Renowned Violinist Yilian Cañizares Made the World Listen. Now She Plays for Cuba

“Let’s start,” said Yilian Cañizares, a renowned Cuban violinist, as the interview began.

“Yilian Cañizares is one of the most extraordinary talents to emerge from the new generation of Cuban musicians,” explained Liz Oliva Fernández, journalist with Belly of the Beast. “She’s known for taking the violin beyond the boundaries of classical music, blending it with jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms.”

“Born in Havana and later based in Switzerland, she maintains a deep connection with her roots and regularly returns to Cuba,” Oliva added. “This time, she’s here for the International Jazz Plaza Festival.”

“It’s the biggest jazz event in Cuba,” said Cañizares. “As a Cuban, it’s a festival that’s very special in my heart.”

“When I was a child, I was lucky enough to attend many Jazz Plaza concerts,” she recalled. “I listened to my teacher Chucho Valdés, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, and so many artists who inspired me and made me want, at a certain point, to choose this path.”

“I started studying music very early,” the violinist explained. “I began singing in a children’s group, and at seven years old I started studying violin and piano at the Manuel Saumell School.”

“At that time, I didn’t really have any references for jazz on the violin,” she said. “I always thought jazz was for other instruments—piano, trumpet, saxophone.”

“Later, while studying classical music in Europe on a scholarship in Switzerland, I felt a strong need to express myself more freely,” Cañizares continued. “To improvise, to say things that came from my soul, and to connect differently with my instrument.”

“I never imagined I’d do anything other than classical music,” she admitted. “But I began making that transition, exploring, learning, and here I am.”

“I left Cuba when I was sixteen to study in Venezuela on a government scholarship,” the Cuban musician recounted. “From there, I received another scholarship to study in Switzerland.”

“Since then, I’ve spent a large part of my life in Europe, building my career and touring around the world,” she said. “I feel very happy and honored to bring Cuban music to so many stages, to represent Cuban women and women in jazz.”

“That’s not very common,” Oliva observed.

“That’s not very common,” Cañizares agreed. “Cuban music is very strong, with a lot of testosterone, and I always say I come to bring a little sweetness to all that testosterone.”

“To offer my own vision,” she added, “which is clearly a woman’s vision, a more feminine perspective.”

“Sweetness doesn’t mean a lack of determination or insecurity,” the violinist explained during rehearsals. “You can be gentle and firm at the same time.”

“With these musicians, I feel especially comfortable,” she said. “Many of them are childhood friends—people I grew up studying with since we were seven years old.”

“The clearer you are about what you want conceptually,” Cañizares reflected, “the easier it is for everyone to reach the goal.”

“And the goal is for the audience to feel something unique,” she added, “to have an experience that can’t be repeated.”

“I sing, I compose, and I produce my own albums and audiovisual projects,” the artist explained. “I like getting involved in everything that allows me to express myself artistically.”

“Any door or window that lets me say who I am, I go through it,” she said.

“I’m nourished by many things, not just music—visual art, dance, good food,” Cañizares added. “I do it all with humility, learning from those who know more than I do.”

“I loved watching you rehearse,” Oliva said. “It felt more like a celebration than a rehearsal.”

“It’s an incredible celebration,” Cañizares replied. “I feel so proud when I see them succeed. Each of their achievements feels like one of my own.”

“We don’t often get the chance to do this,” she explained. “Everyone is focused on their own careers, so coming together in Cuba is something very special.”

“We’re celebrating Cuban jazz,” the violinist said, “and the fact that we’re winners of the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition, one of the most legendary contests in jazz history.”

“All of us are winners,” she emphasized. “And knowing that Cuba is the country with the most winners is incredible.”

“For me, Afro-Cuban jazz is my roots,” Cañizares said. “It’s the air I breathe.”

“It was my gateway into jazz,” she explained. “Later I discovered other styles, but that was my entry point.”

“It’s a jazz that has conquered the world,” she added. “With virtuosity, flavor, Cubanness—it can make you cry or make you dance.”

“Once, a great American musician, Michael League, told me he’d never met a bad Cuban musician,” she recalled. “That’s something beautiful to carry forward.”

“And when we talk about Afro-Cuban jazz, we have to mention Chucho Valdés,” Cañizares said. “For me, he’s the greatest. I consider him my teacher, and the world owes him so much musically.”

“The schools and training we have in Cuba are fundamental,” she explained. “I have to thank my teachers, because without them we wouldn’t be here.

“They’re public schools with entrance exams,” the violinist said. “From the age of seven, you’re trained like a professional.”

“There’s a kind of magic formula in Cuba,” Cañizares reflected. “It’s a country that lives music every day.”

“I’m deeply connected to my African roots,” she added. “The flavor, the desire to dance—it all comes from there.”

“The violin is my life,” she said. “I’ve devoted my life to it.”

“My mother and grandparents paid close attention to my inclinations,” Cañizares explained. “They knew how to guide me.”

“I need to walk this land,” she said. “I need to be here, to reconnect with my essence.”

“I consider myself a citizen of the world,” she added, “but your homeland vibrates differently.”

“Regardless of what I may need as an artist,” Cañizares concluded, “I think the audience and young people here deserve for us to come back, to share, to teach, to bring love, music, and presence.”

“I’d love to see many more women leading,” she said. “I want women to feel that the world belongs to them.”

“I hope what I’m doing with the violin and the voice doesn’t stop with me,” Cañizares concluded. “I hope others take it and carry it forward.”

“Thank you,” she said. “It’s been a pleasure.”

“Lots of flavor and lots of africanada,” Oliva replied.

“Thank you,” Cañizares answered.