiovisual Communication from the Pontifical University of Salamanca and after finishing her studies she moved to Madrid.
In an interview in the newspaper El País, the artist says that her love for music arises from her childhood thanks to the influence of her parents who are also passionate about music. Her mother was a singer and Sheila keeps the memory of her mother's harmonious voice alive, she remembers playing and listening to the tunes of the great composers on the house piano, on the sound system and in every moment of her routine life. Sheila affirms that “for her as well as for her sisters, the musical pedagogy in the conservatory accompanied the other teachings of her youth”[17].
Living in Madrid, Sheila combines her work as a radio and TV journalist with music for several years until in 2009 she decided to withdraw from the media, left journalism and devoted herself to singing, playing and composing while continuing to study.
From that moment on, music is her center and for her, music is:
An ungraspable art like no other and listening to a note, a melody, a song, listening to an instrument play, we are able to relive moments of our lives, happy moments, sad moments, people that we have linked to certain songs.
In that sense it is, for me, the most magical art of all.[17]
In another interview for theTámega newspaper, she says that music is the best thing that has happened to the human being, that it is something essential and vital that makes us more human[18].
She was part of Duette with the pianist Pablo Ruiz and with whom she made versions of classic rock, jazz, blues and French song, as well as film themes, Jacques Brel, George Branssens or Herman Hupfeld. Also, together with him, she recorded a self-titled album for the Casa Lis Museum, and still continues to offer recitals[19].
Then, in these years in which she continues to educate herself on a musical and stage level, Sheila meets the Argentine bandToch, made up of brothers Juan Pablo, Andrés Theaux and Martín Elena. Sheila joins Toch with whom she begins to play in the Madrid venue circuit and in 2010 she wins, together with the band, the first prize in the I Novice Bands Contest of the El Juglar room, award for best new band.
In 2011 she published her first maxi single with 2 promotional songs and by the end of 2012, together with Toch, she arranged and recorded her first studio album: Sheila Down, a self-released project that fuses pop, rock, folk and jazz, influences very present in Sheila's career. This album is presented on July 20, 2013 during the fifth edition of 'Las Noches de Lis' at the Art Nouveau and Art Deco Museum, in Salmanca[20].
Study body expression with the choreographer and dance teacher Arnold Taraborrelli; In addition, she is interested in different modern vocal techniques such as speech level singing and voice craft.
She carries out the postgraduate course of Specialization and Rehabilitation of the professional voice spoken and sung at the University of Alcalá there she is a student of Ignacio Cobeta, Roxana Coll, Concha Doñaque, Pepa Castro and Sara Matarranz.
In 2010 she became the vocalist of the jazz & blues quintet Larry Martin Band together with Larry Martin himself, Richie Ferrer, Enrique García and Domingo Sánchez. With them, she travels much of the national and international territory singing at festivals, such as the Madrid International Jazz Festival or the Liege International Jazz Festival in Belgium, and in legendary jazz venues. During their journey they recordedEverything must change, the last studio work of the legendary drummer from Madrid Larry Martin before his death in 2013. Later, the band became Speak Jazzy, along with two new members, drummer Antonio Calero and pianist Miguel Ángel. López, they record A song for you, a tribute album to the late Larry Martin.
From that time on, Sheila Blanco turned completely to jazz and combined this with her work as a teacher, shaping her own methodology in modern vocal technique and advising both film, theater and music professionals and people who are fond of singing.
In addition, she has worked as a vocal technique teacher at the HDM El Submarino actor's academy.
You have done jazz and participated in groups like Larry Martin Band. What is your predilection for jazz and what has your immersion in this genre been like? --- Jazz for me was music that caught me as a teenager; When I was studying classical music, I suddenly started listening to that music with those tensions, those improvisations, those and those singers, those rhythmic breaks, that is, I evolved towards it as music itself evolved....
... I came from playing Bach, Mozart and so many others on the classical piano, and from studying lyrical singing, jazz suddenly appeared before me and it was like "oops, I want to know more about this music".
And the immersion was absolute, because I was lucky in 2010 to start singing with a quintet that had been playing for a long time and was one of those who worked the most on the Jazze scene in Spain, Larry Martin Band, and I learned a lot.
I was struck by that evolution, that very different sound, that frenetic rhythm and those wonderful harmonies that jazz offers you.
Yes, it has caught me since I started listening to it and I found it very interesting to discover how it worked and how I felt singing it, and so it was, it was a total immersion and I feel very lucky to have known jazz from within and as a vocalist.
