Pily Nieblas

Pily Nieblas was born in Holguin north-east of Cuba the 8th of April 1979. Some of her childhood and part of her adolescent years were spent at her mother's town. At the early age of 4 years Pilar could read and write. Promptly, her family enrolled her to study music in an art's academy. There she was taught music and how to play piano and guitar. Additionally, she completed a course on radio stations, where she performed acting, writing scripts, and short stories. She was also a director's assistant and had a space on Saturdays to read and talk about her own poetry from the age of 12 to 15.

Then she went to Havana (Cuba's capital) to continue her studies. At the Cuban National Art’s School (ENA)she learned how to play creole laud and directed a small classical band, which performed at the museums and at activities arranged under the school's direction. By the age of 16, she started playing and singing professionally in a traditional and popular band named Realengo. Pilar began to prepare herself in performance. She went to a dancer's academy and she received singing lessons from the famous Cuban coach Robertina Morales. She started working and performed in many metropolitan places.

It was May 2002 when she became part of the top Cuban orchestra Attache Habana, -experience that continued leading her artistic life when 4 members of that band decided to form a small project called Son4, directed by one of the most popular arrangers in Cuba: Asiak Sarria. They worked as a salsa band for a while. Pilar also spent some time arranging and songwriting music for other young singers, attending radio interviews and creating tracks for fashion shows. She did composing of whole soundtracks for the children's programs produced on the Cuban National TV Channel (work that she started in May 2001 in partnership with her ex-singing teacher and awarded composer Robertina Morales).

By the middle of 2003 she was performing in a top cabaret located at the Riviera Hotel, Havana -directed by Tomas Morales, who as well was the art director for the great Tropicana Show-. Pilar left in the month of September when she received an opportunity with a traditional band working at the Cuban Flagship Hotel "The National". At the National Hotel she learned how to play all sorts of percussion integral to Cuban music such as maracas, guiro and claves. She worked hard and gained great experience in the company of Jose Luis Sanchez and his team. Consequently, she got selected to be a lead singer of the Parisien's Show in Figueira de Fox, Portugal (when Rafael Hernandez saw her singing at the restaurant La Barraca in October 2003). Additionally, she received wonderful job offers to work outside the country and to perform in popular places, TV shows, and with orchestras such as Anacaona, Huracan del Caribe and Cafe Cubano.

Between December 2003, and January 2004 she won awards in 2 of the most important Cuban contests for songwriters, singers and performers: Eddy Gaitan, -directed by the incredible jazz-show-man Bobby Carcasses, and the international Mariana de Gonitch for Singers sponsored by the Russian Embassy in Cuba and other cultural entities. In the Eddy Gaitan, Pilar received the biggest award singing Robertina Morales's song Alguien. In the second event she won the most relevant, plus three more awards for categories: Artist Revelation, Best Foreign Language Performance (with the standard I wish you love), Best Feeling Gender Performance (with Llora of Martha Valdes) and Best Artist Award given by the National Culture Institute. The well-known Italian singer Lucia Althieri directed this contest.

In April 2004 she traveled out of the hemisphere with 4 musicians to Amman, Jordan. There she integrated the new versions of Essencia Cubano and Iroko projects, singing and dancing at Le Meridien (Brews Bar) and Movenpick's (Valley Coffee Bar) on the Dead Sea, contracted by the company Freddy For Music. In July of the same year Pilar formed the traditional Cuban Trio Havanitas. Under the same contract company they went to Doha, Qatar, to work for The Ritz Carlton. She and her partners were very busy performing at several activities, hotel, and guest parties, Latin women's associated events, buffet and brunches, The Admiral's Night Club and of course: Habanos Cigar Bar. Here hundreds of guests gathered each evening to hear their Cuban creole performing, some of the famous jazz standards and to buy Pily Nieblas's demo album as a souvenir. Motivated by a promising work contract Moon and Stars Studios Company offered her 1 year ago, -since they fell in love with her soulful performances and her deeply dramatic voice-, Pilar decided to move to United States to start a new stage of her professional life in January, 2005. With the help of Swamp Dogg, -also known as Jerry Williams-, she completed the production of the album "Si yo fuese un angel", during the period of 2005-2006. The production catalogued as "too eclectic" resulted in a complicated product for the sales demand of the market within United States, but stays available in character of resume, living proof of Pily's versatility as a singer and performer. Within the tracks of this album you may find some famous cover songs retouched in a very fresh and Latin approach.

Pilar saved some time off the road to define the fate of her personal and professional carrier, and also to find a newer fount of inspiration for a more concise product, which would reveal in a better manner the roots of her Spanish-Sephardic blood from Canary Islands. That's how she happened to create a genuine line of songs combining genres as "reggaeton" and "soca" with the passionate spirit of gypsy melodies, project she started in 2006, and continues to produce -all by herself- till present. As part of her activities in San Fernando Valley she has performed with Visa band, and the legendary Jivan Gasparyan Jr. Also with the jazz performing stars Wayne Boyer and Peter Grant. She has been modeling for musical videos.

Pilar has studied theater, won awards writing short novels and poetry in the event Luisa Perez de Zambrana (for writers), was singer and keyboard player on the Andres Hernandez's band, at the Parisien Cabaret in early 2002 (before she integrated Attache Habana) and participated in a Music-Fashion Festival commented in the Eusebio Leal's magazine. She is proficient in computer skills, (especially those concerning the photo, audio-edition programs). She mixed and recorded various demos for young artists.

External links

* [http://www.pilynieblas.com Official site]