Michelle is a former student of The Shine School of Music at Estudio Shine in Gracia, Barcelona. She trained as a pianist with our teacher Katarina Ruvidic, developed her songs with producer Laura Babetto, and was a regular at our jam sessions. Today she is an independent artist working on her first EP, with releases that already include ‘Cerca del Mar’, ‘Amore’, a cover of Ryuichi Sakamoto, and a single in honor of her dog, Catalina.

We are proud of her journey and wanted to share her story with our students. We sat down with her to talk about her beginnings, her creative process, and what comes next. Here is what she told us.

Could you introduce yourself briefly and tell us about your current musical project, for those who don’t know you yet?

I’m Michelle, an independent artist in a process of building and self-discovery. Right now my musical project is focused on creating my first EP in the near future and on training as a professional pianist.

I’m in a really beautiful stage of rediscovering my own musical voice: defining it, refining it, and above all experimenting. For a long time I had a lot of ideas and emotions I didn’t know how to express, and through my songs, my writing, and my poems I’ve found a way to bring them to life.

My music comes from something very personal: from my inner world, my emotions, and those moments of solitude where everything becomes more honest. Art is letting me tell intimate stories and show a very romantic and sensitive side of me, sharing it with the world and, little by little, crossing borders.

Let’s travel back in time a bit: what is the first musical memory that comes to mind?

Curiously, music has always been present on my father’s side of the family, although I grew up without contact with them, so for a long time I wasn’t aware that this artistic part already lived in me.

My first musical memory is very clear: I was about six years old and was raised by my maternal grandparents, who were like my parents. One day, my grandfather brought mariachis for my grandmother, and something inside me woke up. Seeing them, with their suits, their hats, it was magical. It stayed with me, in my mind and in my heart.

From that moment on, even though I didn’t sing or play any instrument, I knew I wanted to be a mariachi one day. It was a very intuitive certainty. Today I feel that, in some way, that dream is getting closer. I’m building my path in music, training and surrounding myself with people who believe in me, and that lets me keep alive that dream that was born when I was a child.

Was there a specific moment, teacher, or class during your time at Shine when you realized that music would be a way of life and not just a hobby?

Yes, there was a very clear moment that marked a before and after.

For years I worked as a babysitter and used to bring a little girl to The Shine School of Music. Her father played the piano at home, and one day, while I was playing with her, he started playing a piece that moved me completely. It took me straight back to my childhood, to very deep memories with my grandmother. It was a very intense feeling, as if something inside me woke up. That piece was Albinoni’s Adagio.

That day I made a decision: to stop being a spectator and start my own path. After many years waiting in reception, I finally sat down at a piano as a student. And that’s where I met my teacher, Katarina Ruvidic, who has been key in my life.

Over time, I understood that music went far beyond learning to play. During a very difficult period for me, when I went through anxiety and depression, the piano became my refuge. Many of the pieces we worked on managed to calm me, to hold me up, and it was then that I understood Katarina was also applying music with me from a music therapy approach.

She didn’t just teach me technique, she taught me to feel and to heal through music. That’s when I knew this wasn’t a hobby, but a way of life. Since then, everything I’ve created, including my first track ‘Cerca del Mar’, comes from that very real place, where music isn’t just heard, it also transforms.

Do you feel that the technical foundation you built at the school influenced the way you compose or perform today?

Completely. In fact, when I started at the academy and Katarina asked me if I played any instrument, my answer was: “yes, the flute, but when I was little” (laughs).

I was starting practically from scratch, and thanks to her I built a very solid technical foundation. She gave me the tools and the knowledge I needed to understand music and, above all, to start composing with meaning and coherence.

The academy has also been key in my path because it let me meet Laura Babetto, who today is my producer. With her I began working on my songs and giving real shape to everything I carried inside. So it didn’t just influence the way I compose, but also the opportunities and connections that have made my current project possible.

When you sit down to write, do you draw on your personal experiences, or do you let yourself be carried more by external influences like cinema, literature, or other musicians?

My compositions mainly come from personal experiences. Every project I make reflects a stage of my life, a specific emotion, or a process I’ve gone through.

I believe the most sincere works arise from very intense states, whether from deep pain or from moments of great happiness. For me, art has to be felt. When I compose or play, there is always an emotional intention behind it. The way I experience music is very visceral, and that is reflected directly in my songs.

Even so, I also draw on external influences. Literature and philosophical thought play a very important role in my creative process, and authors like Friedrich Nietzsche have influenced the way I understand art as a deep, almost inevitable form of expression of what we are inside.

Is there a specific “non-musical” influence that would surprise people to know has had an impact on your work?