In 2016, Sheila was chosen by Warner as one of the mentors of the TV show A capela (Movistar Plus) and collaborated on the radio program Anda ya! (The 40).
Currently, Sheila Blanco is the vocalist of the jazz trio Puro Gershwin with whom she has released a self-titled album alongside pianist Federico Lechner and guitarists Chema Saiz, Israel Sandoval and Marcos Collado and is also the vocalist of the Mad Sax Big Band.
Also, she works as a vocal coach in the television program La Voz Kids from the first edition and in the radio programs La Ventana with Carles Francino and Sofá Sonoro with Alfonso Cardenal de Cadena Ser.
In early 2020, specifically on January 15, she released a video that went viral on social media, in which she pays tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach, her favorite composer.
In a musical and fun way, the video “Bach is God” summarizes the composer's life and work in just one minute and 34 seconds[10], with music by Bach himself.
From the success of this first video, arises the idea of the Bio Classics project (biography of the classics) which “is characterized by mixing contemporary language with the historical accuracy of each character and its composition” [17].
How did you receive the impact that Bach is God caused and the comments they made on social networks? ---The impact was tremendous because I did not expect anything to have this impact. I have uploaded songs and other types of musical entertainment on my social networks, and they have never had this reach. So I was amazed because my closest friends and my family also started to tell me that they were receiving the video from all kinds of places. And then the stupendous unanimity of the people who loved the video, the parents, the teachers, especially for that didactic and playful feature it has, was tremendous. I was also on a plane [because] I was going to Mexico to present my album and I was receiving the amazing messages .[21]
... the healing effects of classical music are incontestable and have a lot to say to us.
In classical music there is everything, everything we listen to now is an evolution from then and it is very important to know those roots, where the music we listen to now comes from.
I think those are the two great reasons to keep listening to Bach, Mozart and all the great composers we are lucky to have there, in a multitude of recordings by great performers.Personal.
TheseBio Classics were followed by Ludwig van Beethoven[12], in the 250th anniversary of the composer born in the 18th century, the tribute to Debussy[13], Wagner[14] and Brahms[15]. These biographies will continue to revive the legacy of the great composers of the history of humanity.
On the other hand, in April 2020, Sheila Blancó released the album Cantando a las poetas del 27 [16], a poetic-musical project in which, singing and playing the piano, she has set the poems of a handful of female poets of this literary generation to music. In this album, Sheila gives voice and rhythm to the verses of the poets Carmen Conde Abellán, Ernestina de Champourcín, Concha Méndez, Elisabeth Mulder, Pilar de Valderrama, Margarita Ferreras, Josefina Romo Arregui and Dolores Catarinéu, “interpreting music that delves into the emotions that permeate his poetry books and that address universal, personalized themes in the lives of each poet such as love, pain, exile, beauty, grief, remorse … [22]” .
Collaborations
She has collaborated and recorded with the band Patáx, with Natural Funk, as well as with other artists such as Javi Montes, Joe Eceiza, Jorge Marazu, Toni Brunet, Paco Ortega, Rebeca Jiménez, Pastora Soler, Raphael, Rebeca Rods, Alejandro Sanz, Rosa López, Ivanga Blue, Dani Diges, Mauri Sanchis, Eduardo Laguillo or Pedro Ruy Blas and has belonged to the Black Light Gospel Choir choir and the children's theater company Sin Fin.
Discography
Cantando a las Poetas del 27 [9] (2020): she has turned into songs a selection of poems by the best authors of the Generation of '27.
Sheila Down [5] (2012): contains eleven original songs, ten in Spanish and one in English composed by the lyrics and music by her and a version of the song "Don’t let it bring you down" by Neil Young.
Puro Gershwin [8]: disc by the homonymous trio Puro Gershwin, which is a tribute to the New York composer, cornerstone of the union of symphonic music and African American popular music and contains twelve cover songs by George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
Everything must change [7]: is an album by the Larry Martin Band quintet made up of twelve songs, nine standard versions and three original songs composed by Enrique García, Larry Martin and Richie Ferrer.
A song for you [23]: is an album by the Speak Jazzy quintet made up of twelve songs, eight standars and four original songs composed by Enrique García, Sheila Blanco, Richie Ferrer and Miguel Ángel López.
Duette [6]: musical project edited by the Manuel Ramos Andrade Foundation Styles: French song, musical, ballad. Arranged by Sheila Blanco and Pablo Ruiz. Played by Sheila Blanco (voice) and Pablo Ruiz (piano). Disc available as an exclusive work in the Museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco Casa Lis in Salamanca and in its stores.