BIOGRAPHY

Maria Cristina Godinez Rivera has been performing as a singer and dancer in Germany and abroad since 2000 and has worked with renowned musicians and ensembles such as the Michael Schleinkofer Jazz Trio, as a duo with the Peruvian concert guitarist Guiller Romero, the Cuban pianist Lázara Cachao, the daughter of Buena Vista Social Club double bassist Orlando López Cachao, Cachito, and with Austria's top dance orchestra, the Tanzorchester Linz AG.

Maria Cristina's musical career began in her home country: at the age of six, she became a Cuban child star. Her singing voice earned her the nickname "La Vozaza" - "the little one with the big voice". Appearances on television, such as in the successful children's program "Que siempre brille el Sol" (Televisión Cubana) or as the winner of the television competition "Buscando el Sonero" in Havana, were part of the artist's life from an early age. At the age of twelve, she made her debut as a singer in the famous "Teatro Sauto" in the city of Matanzas, accompanied by a large orchestra. Maria Cristina won various dance and singing competitions, including the biggest Cuban artist competition in 1995, and was subsequently hired as a singer and dancer on the famous Varadero stage. Her acting studies at La Ciénaga - her teachers include Manuel Porto - and acting engagements complement her wide range of experience in the performing arts.

Maria Cristina Godinez Rivera moved to Germany in 1997 for love. The Cuban quickly found a new musical home in Passau: when the band Die Könige was looking for a new singer, she was immediately hooked - she came, sang and won. In 2003, Maria Cristina celebrated the premiere of her first band GODINEZ y su grupo Proyecto F at the Redoute Theater in Passau. In 2005, she also founded the dance school "MC Salsa" in the city of three rivers, but decided to give up this successful and at the same time (bureaucratically) demanding business after a few years in order to devote her life to the stage again. Because she sees her mission as presenting the Latin American music of her homeland and touching hearts in the process: "It's time to share what I really love: MUSIC."

After moving to the music city of Munich, Maria Cristina founded the band TRElenco (a combination of the Spanish "Tre" and "Elenco", in German "Drei" and "Ensemble") in November 2023 and created her personal dream project with the program MARIA CRISTINA y su TRElenco, with which she debuted in the same month in the renowned Munich jazz bar Vogler in a sold-out hall. In the pianist, organist and composer Matthias Bublath, she has found the perfect man to accompany her voice with class and virtuosity and make it shine. Percussionist Roberto Guerra and double bassist Wilbert Peppert complete the ensemble, which is dedicated to modern Afrobeats and the FILIN Cubano genre in particular.

Maria Cristina shares her burning passion for the FILIN style with her band - a genre of Cuban song that derives from the bolero and, influenced by North American jazz, has developed its very own rhythmic style that uses effective pauses and improvisation in dynamics and rhythm to create music that immediately releases emotions (the title is derived from the English word feeling ) from the former flowing dance movement. Developed in the late 1940s, the FILIN style brought about a change in the way music was composed and interpreted. With TRElenco, the singer presents this gripping Latin American music between jazz and tradition, from Son Cubano to Danzón and Chachachá to Afro-Cuban music ... and the pleasure of rekindling the familiar and sometimes brushing it against the grain can always be seen in Maria Cristina and her musicians' fiery, fresh interpretations.

An interest in new things, enthusiasm and optimism - this triad characterizes Maria Cristina. And so it comes as no surprise that the versatile artist has been writing her own lyrics for two years and is currently working on an album of personal compositions, some of which can already be heard in the new program MARIA CRISTINA y su TRElenco. The meaning of "La Vozaza" comes into its own here. The voluminous, warm voice of this humorous and profound singer carries Cuba's world of sound directly into the listener's heart.