Multi Genre Musician

They say that the Trinidadian accent is musical, with a “sing-songy" tone. So it's no surprise that growing up in Brooklyn, NY to Trinidadian parents, I’ve been singing since I could talk! I started performing in church and school when I was 8, and when I turned 12, I started piano lessons. I was the rare kid who practiced without prompting. I LOVED all things music, harmony and songwriting! After a challenging year of being bullied in middle school, a successful performance at a middle school talent show boosted my confidence and ignited my life’s path. I knew I had to be… A STAR! 🤩

I joined every musical organization I could in high school. I wrote and performed original songs in my spare time and recorded in basement recording studios around NYC. I studied classical voice and piano at North Carolina Central University, and music education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduation, I began my professional music career both in musical theater and in the classroom. A few vocal injuries and a trip to the ASCAP Expo inspired me to return to NYC to follow my dream of becoming… A STAR! 🤩

Back in NYC, I studied Somatic Voicework (tm) with Jeannette LoVetri. I prepared for my debut album release by studying voice with Alicia Olatuja and piano improvisation with Brenda Earle Stokes. In a crazy buzzer-beater performance, I raised $20,000 on Kickstarter to help produce first EP, “The Mask”. It’s a collection of five original R&B songs I wrote as I discovered the discrepancy between who I presented as publicly and who I actually was internally. I flew out to England, recorded with Brit-Award winning producer Blair MacKichan, and produced a genre-bending album I am SO PROUD OF. It fuses elements of the R&B, classical, soul, jazz, musical theater and Caribbean music I grew up on, and it represented my journey of discovering self love. I performed songs from the EP in venues up and down the east coast and internationally, including the Dominican Republic and Switzerland. I knew that this project would be the springboard for me to finally become… Yep, you guessed it.. AAAAA… STAAAAARRRR! 🤩

But when I released it into the world, nothing happened. 😔 At least not in the way I hoped for. And I was absolutely heartbroken.

So I gave myself permission to take a break! I shut down my website. I shut down my mailing list. I stopped chasing fame and finally gave myself permission to enjoy music for its own sake again. I started to lean more into my voice-type (I’m a lyric-soprano) and focus on songs meant for lighter-voiced singers. And I fully came out of the multi-genre closet on my social media and started posting more classical piano alongside hip-hop, R&B, musical theater, and whatever else I felt like exploring.

And then just before the pandemic hit, I started to delve more deeply into jazz. Turns out I had a natural gift for it. So I started the Master’s program in Jazz Voice at Queens College in 2021, before taking break to have my son.

In 2022, my newborn and I went viral.. and it literally helped me build an audience. It’s funny, I always resisted motherhood, thinking it would stall my music career. Instead it launched my career. 😅

Since then, I've been a regular at 1803 restaurant in Tribeca, Manhattan, NYC, performing multi-genre sets with my trio and quartet. I’ve also performed with trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis at DROM. Although I’ve been singing for over 30 years, I feel like the fun is just getting started! 😄