{"id":326354,"date":"2025-07-30T15:10:27","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=326354"},"modified":"2025-07-30T15:10:27","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T19:10:27","slug":"gina-dsoto-i-want-people-in-cuba-to-get-to-know-my-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/music-culture\/gina-dsoto-i-want-people-in-cuba-to-get-to-know-my-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Gina D\u2019Soto: \u201cI want people in Cuba to get to know my music\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regina Soto Sirgado (Havana, July 3, 1997), known professionally as <\/span>Gina D\u2019Soto<\/b><\/a>, is a Cuban jazz and R&B singer and songwriter. From a young age, she took responsibility for her artistic training to develop the talent and passion that define her. Between ballet, painting and piano, her first steps on stage were taken in Cuba, at the Manuel Saumell School; however, she later moved with her parents to Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

A piano graduate, Gina decided to move to New York to begin her career as a singer, and she became an artist who, without a doubt, breaks new ground and transcends the superficiality of sounds and chords.<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout her career, she has shared the stage with musicians such as Antonio S\u00e1nchez, John Faddis, Arturo O\u2019Farrill and Daym\u00e9 Arocena. The U.S. media outlet NPR Live once chose her song \u201cSomething\u201d as its song of the week.<\/span><\/p>\n

How has it benefited you to have started in the arts at such a young age?<\/b><\/p>\n

Starting as a child has helped me tremendously in terms of structure and organization. Without that, you can\u2019t do what you have and want to do. It has helped me throughout my life to maintain a well-defined schedule, with my hours counted and planned, so that I have time for everything. Studying art has opened many doors for me, not only in music but also in other forms of art, because it taught me to see dance, painting, theater differently\u2026and to understand how they can relate, blend and create something beautiful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Music is a very abstract thing: you see the notes on paper, but that\u2019s not necessarily what you feel. When you play or sing, you become part of that experience. This has made me understand, listen and make music differently: with more openness, experimentally, letting myself be carried away by what the music wants to tell me and convey to me in that moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Taken from Gina D\u2019Soto\u2019s Instagram profile.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many artists who started as children confess that they gave up part of their childhood because of the responsibility that studying music demanded. Do you remember depriving yourself of anything to study from such a young age?<\/b><\/p>\n

I deprived myself of some things, but it also had benefits. My mom helped me a lot to organize a study schedule, and afterward I always had time to play. I remember playing Barbies, hide-and-seek, tag and board games with my school friends. When I was older, we went to concerts, clubs…. So, for me and for the people I studied with, we didn\u2019t deprive ourselves so much; we simply had a different way of organizing our time, because we went to class morning and afternoon, studied and did other activities outside of that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, it required a lot of responsibility, but we didn\u2019t completely lose our childhood. It\u2019s not as hard as people might imagine, at least when it comes to music; I don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like in other forms of art.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are times, when you\u2019re a child, when you feel frustrated because you might want to play right away when you have to study; sometimes children want things right away. But then I realized that if I studied with focus and enthusiasm, I always found time to play afterward.<\/span><\/p>\n

How much did the piano help you develop as a singer?<\/b><\/p>\n

The piano helped me a lot. In fact, I graduated in classical piano: I sacrificed 14 to 15 years of my life, but it helped me compose, harmonize and everything I can do now, including teaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

The piano is an instrument that, even if you don\u2019t study it as a basic instrument, but rather as a complementary instrument, always helps you. It\u2019s one of the most important instruments, if not the most important, because everything is there: the melodies, the harmonies. You can rely on the piano for anything. That training helps me with everything in my career.<\/span><\/p>\n