Career Bio

A Short Story - My Personal Story 

Music has been a part of my life since childhood.  My earliest memory was of singing along with Julie Andrews while watching the Sound of Music.  I would re-enact the marionette scene from the top of my staircase singing "The Lonely Goatherd" for days on end after it aired every year. When I was 8 I showed interest in taking piano lessons.  My parents enrolled me with a private teacher.  Although I did that for a total of 10 years, (with several teachers) there were many times when I wanted to give up.  My first teacher was very strict and subsequently, very scary.  Initially, my weekly lessons were on Saturday mornings and I remember that during the winter months I used to open my bedroom window and breathe in the cold air with the hope that I could somehow instantly catch a cold.  It never worked!

By the time I was 15 years old, although I was still playing piano, I realized that something was missing; I needed to sing.  That summer, I went to Portugal with my family for a summer vacation.  Every few years we went to my parents' hometown of Furnas, in São Miguel. The best memories of my life are the summers spent there with my family and friends.  If I was lucky enough, I would be there in time for our neighbouring town, Ribeira Quente's Festa do Chicharro.  It is a weekend festival with nightly live music.  And it was at that festival that my life changed forever.  Suddenly over the speakers, while they were in between entertainers, the most beautiful and haunting music began to play.  Once I was able to compose myself, I asked my friends who and what that was.  They told me that it was Dulce Pontes and the song was the famous "Canção do Mar" (Song of the Ocean).  It was even more appropriate as the festival takes place at the ocean's edge.  Well, I fell in love.  I fell in love with that sound, with the Portuguese Guitar and I absolutely fell in love with Dulce Pontes.  And at that moment, I fell in love with fado.  As soon as I had a chance, I purchased Dulce's live recording, "A Brisa do Coração".  I listened to it and sang along with Dulce everyday for 2 years. 

Upon my return to Toronto I decided that I had to get my first job so that I could pay for my own singing lessons.  So I did just that.  I worked at the local department discount store and began taking lessons at the music school I was already at.  For 10 years I studied Classical singing.  Alongside the Classical music, I sang fado.  I had no one to teach me except the singers who inspired me.  I sang everything that Dulce recorded.  I then discovered other singers as well.  Of course there was the international fado superstar Amália Rodrigues.  But my true interest seemed to lie and still lies with the singers of Fado Novo (New Fado).  Singers such as Mariza, Ana Moura, Kátia Guerreiro, Cristina Branco, Jorge Fernando and Camané, to name a few. 

Even though music had been such a big part of my life, there were many years that I did not perform seriously as a soloist.  I had an inner fear of pursuing a professional career in music.  Throughout my life, there had been several people who had been negative and I had always been able to ignore them.  But in my early twenties, I internalized that negativity and it paralyzed me from truly living my dream of being a performer.

It was not until 2004 when that finally changed.  I learned all of a sudden that a dear friend of mine from high school had passed away 2 years prior in a motorcycle accident.  Elvis Zovic and I had been out of touch since 1997.  He was someone who had been so wonderful to me.  He loved my voice and was always encouraging.  I was devastated to learn of his passing and initially could not believe it. It took me a few months to get the courage I needed to contact his family.  But when I finally did, I was very grateful to reach his sister.  She and I talked on the phone for nearly 4 hours.  The next day she and her family took me to the cemetery where Elvis was buried.  In my gratitude, I decided that I should show my appreciation with a gift.  I went to a store and picked up one of those short inspirational books.  It was a book that described a prayer found in the Bible, the prayer of Jabez.  The prayer reads,
                                    "Oh, that You would bless me indeed,
                                    and enlarge my territory,
                                    that Your hand would be with me,
                                    and that You would keep me from evil."
                                                                        (1 Chronicles 4: 9-10)

After I purchased it, it was such a quick read that I read it within an hour or 2.  When I reached the middle of the book, I suddenly received a phone call.  A few months prior I had printed some business cards advertising myself as a singer who could sing at events, including weddings.  I had received no calls of interest until that very moment.  Now, I am not telling this tale because I am a Bible preaching kind of gal.  That just isn't me.  But I am telling this story because it was obvious to me that this happened through Elvis' intervention.  My friend who had been so supportive in life, was lending me a hand after his death.  And it was this that changed things for me.  Immediately, the veil of fear I had for so many years vanished.  I now wanted to pursue a music career as a soloist and nothing was going to stop me.  I am not trying to say that everything was suddenly perfect.  It was not an easy process and I still have difficulty every now again, but I am no longer afraid.  I had made the decision to just do it!

Just a month after this life-changing moment, I met up with some Portuguese musicians I knew and we started to work on fado pieces.  By the fall of 2004, I had my first performance as a fadista at a cultural event at the Royal Ontario Museum.  I have been performing fado ever since then. 

Eventually I started to work on my very first CD Release.  I ended up writing 4 songs on the CD which was an absolute miracle to me.  I never thought I would be able to write songs, let alone write them in Portuguese!  When it was time to name the CD, I came up with "Reformação" which translated means Reformation.  It was about my reformation.  I had gone through a process of being a very confident and talented girl, to being a young and talented adult with her confidence shattered.  The reformation came and changed me into someone who has hope and someone who will work for what she wants.

The CD "Reformação" is dedicated to Elvis Zovic and the very first song on it was written about him and is entitled "O Menino dos Olhos Azuis", or "The Boy with the Blue Eyes".

Sonia Tavares