Estrellita

It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak with you about Estrellita, your new recording of Spanish songs. As this is your first interview with Fanfare, please tell us about your journey from a small town in rural California to a career as a classical vocalist. 

First off, thank you so much for having me, it’s such an honor to be interviewed by Fanfare! Growing up in the Imperial Valley, a small agricultural community in rural California, I never could have imagined that music would take me this far or allow me to grow into the artist I am today. My very first experiences with singing were in my church choir as a little girl. From the moment I opened my mouth to sing, I was completely captivated. Music felt like a whole world of colors, emotions, and textures that I could step into and express. I’ve always said that music chose me, rather than the other way around, it came so naturally, and I couldn’t picture my life without it. Over time, that early spark of joy evolved into a deep sense of purpose, and I feel incredibly grateful that what began in such a humble setting has blossomed into a career that allows me to share this love of music with others. 

What led you to choose Sonoma State University for your musical education? I understand you have an interesting story about your audition! 

I was accepted to three colleges in the Bay Area: San Francisco State, Sacramento State, and Sonoma State. My family and I took a road trip up California to visit each campus, and I still remember the moment I first saw Sonoma State. The campus was so beautiful, and it immediately felt like the right fit. Coming from a very small town, I knew I wanted to take the next step without being overwhelmed, and Sonoma was the perfect “medium-small town” balance. Sacramento felt too far, and the city of San Francisco was just too much for me at the time. 

As for my audition, well, let’s just say it was a very humbling first experience! I was completely unprepared for the etiquette of it all. I showed up in jeans and flip-flops, carrying loose sheets of music instead of having everything neatly organized for the accompanist. At least I knew my repertoire, but looking back it was definitely a rookie moment. I’m so grateful for the education I received at SSU, where my professors not only trained me musically but also taught me how to show up as a professional. That foundation was invaluable, and choosing SSU turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. 

During your studies at Sonoma State University, you worked with soprano Ruth Ann Swenson. Describe your studies with her, and what you learned from collaborating with the acclaimed American soprano. 

I studied primarily with her husband David Burnakus; he was my master teacher. I was fortunate to watch Ruth Ann work with other students, as well as work with her directly on occasion in our performance classes. Ruth Ann was always so down-to-earth and presented herself as sort of a regular gal, even though she was this classical superstar. I learned a lot from listening to her recordings and watching performances of hers on YouTube. 

You are a frequent collaborator with LaMusArt, an organization that supports underserved Latino youth in East Los Angeles. Tell us about your work with LaMusArt, and your interaction with the East LA community. 

My work with LaMusArt has truly been one of the highlights of my career. Even though I’ve only collaborated with them a couple of times, those experiences left a big impression on me. The students were so eager, curious, and open to learning about music, it was inspiring to witness. I often think about how much I would have benefited from a program like this in my own hometown; it would have given me such a stronger foundation before stepping into collegiate musical studies. I deeply admire the impact LaMusArt has on the East LA community, and I really hope to return and collaborate with them again soon. 

We’ll talk, of course, about your affinity for Spanish song. But I also wanted to chat with you a bit about your operatic repertoire. During your Master’s studies at DePaul University, you sang the title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica. And at the Teatro della Fortuna in Fano, Italy, you made your European debut, performing the roles of Tosca, and Mimì in La bohème. What do you find so appealing about Puccini’s heroines? What are the challenges in performing those great roles? 

What I love most about Puccini is how incredibly well he wrote for the soprano voice. His heroines, whether Mimì, Tosca, or Suor Angelica, are imbued with a natural femininity that feels both delicate and deeply human. The way he shapes their vocal lines lends itself to limpidity, to singing with clarity and savoring every note as it soars. For me, the greatest challenge is resisting the temptation to push the drama too hard. Puccini gives us everything we need in the music itself—the emotion, the intensity, the arc of the story. If we trust his writing and avoid over-emoting, the result is so much more compelling for the listener. It allows the music to speak in its purest form, and the audience feels the drama without its being forced. 

And in terms of art song, what composers outside of the Spanish repertoire do you enjoy performing? 

Outside of the Spanish repertoire, I love Schumann and Schubert! 

You are especially noted for your work in the classical Spanish repertoire. When did you first become interested in this area of classical music? What especially appeals to you about the works? 