I’ve always surrounded myself with very talented people whom I’ve admired and still admire today. I’ve taken the best from each of them, and that way I’ve been able to find inspiration and feed my desire to learn and to picture myself on a stage, giving my own concerts.

I’ve also lived through endless personal events, like losing family members or breakups, that have been a catalyst to let everything out and turn all that pain into music. The most recent has been the loss of Catalina, a dog I had who passed away. I dedicated a single to her in honor of her loyalty, which never abandoned me in my worst moments, and who understood the fragility of my soul and my silence, being a light in the middle of the hole of darkness I had sunk into.

Tell us about your most recent recording.

The last recording was incredible. We spent several sessions in the studio with my producer Laura Babetto and Marc Tena, sound and mastering engineer. We recorded different things, among them my latest single, ‘Amore’.

I also worked on a cover in honor of the sublime beauty we can find in classical music, which has also been one of my great references when building the musical foundations of my own songs. Performing a piece by a musician as great as Ryuichi Sakamoto was an enormous challenge. In classical music you are very exposed, and you open the door to a lot of criticism, because it’s a world where millions of people have listened to and deeply respect these works. Even so, daring to do this cover was a dream come true and a challenge on another level.

Laura had to transcribe the score and Katarina taught me how to interpret it. Without the two of them, and without my own desire to learn, it wouldn’t have been possible.

What was the hardest, or the most rewarding, part of recording this new music?

One of the most complicated parts of the process was working on the intention with which each person performed their part in the recording.

Technically, in the studio everything can be fixed: you can repeat it, cut it, or improve it. But what really makes the difference is the intention with which each phrase, each chord, or each fragment is played or performed, whether sung or instrumental. For me, that’s where the real challenge lies, and also the essence of the project: getting everything not just to sound good, but to convey the same thing we felt when we created it.

If listeners could take away only one emotion or message from your new tracks, what would you want it to be?

In the end, for me music isn’t just something you listen to, it’s a place to return to when everything outside becomes noise. If my songs can keep someone company through their process, even in silence, then I already feel all of this makes sense.

Now that this project has come to light, what is the next “summit” you want to reach?

My next “summit” is to keep growing as an artist and to consolidate my professional path, as well as to keep building my EP.

Together with my producer Laura Babetto, in collaboration with Sam (drums teacher at Shine), Mariana Mera, and Marc Tena as sound engineer, we’ve brought to life a new and very special track. On this project I’ve worked not only as a composer on all the tracks alongside Laura, but also as a vocalist, contributing another very important part of myself.

It’s been a really beautiful piece of work, because this time I wanted to step a little away from my more classical compositions and explore more of a jazz and blues sound. The studio where we recorded is very well equipped and has high-quality vintage instruments, which let us experiment a lot with the sounds. It was a long process, taking months, because practically all the instruments were recorded with real musicians, taking great care with every detail so that everything had coherence and meaning.

I have a lot of confidence in this project, just like in ‘Cerca del Mar’. I feel they have a more commercial focus and that they can make a really nice impact when they come out. I’m a very persevering person and very focused on what I want. When something gets into my head, I make it happen. My goal is clear: to keep developing my voice as a singer, to present my EP, and to get people not just to listen to my music, but to truly feel it, to live it from the inside.

If you could collaborate with any artist, living or historical, who would be your ideal match and why?

Without a doubt, my ideal collaboration would be with Alejandro Fernández.

As I mentioned, since I was very little my dream has been to be a mariachi, and his music has been very present in that imagination. I deeply admire his lyrics, his performance, and the message he conveys in every song. I feel his way of singing connects with something very authentic and emotional, and collaborating with him would be a dream, not only musically, but for everything that world and that artistic root represent for me.

What has your experience been like in the Barcelona music scene?

It’s been a very rewarding experience and, above all, very welcoming on the part of many musicians.

I think that in the Barcelona music scene the support between independent artists is essential. In the end, many of the opportunities to play live, to collaborate, or to get yourself known come through other musicians and the contacts you build. It’s a path that, when you don’t have a label behind you, can be more complicated, but not impossible. And that’s exactly what also makes it beautiful: building your own space little by little, through work, persistence, and community.

Finally, what advice would you give to the student who is in the school’s studios right now, dreaming of making music?

I would tell them to keep believing in themselves. As you learn more, everything becomes more complex and demanding, but the important thing is not to give up.

I remember that, in my case, when a piece wasn’t coming out I would get really frustrated, but there was my teacher supporting me and, above all, telling me she believed in me. And that helps so much more than it seems.

The world of music leads you to explore and discover many things about yourself, and also to find your own musical language. Music heals, and Shine has great professionals who support you through that process. Don’t be afraid. Fears and embarrassment are made of cardboard.

Check out Michelle’s music:

and her instagram