Daily Inspiration: Meet Tamara Goldinella

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Goldinella.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Music Business: I started street promoting concerts year 2005 in Harlem, New York. I walked from block to block posting and handing out flyers.

Ownership is in my veins, and it rules my spirit. I am an artist’s artist and a creative investor. I learned the importance of owning the creative direction of my art while working for Universal Music Group’s Interscope Records and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

Artistry: My elementary school music teacher discovered my ability to sing and play instruments at five years old. I was one of her repeated soloists. She taught music theory and instrumentation. She introduced me to classical music/musical theater. She put a microphone, a violin, and a xylophone in my hands. Voice and violin stuck. The rest is history. My mother invested in my private vocal lessons, I played violin in orchestra for 13 years and I joined music choirs.

After highschool, I studied Jazz and Concert Performance at the University of Virginia, while pursuing a Behavioral Science degree in Sociology. My mother was not paying for a music degree, so I made sure to study both, but graduate with a degree that would be acceptable to my mother. I also joined the university gospel choir where I discovered the intersection of Jazz and Gospel music via an invitation to sing a Kim Burrell solo of her song “Lift Jesus.” I never heard of Kim Burrell at the time. I researched her and realized I was asked to sing her solo because I had an essence of Jazz in my vocal presentation. Kim Burrell, though highly recognized in the Gospel genre, spent several years of her music career as a jazz vocalist. The “signs” told me what music direction was calling me. Every genre I sing, soul, r&b, country, gospel, folk, soft rock always reflects the “jazz” in me.

Ownership: I discovered my call to ownership while working for other companies and institutions. I was restricted in my wiring and creativity. I was never allowed to be 100% “Tamara Goldinella, and I never adjusted to the restraints of having to conform to a vision and mission which do not fit my moral and creative dispositions.

I have my own establishment now, a soul-jazz speakeasy lounge. If you like music artists such as Sade, Teddy Swims, Jill Scott, Adele, Alex Isley, Moonchild, Emily King and Wizkid you will enjoy the mood. The best vocalists in the city perform; I repeat, the “best” vocalists, not necessarily the popular vocalists. We value music diversity, artistic integrity, and we’re “sticklers” about the crowd a vocalist attracts. We value customers with high music IQ levels. We keep it sultry, candle-lit and sophisticated because we want people to exhale and meet the kinds of people which present cultural conversations that stretch beyond the mundane and low frequencies. Our next step is to invite major record label soul-jazz artists to perform.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Artistry is a struggle. Artists are a peculiar group. We thrive on authenticity and originality, unless we bite the forbidden apples of gimmicks and pop music pressure. Unlike “survivors,” we must discover who we really are and why we were born, and we do not come alive until we find our purpose. Typically we battle conformists in family, friendships, romance, and business. We face being misunderstood, and being outcasts because we don’t settle for the life that most people settle for. Someone is always trying to control us, change us, or misrepresent our identity.

Image Credits
Elvis Piedra