María G. Valdez PART I
María G. Valdez creates and produces an astounding musical communication in her personal and professional lives.
PART I: María G. Valdez’s Musical Communication
María G. Valdez knows no life without music and the arts. They’ve always had a very natural presence in the Dominican communicator and artist’s life. Since her childhood, she’s always loved singing and performing. She’s always enjoyed doing shows in front of her family and in school, she was always chosen as a performer for whatever activity was happening.
Valdez even thinks that happened because she was one of the few persons with such enthusiasm to sing in front of everyone at a very young age. Her love for music and singing was so strong back then, that even her physical education professors would get jealous.
“I remember about a meeting with the high school’s principle, the sports' professor, and my parents. He would push my parents to enroll me in some sort of physical activity in the afternoon, instead of piano or singing. Instead of all of the artistic activities I did,” Valdez said laughing.
The professor would tell them that Valdez was great in art, but she should be doing sports. That happened in elementary school and then, in high school she had a similar experience. Her high school sports teacher would tell her she had a great kick for soccer and kickball. He’d ask her why she wasn’t interested in sports.
Meanwhile, she was in bliss at the art studio inventing things or at the chorus studio singing with the school’s piano. Naturally, she always gravitated towards music and art. It was her true love and passion.
And then, when it was time to make a career choice for college, she had a great plan in mind.
She told her parents – in an entitled manner as she said in the interview – that she’d study recording arts at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.
“I’d say: well, recording arts is not necessarily sound engineering. It has less math than engineering, which is more aligned with me. That’s what I’m going to study,” Valdez recalled. “Since I’m going to be a singer, I have to know how to record myself to do my songs.”
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She had that great idea in mind, but then she had a reality check. Her parents asked her if she had plans to win a scholarship to study in a different country. That was when she realized things were a bit more complex.
She graduated from high school when she was 17 years old, which meant she was a minor and the plan became a bit more complicated logistically and economically.
María G. Valdez in her many artistic pursuits in her childhood and adolescence. | Photos courtesy of María G. Valdez. | Impulsiva Stories.
The “Happy Accident” of Communication
While wondering what would be her next step in life, Valdez did a lot of aptitude tests with her high school’s psychologist. Everything was pointing to studying communication. It was the career that was more related to art, public relations, journalism, and entertainment at that time in the Dominican Republic.
So, she then came to an agreement with her parents. She’d do her first year of college there and once she turned 18, they’d speak about the possibility of studying abroad.
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“And me, with a Shakira complex: bruta, ciega, sordomuda, torpe, traste y testaruda. I said no. In my mind of a little girl, I said I was not going to lose a year of the college’s basic cycle, which are the same courses that you take in high school,” Valdez said. “To then leave and do the same thing [abroad]. I don’t like to start things and not finish them.”
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So, out of rebellion, Valdez studied and concluded her social communication degree at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santo Domingo.
Yet, the story is not as simple as it seems.
When she was in the middle of her career choice, she gave law a second thought because she enjoyed fighting back then.
But when she was taking the admission’s test, there was an extra requirement for law. An extra French exam had to be taken. With communication, the requisite was an English test.
That's why she made her decision for communication based on that English exam, even if she was not completely convinced with that career choice in that precise moment.
But ending up in communication was a “happy accident,” as Valdez described it. It was a sign that life and the universe were placing her where she needed to be. So, she finished her career in communication when she was only 21 years old.
“Of course, I was a very, very, very young adult, but I had a certain knowledge of what I wanted. I had a different vision of life,” Valdez said. “By that time, I said: well, if I want to be an artist, I need to do a triple threat and what better career to study than musical theater where you have singing, dancing, and acting.”
The Familiar Love for Musical Theater
Valdez kept thinking about that and during her 21st birthday, she did a trip to New York City with her mother and sister. Her mother’s birthday is two days apart from hers and her sister was studying in Canada, so it was the perfect excuse to do a girls’ trip in the big apple.
On Valdez’s birthday, they went for brunch to a Greek restaurant in the middle of Brooklyn during a snow storm. Back then, she did not know New York City well and Manhattan was the only part she had knowledge of. When they were on the train ride back to Manhattan, they were speaking about Valdez’s future and what she wanted.
Once they stepped out of the train station, the first thing she saw was the New York Film Academy and it was her moment of “everything’s meant to be.”
“It felt like: this is where I’m supposed to be. I did the audition. I recorded everything and sent it. I got into the program and did the two years of music theater,” Valdez said.
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But before pursuing her associate’s degree, there’s an extremely interesting reason why she loves musical theater so much. While studying, she started connecting the dots and realized that the passion was instilled in her thanks to her father. Valdez remembers growing up watching VHS tapes and listening to the CD’s and cassettes her father bought of all of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musicals.
