Anna M. ’21

As a member of the Upper School, Shantel Teixiera ‘20 is known by most Winsor students for her love of music and performance. Shantel frequently performs at Winsor assemblies and Upper School Meetings, where her voice always leads to standing ovations. Shantel spoke to The Banner about her experiences from humble beginnings in music to becoming a recording artist. 

When and how did you start playing music?

I started immersing myself in music at the age of 5 in a music program at The Haynes Early Education Center, where [I learned] how to sing and play recorder and violin. After this program, I continued to play violin for a couple years until I discovered a new program, the Boston Children’s Chorus (BCC) at the age of 8. Due to lack of time, I decided to drop the violin and continue my focus on singing. Once I came to Winsor in 6th grade, I picked up the violin again and took lessons from Winsor’s after school music program. After a year of lessons, I felt myself becoming increasingly more distant with my instrument and the genre, and I ended up dropping violin again! Thus, in 8th grade, my father got me my first acoustic guitar as a birthday gift, and I began teaching myself. Once I got ahold of the guitar, I began jumping to other instruments, such as the bass, ukulele, and later piano, and teaching myself despite the fact that I still had a lot of learning left to do on guitar. 

My mother, who manages most of my musical endeavors, reached out to an event organizer and, as a result, gave me my first opportunity to sing as a solo artist, marking the birth of Shantel C., my stage name. Later that year in the summer, I participated in a vocal competition, “Voces di Diaspora”, that celebrated young Cape Verdean-American musicians, and this event was my first time singing in a language other than English. Although the scores were extremely close, I ended up in 2nd place, and my confidence took a downfall. However, the band members that I had collaborated with for the competition took me under their wing and began putting me on stages whenever they had the opportunity to do so in local restaurants. 

What project are you working on right now/worked on over the summer?

 As I mentioned in the first Upper School meeting, I am in the process of working on my very first single entitled “Bu Storia”, written and produced by Claudio “KRHitzz” Ramos and executive produced by Manny Montrond. This project started at the beginning of this past summer when Manny Montrond, a friend of my mother’s, reached out to her and explained that he wanted to get me into the studio. Prior to this offer, I had never stepped foot inside of a studio, never professionally recorded myself, and never even written a song! I was so overwhelmed and excited all at the same time and couldn’t believe he, an amazing songwriter, saw enough potential in me to record my own song. He asked me who I wanted to work with as my producer, and because I had been listening to a lot of Cape Verdean music, I immediately knew I wanted to work with Claudio Ramos, one of the best Cape Verdean producers working in America currently. 

What are your hopes for your music in the future?

    As a Cape Verdean-American, I have struggled to understand these two identities and still continue to figure out new things about myself every day. While the process is not easy, I encourage leaning into self-discovery and taking time to explore and understand one’s identity. It’s completely okay to not know–something that I had a hard time accepting myself. In the beginning, I put a lot of blame on myself for not being aware of my Cape Verdean identity and often put myself down. I have learned to direct my focus toward the process of exploring and really finding the beauty in learning new things rather than beating myself up about not knowing. I want my music to reach communities both inside and outside the Cape Verdean culture with the goal of celebrating the beautiful country and also bringing awareness of our small collection of 10 unique islands to those who may not know very much. Rather than sticking with the Cape Verdean genres of music that define the industry, I plan to take outside genres and fuse them with Cape Verdean culture to represent my dual identity as both an American and Cape Verdean. 

    My first single “Bu Storia” will be released on Spotify, Youtube, and iTunes, hopefully, in the upcoming months! If you want to stay up-to-date with my musical endeavors and be the first to hear it, you can follow me on Instagram and/or Facebook @shantelcmusic!