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As shown in the most traditional media and digital platforms, Dominican artists belonging to diverse musical genres have been working hard for many years to finally be recognized in the world. That is the case of talented bandleader and trumpeter Wilson Portuondo, with whom we managed to contact to know much more about his life and career.

How Wilson became interested in music

Wilson, our protagonist in this story, became interested in the musical world shortly after his 15th birthday in his native Dominican Republic, which was already well known for various types of merengue at the time. The young man frequently attended concerts performed in parks on weekends, which were free of charge, allowing him to enjoy the bands from his town without representing excessive expenditure for his family.

This was awakening in the boy a great desire to imitate the musicians he saw on stage and be as great as them someday, so he wanted to start studying music and see what he could achieve with that knowledge.

Professional beginnings

Wilson’s first experience as a professional musician came from the hand of the town’s municipal band in the city of Santiago. He also got to play in the municipal band of the firemen and the municipal band of the Dominican National Police, which had a headquarters in the aforementioned city. 

Thanks to these groups and others, he specialized in playing classical music and merengue, but things changed greatly when he decided to move to New York as a young adult who was about to celebrate his 20th birthday.

Wilson as a trumpeter

The instrument for which Wilson is best is the trumpet, which he confesses he began playing almost by accident. His fascination with the trumpet started when he was studying at the Culture and Art Institute while still in Santiago, as it was the first instrument he came in contact with that caught his attention at the institution.

At that time, he would never have imagined that he would play it, but he ended up feeling an enormous love for it and now considers it his favorite instrument among all others. However, he does not limit himself to this, as he can play the piano and is learning to play percussion, which includes the conga, bongo, Dominican tambora, güira and many more. 

Once he arrived in New York, he continued committed to learn as much as he could about music and studied at various institutes such as the Harlen School of the Art and later at the State University of New York (SUNY), where he studied classical trumpet for four years until he graduated.

He has learned to play the rest of the instruments through practice and lessons with other musician friends.

Arrival in the United States

When he arrived in New York, Wilson had to take an extra year in high school and, thanks to his studies, he was able to make friends with music students who invited him to enroll in the Harlem School of Art, a place where he had contact with many other people linked to the environment who began to call him to play with them as a freelancer.

In parallel to this, he was taking dance classes in New York style, which allowed him to attend many social dances and such live music events. Something that the artist noticed at that time was that the groups he saw always played the same songs like ”El Cuarto de Tula”, ”Soy Pilongo”, ”No le pegue a la Negra”, ”Rebelión”, among others. In addition to notice that they did not meet to rehearse, but played together the same as always.

To some extent, he feels that these mistakes on the part of so many orchestras inspired him to create his own project which he would baptize as La Sonora Neoyorkina, since he wanted to offer the public a fresh and new repertoire that did not include the same old thing. However, he always makes sure that he and his musicians rehearse as much as possible so as not to make the same mistakes as other groups.

Among the musicians who are currently in the group, we can mention Anthony Almonte, Osay Calvo, Nestor Villar, Carlos Mena, Carly Maldonado, among others. Venezuelan percussionist Robert Quintero, Luisito Quintero’s cousin, has also played in the band.

However, although they usually do covers of various classic songs, they have also strived to create their own original music, so they already have original songs such as ”Sonora Llegó” and ”Summertime”. Also, the group is making preparations to complete their first studio album next year.

Read also: Juan Karlos Jiménez talks about his orchestra Salsa Nueva Band and freelance career