Meet Alfonsina Torrealba | Orchestral conductor – Performer – Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alfonsina Torrealba and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alfonsina, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I am an orchestral conductor, and although many things caught my attention as I grew up and chose my path, the music came to stay. Music manages to express that reality that surrounds us – as a society and as individuals – and that is exceeded by words, but that is revealed to us through music. It is our duty as musicians to bring this way of making art to the last corner of the earth. We often live locked in very intimate, very personal worlds, in our own reality, in our square meter. I think the greatest gift that music gives us is the ability to pull people out of that cubicle, to move them in a transcendent and unique way. Being a musician is helping to social transformation, to create community and territorial identities, and of course to unite them in the fact that all human beings are able to be moved and touched by music, and that “unique expression” we can all feel, regardless of any social, political, economic or religious differences we may have.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I believe my arrival in music is a story that wasn’t expected. None of my parents or relatives had a close relationship with music and the arts: all have been, from a place of great humility, people of science. Engineers, neurologists, physicists, teachers, biologists and mathematicians surround me, and it was expected for me to follow exactly the same path, having an impeccable academic record and an innate ability for algebra and logic. What happened then? It was 2005 (14 years) and by curious circumstances I got a CD of music from the 70’s: progressive rock had entered my life! After that there was no more doubt, I continued to listen for hours and hours of music that took me from one place to another. I quickly became a listener of “classical rock stars” like Stravinsky, while also passing through rockers like Jethro Tull, King Crimson or the Rolling Stones… Music had no limits!. From there, at 15 years old I asked for a birthday-Christmas gift a flute (we did not have much money so we never asked for big stuff, we were four brothers and sisters, two turtles, three chickens, many canaries and a dog). We found the cheapest in the store, and that flute was going to be the one who changed my life forever. Soon I realized that my thing was the big sound with multiple and complex instruments, and it is for this reason that I realized orchestral conducting was my thing!…


As a musician who has been to many places, including LA, I think the ability to take the leap and “go out”, look for new opportunities in new places, meet all that variety of points of views and ways to feel and connect… Being a nomad, moving from one place to another, makes you empathic and understanding how to move the different communities towards an artistic project. All the people I have known and have known me, absolutely all of them, deserve to live the experience of music in large formats like orchestral music. Adapting to so many changes gives me the ability to connect with those communities and achieve things together. Also, I think my concern for all musical styles and other disciplines helps me to understand the ways in which music can be in your life, in your profession, in your vocation, in your family, in the organization, even in a major social struggle such as combating individualism and promoting solidarity. In summary, I guess that my biggest brand, in a very complex and perfectionist world as the orchestral conducting one, is the fact that I’m not hiding of being human!…

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ok so I don’t want to be judged here hahaha! But I think one of my favorite spots on the city are the candy stores in downtown and also the tea stores, not only because of the insane amount of tea, chocolate and sugar they hold there, but the marvelous way they organise them through the walls of the store! That’s something that you don’t see everywhere, come on!!
Second, I would try to go any bar every night of this “vacation trip” to hear new musicians in the scene: so I would go to Sunset strip on the night, I would make them go to the Walt Disney Hall (if you can find a good-pice ticket!). During the day, I would recommend Amoeba store and the stunning Guitar Center Rock Walk (even if your are not a guitar player!) . Of course, I would definitely end the day feeling the sand under my feet at the beach.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This is a difficult question, there are so many people and institutions to thank for their inspiration!… First I would like to highlight, in a general way, all the female conductors and performers who are further along this path than me (some younger and others several older than me) and I can say with certainty that at this moment they are in the orchestral conducting field.
Being a women conductor, even a young conductor today is living in the eclectic of these moments of change: it’s annoying some and being applauded by others, it’s awakening the unpleasant sympathetic look of those who assume you are less suitable for the job, and open the eyes of those who really felt they could never do it. There are plenty of testimonies about those who want to make us doubt: whether we are there because of our professional quality or simply for legislative accomplishment… And it is these small-huge inconveniences that many young and women conductors have had to make, in a totally determined way, without looking back.
However, I think if I think of one person, I would like to highlight a great colleague and friend who like me believes in the importance of bringing music to all people, specially starting to value the work and efforts of young musicians, who are seeking to professionalize themselves in the music path. I am referring to Javier Hermosa Sánchez, a young Spanish conductor with a promising career. With him we work together on the project of the Sierra de Madrid Young Orchestra, he as the Artistic director and I as the Manager, sharing both also the work of conducting the orchestra. Javier is a convinced promoter of the importance of music for all communities, bringing music to the last corner of the most remote places in the mountains. A warm person with a tremendous entrepreneurial spirit.

Website: https://www.alfonsinatorrealba.com

Instagram: @alfonsina.torrealba

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfonsina-torrealba-conductor

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alfonsinatorrealbaconductor

Image Credits
by Jesús Martínez and Aroa Photography