© Cortesía Wilma Alba Cal
The name of the young Cuban composer Wilma Alba Cal appears in five record productions. Her catalogue includes chamber works, choral pieces, music for cinema and theatre performances, among others. She was a scholarship holder at the Academy of Music and Drama of the University of Gothenburg and is the winner of numerous composition awards from the Cuban Music Institute, the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, and the Hermanos Saiz Association.
Wilma studied at the Guillermo Tomás Music Conservatory in Guanabacoa, Havana. After finishing the intermediate level, she decided to “travel” to the other side of the city, to the University of the Arts, ISA.
Together with other centers in Cuba and the Caribbean, this academic institution will form the Regional Cultural Training Hub of the Program Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union Through Culture and Creativity. The Program is implemented by the UNESCO Regional Office for Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean, funded by the European Union.
When you arrived at ISA, you had already gone through all the previous levels of arts education. Why was it important for you, as a musician, to reach that level?
It was important and essential in order to complete my musical training. Attending a university of arts education was a challenge as a student and it gave me the opportunity to meet some of the best music students from every school in the country. Those who decided to continue their academic training were going to do their best and profit from all the teachers’ knowledge, who had many years of experience in the field of the arts.
Ever since I started the Intermediate Level, this was one of my goals, and it was the reason why I took the entrance exams for two specialties: Choral Conducting and Composition.
Regarding the success you have had in your professional life, what would you highlight about all that has happened?
Without a doubt, the exchange scholarship at the Academy of Music and Drama at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
In January 2012, the year of my graduation, I was surprised to hear that I had been selected for a three-month stay in Sweden as a student of the Composition Chair to study Choral Composition and Conducting.
Today, from a distance, I can see how much that culture changed the sound of my music. Many new works sung, unthinkable challenges such as giving a talk in another language, being tutored by star conductors/composers –some of the members of the jury in international choir competitions–, making music using a programming software. Without a doubt, professional exchange with other cultures is one of the most enriching experiences an artist can have.
In arts education, teachers become lifelong referents. What did yours leave you?
In general, self-learning. I had very different teachers. There I realized that there are many ways to learn. One of them was the exchange with my classmates. We each had something different to contribute. The desire to ask myself questions and go and look for answers, to get to know myself and exchange with colleagues has been of great value.
In particular, an exceptional teacher, my composition teacher Juan Piñera, showed me with his example that we must work hard in any circumstances.
How do you remember one day in those years between 2007 and 2012?
Wow...
Guanabacoa to Playa and back is a long trip across many of Havana's municipalities. The first thing I remember is that round trip, the sometimes spaced classes and the library!
I loved watching the students with their instruments practicing in the corridors and in the areas around the schools. At lunchtime in the dining hall, I saw many new and different people. I can say that every day I looked for something useful that would make the long journey to the School of Music worthwhile.
If you had the opportunity to send a message to young people from other countries who do not know about ISA, what would you say?
The University of the Arts brings together some of the most relevant academic music in my country. If we were to see the levels of arts education in Cuba as a three-level pyramid, this institution would be at the top, with studies that culminate years of training in music.
