We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alicia Cerrada. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alicia below.
Alicia, thank you so much for making time for us today. We’re excited to discuss a handful of topics with you, but perhaps the most important one is around decision making. The ability to make decisions is a key requirement for anyone who wants to make a difference and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your decision-making skills.
Decision making is one of the most important things for me in life. In general, we should all know that almost all decisions we make can be changed, but many times we need to make decisions that will remain forever. There are so many possibilities in the world nowadays and different ways to live, that making decisions is one of the most common challenges.
What I do to make decisions is listen to my inner self: what stage of life am I in now? What do I like and dislike at this moment?
To give some personal examples, when I was eighteen years old, it was the first time I made a big decision. I was living in Spain and I loved it, but I visited the Netherlands and I fell in love with the country, the possibilities, and the people there. It was opening up for me. I was excited about it and thought I should try. With a lot of effort and discipline, I passed the auditions to enter Rotterdam’s Conservatory of Music. Afterwards, I moved. From that moment, I had to take care of myself there: improving my English, finding a house and living with flatmates from other parts of the world, creating a bank account and understanding my taxes in Dutch, passing the exams at the university… It required a lot of organization and willpower, but I also had to start following my intuition to do everything. I made many mistakes, and little by little, I grew in so many ways! The first year was hard and incredible.
Another hard decision was when I finished my Bachelor’s in Classical Music and decided to pursue a Master’s in World Music. There was criticism about my choice from some people, and I felt guilty for not continuing my studies in Classical Music, but I also felt I needed a change because I was different from the prototype of a solely Classical musician. Another great decision.
When I finished my Master’s and was working in the Netherlands playing concerts and teaching, I decided to apply for the Fulbright scholarship, and I got it! I had my life in the Netherlands, I had created my family there, but I was not completely happy. I felt I had some inner problems even though I loved the people there. The decision to leave the Netherlands and go to Los Angeles with the scholarship took me completely out of my comfort zone. There were a lot of risks in my professional life, projects, personal life, housing, and many other things, but making the decision to leave, in the end, was so good. I arrived in LA and my world completely changed. I started feeling free again, nothing to lose, more creative and young, my self-esteem grew so much there. There were many challenges and I had to deal with many things, but wow, I would say in six months there I grew and got to know myself so much! And now, I have decided to return to Spain, which may seem crazy, but it was my decision. This moment in my life is very self-reflective and beautiful.
In conclusion, making decisions has shaped my life, and I have lived so many incredible moments and met such incredible people! I am not afraid of trying and making mistakes, because sometimes the reward is life-fulfilling.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My mission is to help people feel and express themselves through music. I want to bring together people from different countries, as I believe in respect for human beings and their right to live. I believe in women, in their superpowers and their existence. All women deserve the same rights and good treatment as men. We need to learn to love from a place of equality, and when this happens, the world will be very different, but we will adapt.
My artistic career comes from listening to others, listening to the world, taking ideas from my experiences, and sharing with others.
I have spent more than twenty years of my life studying, and I am still learning something new every day. Learning is a never-ending activity, and I recommend everyone learn something new every day. But also, rest and meditate. Listen. Talk with others. Smile. Be positive even when it gets hard.
My goal in life is to become my most authentic self, to discover myself and teach others to discover themselves. I have spent many years listening to my heart and developing an empathy and sensitivity that would be very useful in this world, which is plagued by crimes and wars.
I am a pianist who loves coaching and teaching piano and music, but I do it with respect and love. I want results from my students, and I want them to have the discipline to follow their goals.
I am working on a new project that involves myself and different artistic forms of expression. I am very excited and looking forward to sharing it!
If you want creative, artistic, or technical advice for your music, don’t hesitate to contact me! I love all kinds of music and am always open to listening to ideas and helping develop them or teaching the skills to become a better artist or musician.
Apart from all this, I would like to share with you that I will release my first book in a few months! It relates my career since I started music at the age of six. I talk about all the obstacles, the good points and the bad points of living a life like mine. The book is called “27”. I think it will resonate with many people who lived similar situations as mine.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
There are a lot of skills and areas of knowledge to improve when having dreams. People spend a lot of time in developing their personality, expertise in their craft and creativity.
I would say the most important would be: to be open minded to meet and know new things, curiousity, to have discipline and motivation in doing what you love the most (for this, you need to enter in your soul and checking what makes you really happy and satisfied, no matter the final outcome), and taking care of your physical and mental health, always important to have a long lasting career. I know there are more, but I find these the most important!
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
Actually I would love to work with music producers that want to make music with me, fusing genres. I would like to meet them online (if it’s not possible in person) and work with them in some project.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aliciacerrada.com
- Instagram: alicia.cemusic
- Linkedin: Alicia Cerrada
Image Credits
Photos 1, 2 and 3: Sara Pista (Spain).
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