With her emotion-evoking operatic range and soprano heights, Dominican opera singer Zuly Inirio is challenging whose voice is embodied and heard throughout the genre.
She first saw an opera — “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi — at 15 while attending a Christian high school in Miami. “I fell in love with it,” she said. “I didn’t think it was something I could do because I didn’t see anyone who looked like me.”
It wasn’t until her college years, wandering the aisles of the music library, that she discovered Black opera singer Leontyne Price and Afro-Latina Martina Arroyo. It was only after pursuing her doctoral degree that she learned of Afro-Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes, whose operas debuted at La Scala, the renowned opera house in Milan.
“No one told me that during my entire doctoral experience,” the Swissvale resident said. “Now I am bringing my culture to classical music because part of it is kept out of the narrative. My culture became a source of strength and almost a refuge from the systems that try to exclude and make me feel othered.”
She has made it a habit in all environments to show up as her most authentic self, representing her culture in every space she inhabits.
“I don’t try to code-switch, I don’t try to be anyone other than myself. That has been very powerful for me as an individual, but it has done wonders for how I show up in my performing,” Inirio said.
Inirio is the youngest of eight siblings. When she was about a year old, her family moved to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Her mother wanted her to know her culture, so she took the youngest three siblings to live there until Inirio was 8.
Her first language is Spanish.
“Culturally, my experience is like that of someone who immigrated to the U.S. when they were young,” she said.
In mid-October — Hispanic Heritage Month — Inirio was in Ann Arbor, Mich., at the University Musical Society with the Sphinx Organization, which focuses on Black and Latinx classical musicians. Additionally, she recently performed with SCALE Live at the Roxian Theatre in McKees Rocks, celebrating the SCALE Fellowship program, which is dedicated to advancing Black women in music.
Inirio has made an effort to sing the repertoire she focuses on through the Afro-Latinx Song and Opera Project, which she founded in 2020. The project emerged from Inirio trying to understand the racialized experiences she encountered in Europe, as well as the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. She wanted to create something for the community within the classical music space.
Recently at the Roxian Theatre, she performed “Maria La O” by Ernesto Lecuona.
“I chose that piece because it really touches on Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Cuban music, and I wanted to bring that part of my heritage into that space.
“The narrative is curated by people invested in whiteness,” said Inirio, who has spoken at TEDx.
Inirio always had a natural talent and love for music. “I was told that as a toddler, the only thing that calmed me down besides ‘Sesame Street’ was my brother playing Dominican records on full blast,” she said.
She loved it to the point that she could request music based on sounds she heard. There was a song by a Dominican artist where the singer sighed, and she would make her request known by mimicking that sigh. As a child, she would speak in Spanish in the third person, saying, “Zuly wants ahhhh.”
Her first experience with classical music was also in the Dominican Republic as a ballet dancer in “The Nutcracker” when she was 5. She vividly recalls the rehearsals with piano music and the ballet teacher tapping her cane on the floor to keep time.
Her mom was adamant that she knew her culture. Her dad is also Dominican.
“Even when we moved back to the U.S., I could only speak Spanish at home. I wasn’t allowed to speak English, which is why I’m bilingual,” she said. Being immersed in the place her parents are from had a profound impact on her identity.
“I’m inspired by Zuly’s artistry, her passion,” said Dominic Bordelon, Inirio’s husband. “Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing her evolve, becoming not only a stronger musician but also an advocate, leader and arts visionary.”
In preparing for an opera role, Inirio said the process is interesting.
“You really have to understand the character and their motivations. So even though these works are old and very white, the human condition and emotions are universal. We all want to feel love, acceptance, and value,” she said.
She might be working on “Aida,” the story of an Ethiopian princess who falls in love with an Egyptian army commander leading the charge to destroy her people.
“I’m not Ethiopian, and you can debate whether I’m a princess, but it’s like, how do I manage falling in love with someone who is doing work that will harm my community? So, extracting that and placing yourself within that space and time,” Inirio said.
She also brings awareness to the African ancestry within Latin America. Inirio, who describes herself as Afro-Latina, said, “Most enslaved people were in what is now the Caribbean and Latin America. Only 5% of those enslaved people came to the U.S.”
“We have this whole Black diasporic population, culture and histories that are part of our national identities in Latin America and the Caribbean, but sometimes get erased. I want the full story, and I want to see us being celebrated,” she said.
Part of her work is inherently educational about identity.
In her career, she’s had life-changing moments. Inirio was once performing at Harvard University, where a young Dominican opera singer studying at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee approached her after the concert and told her they had never seen another Dominican opera singer and that it made them feel represented and seen.
“That was really impactful,” Inirio said.
Another time, at a Sphinx LEAD retreat at the University of North Texas, a professor told her he was already familiar with her work and the Afro-Latinx Song & Opera Project. “He said, ‘I’m reading dissertations that cite your project and the work you do as a framework for diversifying the canon,’ ” Inirio said.
When she learned that her work was being used in dissertations, she began to understand her impact exceeded any of her expectations. “It also fulfilled a need for the community and was a solution for me,” she said.
“Dr. Inirio has established herself as a visionary and human-centered leader who lives at the intersection of music, advocacy and social justice,” said Jake Lane, director of leadership programs at Sphinx Organization. “Her efforts have created a vital platform for celebrating and recognizing Afro-Latin American artists and composers.”
Her career has been booming recently, and she is excited about how her project has grown. She will be launching a nonprofit organization called Instituto Cimarrón. The term refers to Marronage, something enslaved people did in Latin America and the Caribbean, where they would run away from captivity and create their own towns, reclaiming agency and freedom. Inirio was inspired by this idea and sees her own work as a modern-day Marronage.
“It’s about learning our culture and who we are as a way of finding liberation within the systems we live in,” Inirio said.
The Afro-Latinx Song and Opera Project will be the flagship initiative of Instituto Cimarrón. Another component, “Art in Healing,” will focus on art and mental health research for people of the Global Majority. “I hope these initiatives will help me affect change for artists within the classical music space,” Inirio said.
She is at work curating a concert called “Negritude: Music of the Black Diaspora,” featuring local Black performers and artists. The Feb. 15 performance will take place at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh in Shadyside.
“I will continue to uplift Afro-Latinidad and the connection between the Black diaspora in our community,” Inirio said.
Shaylah Brown is a TribLive reporter covering art, culture and communities of color. A New Jersey native, she joined the Trib in 2023. When she’s not working, Shaylah dives into the worlds of art, wellness and the latest romance novels. She can be reached at [email protected].
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Publish date : 2024-11-05 01:01:00
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