I was first introduced to Con amores la mi madre (Obradors) by my voice teacher David Burnakus while in college at Sonoma State University, around 2010. This song, or should I say, assignment, was used as a coaching tool to help me with my high register, as it ends on a high, sustained, floaty A-natural. I was having a difficult time accessing that part of my voice, and David knew the legato melody of this song would be of interest to me, as well as the language, while giving me the challenge of singing high notes like this publicly. He also handed me a CD of Victoria de Los Angeles singing this rep and said “go listen”! That was the start of my love of classical Spanish songs. During this time, I also learned and coached the Xavier Montsalvatge song set and performed it in my undergraduate senior recital (2012). 

What’s especially appealing to me about the works are their timeless poetry, and how natural they feel for me to sing; I feel sometimes as though I’ve known these songs my entire life, even though I only learned them as an adult. 

Do you have any artists from the past (or present) whom you particularly admire in Spanish song? What aspects of their artistry do you find most compelling? 

Artists from the past whom I deeply admire in Spanish song include Victoria de los Angeles, Montserrat Caballé, and Teresa Berganza. Victoria de los Angeles, in particular, really paved the way for my own love of Spanish repertoire—her interpretations feel so natural and full of soul. From all three of them, I’ve learned invaluable lessons about technique, interpretation, stage presence, and acting, simply through watching their performances and listening closely to their recordings. They embody artistry at the highest level, and in many ways they taught me what it means to be a true diva. 

In your new recording, Estrellita, you perform Spanish song repertoire with pianist Peter Grünberg. Tell us about Peter, and your collaborations with him. 

I was introduced to Peter by Maxine Bernstein and Lieder Alive around 2017. When I would come home from graduate school in Chicago to California to visit, Maxine would help set up coaching for me with Peter, where we would work on various repertoire, but nothing connected us or stood out quite like the Spanish. It’s as though the Spanish repertoire released many of my singing inhibitions, and it was quite clear that we had “something” and needed to find more ways to perform it together. Lieder Alive was a huge advocate and proponent of this, creating performance opportunities for Peter and me to have recitals featuring classical Spanish songs (along with German Lieder). From there, Peter and I over the years continued to peel back layers and learn more and more repertoire, bringing us to the long list on our album! Some of the songs, Peter introduced to me, like the Ginastera set—if you’ve had a chance to read the program notes, there is a story in there from young Peter when he had the privilege of meeting the composer himself! It’s been years of studying and developing and we’ve only just scraped the surface of this wonderful repertoire. 

How did you go about choosing the repertoire for Estrellita? Are these songs part of your concert repertoire? 

Many of the songs are part of my concert repertoire, especially the Obra­dors set. It was important to us that we only program pieces that we absolutely love on this recording—no filler. We went cycle by cycle and only included our favorite songs and ones that represent myself and Peter the best. Peter introduced the Ginastera cycle to me in 2019 and I’ve loved it ever since. Obradors, Montsalvatge, and de Falla are all songs that I’ve been learning and exploring since my collegiate studies. I’ve always known I would one day record them. 

If you would, take us on a tour of the selected repertoire. Do the challenges as a performer vary from composer to composer? 

For me, challenges might vary from song to song based on how well I know it. For me, knowing a song means knowing it on a very deep level. Knowing the poetry especially, backward and frontward, and having a very clear idea of what it means to me, as well as all that the music requires. I don’t think that the repertoire on the album varies by composer, but more by level of comfortability between each selection. 

The Obradors song set – I’ve known this the longest. I started working on these pieces at Sonoma State University as a young singer, and over the years I’ve added more songs to my repertoire list. 

Granados – I first learned these songs in graduate school at DePaul University in Chicago. I programmed them on my graduate recital and they have always been favorites of mine. They are incredibly depictive of sorrow and love lost. 

Goyescas and Bésame Mucho – Bésame Mucho is probably the best-known track, especially known by non-classical music listeners. Peter wrote a wonderful arrangement for us for this recording, and it is the piece that I knew the absolute least at the time of the recording! We were piecing things together the day we recorded this track! 

De Falla – probably the most challenging for me. My favorite recordings of these songs are Victoria de los Angeles and Alicia de Larrocha. A caliber of recording that Peter and I strive for! 

Montsalvatge – I first learned these with David Burnakus and my beloved collaborate pianist Richard Riccardi. We programmed them in my undergraduate senior recital in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center back in 2011. They’ve been favorites of mine for many years. 

