Tell us about yourself and your music practice
I am a Colombian singer and songwriter, based in London since 2020. I have been doing music professionally for over 13 years, and have released 9 albums with my bands Suricato (Colombian Jazz), Ságan (Electronic) and my solo project Montañera. My music blends synths, electronics, and Colombian folk-inspired vocal melodies. Parallel to my artistic career, I also design and lead community music projects with several charities and with all groups of all ages. I feel particularly interested in the power of music to heal and connect communities.
What was your motivation in applying to the scheme?
Although I have been a community music leader for over 4 years, I develop all my delivery skills through hands-on experience. This was the ideal opportunity to have a more theoretical and reflective approach to my practice, meet other practitioners and learn from experts in the field.
What were you expecting from the scheme, and what did you want to achieve?
I wanted to have the time and guidance to really connect with my own voice as a music leader. I also wanted to learn new skills, new repertoire and different approaches to community leading. Another important aspect of this scheme was the networking opportunities of meeting the other TML and workshop participants.
Can you give us a rundown of what you got up to during the scheme?
I was able to participate in several skills labs focused on very interesting topics and with experts in the field, mentoring sessions to help me navigate the scheme and my professional life, shadowing very talented music leaders and assisting them, Action learning sessions to pause and reflect deeply on my practice and my life circumstances, and the mini-project which allowed me to work with some amazing groups of people and test out my idea receiving great insights from the participants and invaluable feedback from my mentors.
What was your favourite project that you got involved with?
I really loved the mini-project opportunity. I feel this was a really important aspect of the programme for me, as I was able to deliver an idea I have been working on for years, and test it out with different groups of people, of different ages and backgrounds and receive really valuable feedback from my mentors to keep on developing it. I now feel quite inspired for what’s to come in the development of this project.
What did you learn over the scheme, and how have you developed as a music leader?
I learned a lot of new repertoire, and activities to deliver during my sessions. I also learned ways on how to reflect on my own practice, and how to address challenges such as adapting certain content for a specific age group, or creating projects from scratch. I have developed a more critical approach to my role as a leader, and now I am very interested in allowing more space for co-creation and non-hierarchical leadership. I really want to keep on exploring these ways of leading.
What was the best piece of advice you were given?
Bring your own genuine energy to the space, do not try to pretend to be someone else, and replace BUT with AND 🙂
How would you like to carry your experience forward in your career?
I am now very interested in combining my practice as a community music leader and as a musician, I want to build bridges between my two main practices and expand on the areas they both share. I want to incorporate some of the ideas of collective music-making into my music as Montañera, and bring more of my original music into my community music leading.
Are you an organisation interested in supporting a music leader to learn new skills and lead community projects? We’re now on the lookout for partners for our 2026 scheme. Find out more here.