This is an interview I did with Rosi a few years back, when living in Wisconsin. She performed at ARTSblock with her husband and their ensemble. After her performance, she stayed and mingled with the audience. She's quite sweet.

How long have you been partners, in the music industry, with your husband Brian?

It will be 24 years in 2008!

While your talents surely deserve a major recording deal and all that accompanies that lifestyle, you've chosen to take the music industry by storm-on your own terms. Why did the two of you choose to run your own music company and not go with a recording label?

In fact, we went with an independent label, so I confess to you we have not done it completely on our own as other colleagues have done. We have never been on a major label, but the independent labels who have released our album have given us some marketing support, albeit limited, and more importantly, distribution, which is really a huge advantage. We went with an independent label because we wanted artistic freedom. Our latest CD's have been with Rounder Records (Rounder Kids for the most recent) and with Redwing Music.

What was the most difficult part about going out on your own?

Singing in Spanish (primarily) has always been hard because it's not mainstream. Making music that most people in this country don't readily understand has been the most difficult part. But setting, for ourselves, the goal of making our music accessible and enjoyable to everyone has been a challenge. There are times when I'd like to be playing for more people, but we have managed to find enough audience to keep going for nearly 20 years.

What was the most rewarding part about being the director, songwriter, singer, and manager of your own company?

Choosing the repertoire, selecting musicians who are wonderful and are part of a team effort, and creating a show and product that people really respond to during live concerts.

It is my understanding that one can rent a recording studio for a private label, instead of putting up the millions of dollars it takes to own one's own recording studio. How does one go about finding a recording studio to rent and what is the process of making one's own album really like?

We received a stipend to cover production expenses from the label of some of the albums we recorded. Others were paid in full by us-we just received marketing and distribution help from the label.

We have recorded 6 CD's to date, so we know now which studios to look for and have our favorite engineers to work with, etc. Once you begin working in the industry, you get to know who is out there and you get better at finding what you want. In Boston there are so many musicians looking to record that you literally stumble over recording studios. It's not hard.

Why is Sol Y Canto called a "company" and not a "band"? What is the difference?

Sometimes we do call ourselves a "band", or an "ensemble", and even a "company". We use those words interchangeably, but we are the same thing-a musical group that performs in diverse settings.

Since we perform at a lot of fine arts centers using the word "ensemble" is more pleasing to the ear for that particular buyer (audience).

Many refer to your group, Sol Y Canto, as the "ambassadors" of Latin music, how has that title influenced how you run your company and where you perform?

We feel honored by this description, and it really does describe what we attempt to do: to celebrate the richness of Latin culture through its music. We perform rhythms and songs from all over Latin America and the Caribbean and we perform as authentically as possible-adding our own unique stamp to the music in our instrumentation.

In contemporary Latin music it's not often that the Spanish guitar is used as the backbone of the music. It is more often the piano. In some ways our sound is more traditional (30's/40's Cuban sound), yet we have made it work in a contemporary context, mixing other instruments and improvising at will.

How did your unique style and flair for Afro-Latin music come about?

Brian and I are of Hispanic heritage. I am from Puerto Rico and my dad's Argentine roots (he was from Buenos Aires) affected me deeply. I was raised around music-mostly on records.

Brian heard Mexican music while growing up. He always loved Latin music and became enamored with it shortly before he met me, in 1984.

Your performances mix many styles of music, such as Afro-Latin, Argentinian, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Afro-Peruvian. Why did you choose to showcase so many styles in your performances?

Because we love them all! In Boston, there are musicians from many different Latin countries. When we first began singing, playing, and writing in the industry, we used our group as a kind of a workshop and learning place. We'd fall in love with a rhythm and learn all there was to learn about it. Our motto was: as long as we could do it authentically, try it.

Why is it important to share so many diverse styles of Latin music with others?

We feel it's important to continue celebrating our Latin culture by performing rhythms and singing lyrics from songs that are meaningful and have something to say about the human condition-whether it be about the past, present, or future.

By exposing our audiences to different styles, rhythms, and both original lyrics as well as traditional standards, we hope to build bridges between folks of Latin as well as North American origin, as well as between different Latin countries.

You recently released a wonderful album for children, called El Doble de Amigos/Twice as Many Friends, where did the idea for this album come about?

Our fans with kids. They asked us to record one and badgered us! Also, we kept looking for high quality CD's in Spanish or bilingual for our twins (now 7) and couldn't find much out there, so we decided to put something together ourselves.

What do you hope to accomplish with this new album?

We really hope to contribute to promote bilingualism. This CD is a partial benefit for the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE).

We feel it is important to foster pride in speaking Spanish. We also want to encourage North American parents who want their kids to learn Spanish to use this CD as a tool in helping them learn-while having fun.

The CD was created with the help of educators and parents (we conducted surveys and tested out songs). We think it's a really fun CD musically, featuring lots of dance rhythms; yet it focuses on important educational themes for kids between the age of 3 and 9. It was our goal to create a CD that both parents and kids would really love and enjoy.

Visit her at http://solycanto.com/

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