The Havana-born Yilian Cañizares, brings verve, elegance and exotic rhythms to the Swiss jazz scene. A classically trained violinist, singer, songwriter, dancer and teacher, she won the National Violin Contest of Cuba and was became a member of Venezuela’s notable youth orchestra program 'El Sistema'. Fascinated by non-classical avenues that the instrument could open for her, she created her quartet, 'Ochumare' and it was with this project that she won the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition in 2008. Since then her career has taken off and has toured Europe, South America and Cuba and her highly acclaimed second album Invocación (Naïve Records), has played a vital role in her musical evolution.