María G. Valdez during her time studying musical theater at the New York Film Academy. | Photos courtesy of María G. Valdez. | Impulsiva Stories.
On weekends, she’d watch the Phantom of the Opera starring Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford. She knew by memory all of the songs from Cats and it was a lot of fun. Her father traveled a lot to New York City for work and he’d watch one or two musicals every time he visited the big apple.
During one of their family trips to the city, they went to see Beauty and the Beast. Valdez recalled she was only eight years old and did not speak English yet. She knew the story perfectly because she watched the movie a lot of times back home and it was her first experience with musical theater.
“The love for musical theater started there and a I did not connect that until later. When I was in my program, my father was living vicariously through me because that’s what he loved. He wanted to see what that world was like because he had always seen it as a spectator, but never from the industry,” Valdez said.
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Valdez’s quest for musical theater became a contagious love in her family. Her father then went on his own pursuit of it in the Dominican Republic. He began taking singing and acting lessons. And he now does musical theater in the Caribbean island. Valdez even laughed saying that her studies had a ripple effect and everyone ended up involved in the artistic discipline.
Yet, Valdez did not pursue a career in musical theater right away in New York City. She realized she did not have the discipline for an artistic career like that one and she needed a stable job to organize herself.
María G. Valdez during her time studying musical theater at the New York Film Academy. | Photos courtesy of María G. Valdez. | Impulsiva Stories.
Crafting the Musical Communication
But once again, life aligned and it was where she was supposed to be. She ended up working in a wide variety of jobs as a communicator in New York City. Valdez started out as a journalist and editor for various digital publications in the U.S. Hispanic market and then, ventured into the world of public relations.
“It was always focused on music. Even when I was working in journalism, the stories that I really liked reporting were when I was interviewing artists. Characters in the music industry and I was super connected in the music industry,” Valdez said.
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Her different communications’ jobs also led her to a life of adventure in many different ways. Communication is synonymous with living the life she’s always dreamed of. Having many opportunities. Leading a very entertaining life that allowed her to live in New York City for thirteen years.
Experiencing the adrenaline of getting onto an airplane to spin in the air. Traveling to Mexico to learn how to do tequila and watching a Día de los Muertos parade. Visiting California to learn about the vineyards. Going to Disney and staying at a fabulous room in Animal Kingdom.
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María G. Valdez spinning in the air thanks to her journalism career. | Video courtesy of María G. Valdez. | Impulsiva Stories.
She met and interviewed many interesting artists and people while attending red carpets and Fashion Week. That’s why she says she’s been through different phases as a communicator.
Throughout her journalism phase, she realized she had a platform she wanted to use for good. She wanted to highlight the good in people.
“And I would like to think that I did it with integrity and I would like to think that my voice might’ve helped others in one way or another,” Valdez said.
Then, she went into her publicist phase in which she continued her musical communication. She continued her adventure of connecting with artists, who she believes are some of the most interesting people. She loves working with independent, up-and-coming artists who are very committed to making their projects a success.
From left to right: María G. Valdez with John Cena (upper left), Jhayco (upper right), Liza Minnelli (bottom left), and Ximena Sariñana (bottom right). | Photos courtesy of María G. Valdez. | Impulsiva Stories.
And her number one rule when working with artists as a publicist is that she must be a fan of her clients. She loves helping other people make their dreams come true. That’s the granito de arena she brings to the table.
“Publicists are a little bit of everything. Especially when we work with big egos because a lot of the artists we work with have big egos, whether they realize it or not. As a publicist, I would define myself as someone who has your best interest at heart,” Valdez said.
It’s a job that requires multiple hats at the same time. Kind of like a mother, a psychologist, a therapist, a friend, or someone who simply lends a ear to listen to their needs.
But she’s also someone who’ll tell her clients the truth without sugarcoating it because they’re her responsibility. She needs to make sure that whatever people are talking about them is consistent and reflects their light instead of their shadows.
And this is all part of her musical communication that exists in different shapes and forms. A musical communication that has evolved through time and that’s an art in itself. One where Valdez easily merges different types of communication, music, and musical theater in a very compelling manner.
It’s an art form that can take her backstage in the music industry or front stage with her own singing as a hobby in a more intimate environment.
It’s an art form that she defines in a very fascinating way.
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“Communication is my career,” Valdez said. “Music is my passion and musical theater is my escape.”
To learn more about María G. Valdez’s musical communication, you can follow her on Instagram at @mariagvh or @mgvhaus. Stay tuned next week for PART II, where we’ll explore Valdez’s lively and human musical hobby.
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