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Mariana Martínez Cruz was born in Mexico City, although she has lived in Guadalajara since she was 9 years old and, now, she is a regular cellist for the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (OFJ); yes, her father is a violinist and represented her first contact with music, despite the fact that her training began as a singer and, a year later, she began piano and cello studies, although she did not stop sing.

Previously, she was part of the Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico (OSEM) and, likewise, in the Youth Orchestra of the same entity, but before that she belonged to the youth orchestra of Zapopan; that means a not insignificant experience that adds to the more than 13 years that she already has as a member of the OFJ.

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In the opinion of the also conductor, her training as a singer has been very helpful in her development as a performer “because one already has her tuning in mind; the sound and tuning, by playing it directly, is easier. Here I began with my studies at a technical level, at the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), then I went to do my degree at the Conservatory of the State of Mexico”.

Although Martínez acknowledges that within the family and while studying “I have not noticed any type of marginalization for being a woman, where I have noticed it is in the field of orchestral conducting, because I have studied and been a conductor for ten years; suffice it to mention the fact that in all the time I've been in the orchestra only three women have been invited to conduct”.

hit the instrument

Despite the fact that today the cello is a “popular” instrument, the instrumentalist recalls that “my father played in the National Symphony Orchestra and, they say, that he always interested me in the cello; but there was a time when we moved to another place and when choosing an instrument, I chose the piano first. Shortly after, I started to study the cello.”

Of course, many musicians agree that one chooses an instrument based on a particular sound, to which Martínez adds that “I think there is a whole psychology behind how musicians choose an instrument; it is interesting why one chooses one over the other, in my case, aware that I really like symphonic music, I chose the cello because I wanted to play in an orchestra (and there is only one piano)”.

Accuracy and hearing

And playing, of course, is not a simple thing, reading a score is complex and imagination takes part in the process; Martínez refers that “music is a language, one that transports you to another reality in which the notes can be, in some way, the lyrics. Music is capable of creating atmospheres and, we must not forget, it is a discipline that comes from rhetoric, from which it takes certain models”.

The cellist assures that “time is essential in music, it aspires to precision and that is wonderful, everything is delimited but it manages to create something out of the ordinary. And, definitely, for those who aspire to become a solvent performer, it is necessary, above all, to have a good ear”.