Ginastera – These were introduced to me by Peter Grunberg in 2019. We performed them in a private house concert when I first returned to San Francisco permanently, early February 2020, right before the pandemic. We’ve been curating these songs ever since and it made the most sense to feature them on this album. 

Estrellita – the namesake of the album. I always knew that I would want to title the album Estrellita. This is a song Peter and I like to use as a recital encore, and it is a fan favorite. I love that it is written by a Mexican composer (as I am Mexican too!) and was at the top of the charts in the early 20th century. 

I understand that Estrellita is your first commercial recording. Congratulations! Please give us a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this recording. Where was the recording made? Who were your collaborators? 

The recording was made in August 2024 – which feels so long ago! The inception of this project started through conversations with Maxine Bernstein at Lieder Alive! about how wonderful the repertoire is, but also, just how wonderful it feels for me to sing it. We agreed that it is our mission to keep this fabulous music alive [with Peter and Peter only], because we don’t see it performed very often anymore, at least not in big houses. 

Lieder Alive is well connected and had collaborated on other recording projects with sound engineer Matt Carr. Matt came highly recommended by Maxine, and we were quickly able to begin planning for this big project. We recorded at St. Stephen’s Episcopal church in Belvedere, CA. We recorded for three days back to back, about 9 AM to 6 PM. They were long days, but at least the music was good! After the three days of recording, we started working on editing. This took a lot of time, and I might have procrastinated a bit. It’s difficult to listen to over 60 minutes of music and find all the things that we might want to “fix.” The voice is very vulnerable. Every little detail is exposed, and sometimes it can feel like holding up a magnifying glass to yourself. That part of the process was both humbling and educational. I had to learn to listen with objectivity, to let go of perfectionism, and to trust the integrity of the performance. In the end, though, that vulnerability is also what makes the recording so special. It captures not just the notes, but the intimacy and the humanity behind them. Looking back, I’m so grateful for the team who believed in this project and for the chance to bring this repertoire to life in a lasting way. Even though the process felt daunting at times, the result is something I’m very proud to share. 

What are the chief differences between performing the songs for concert audiences, and recording the works for this release? 

For me, I truly come alive in front of an audience. Connection is at the heart of what music is all about, the energy exchange, the shared emotion, the feeling that we’re experiencing something together in real time. That’s what fuels me as a performer. So, stepping into the recording studio, where there are no listeners—or maybe just one or two people focused on the technical side of things—was a real challenge. It can feel almost isolating, and I had to learn how to generate that same sense of immediacy and emotional intensity without the spark of a live audience. Through this project, I discovered that I am naturally more of a live performer, but the process of recording taught me discipline, focus, and how to capture intimacy in a different way. Even if it felt unfamiliar at times, I gave the recording my all, and I’m proud of how it pushed me to grow in a new dimension as an artist. 

Is it difficult to maintain a performer’s intensity while in the recording studio? 

Yes! It was definitely exhausting. The mornings were usually fine, full of energy and focus, but returning from lunch was the hardest part. By that point, I was often ready for a nap, and maintaining the same intensity and emotional engagement in the afternoons became quite challenging. It really taught me how much stamina and mental focus it takes to keep the performance alive in a studio setting, without the immediate energy of a live audience to feed off of. 

Do you find that your experience as an operatic artist is helpful in your interpretations of Spanish song repertoire? 

Absolutely. My background as an operatic artist has been invaluable in shaping my interpretations of Spanish song repertoire. Opera, and classical music more broadly, instilled in me the importance of deep score study, understanding the historical context of a work, and considering what might have influenced both the composition and the poetry. Knowing where the poetry comes from, when it was written, and even examining word-for-word English translations helps me convey the text with clarity and intention. Additionally, my experience singing Lieder has taught me the essential relationship between voice and piano, and how to collaborate with sensitivity and nuance. All of these skills combine to bring a more informed, expressive, and connected performance to Spanish song. 

What musical projects are on the horizon? Are more recordings in the works? 

Peter and I will be busy in the coming months performing this exquisite Spanish repertoire, and we are very excited for it. We will be performing at SF Music Day in the Herbst Theatre on October 19, 2025, and are preparing for a Christmas recital, titled Sacred Joy, where we will return to St. Stephen’s Episcopal church since the recording. Our plan for Sacred Joy is to record it live and turn it into a live Christmas album to be released in 2026!