CARRILLO, Isolina

Isolina Carrillo Estrada was a Cuban composer, pianist, singer, arranger, orchestra director and music educator. She was born in Havana on 9 December 1907 into a musical family. Her father played several instruments and directed an ensemble in which Carrillo made her public debut as a pianist at approximately ten years of age. She later studied at the Municipal Conservatory of Havana.

A versatile multi-instrumentalist, Carrillo played piano, organ, guitar, Cuban tres, trumpet and percussion. In 1933, she founded and directed the female ensemble Las Trovadoras del Cayo, in which she also performed as a trumpeter and singer. She subsequently established the Quinteto Siboney and worked with several other Cuban ensembles. From the late 1930s, she was active in Cuban radio as a pianist, accompanist, arranger, orchestra director and composer.
Carrillo became particularly prominent during the 1940s through her boleros, guarachas, sones and other forms of Cuban popular music. Her best-known composition is the bolero Dos gardenias, written in 1945. The song became internationally successful through recordings by Daniel Santos, Antonio Machín, Pedro Vargas, Ibrahim Ferrer, Omara Portuondo and numerous other performers. It is now regarded as a standard of Latin American popular music.

Her other compositions include Fiesta de besos, Canción sin amor, Increíble, Sombra que besa and Miedo de ti. Carrillo iscredited with more than 300 works and also contributed to the training of younger Cuban singers and musicians. She remained musically active into her later years and died in Havana on 21 February 1996.