Mikaela Romero

A vocalist, musician, dancer, educator and composer, Mikaela was raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, of Puerto Rican and Polish descent; and began performing for audiences at an early age. Throughout her formative years she studied classical ballet, modern dance, Hip-Hop and street dance, and world dance traditions; which assisted her in gaining rhythmical fluency. She started formal musical training at age nine when she began studying the cello, for which she had a natural gift. Mikaela immersed herself in music, performing in many competitions in both cello and voice, youth symphony, string ensembles, musicals, as lead cantor in her local church, and in various choirs; one of which took her to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Romero moved to Seattle in 2003 where she attended school at Cornish College of the Arts, earning a bachelors degree in music. Originally an Opera major, Mikaela studied classical music with Dr. Natalie Lerch and Michael Delos. She later changed her focus to Jazz under the guidance of Beth Winter who taught her about improvisation and technique that would help her in developing her own style. However, it was her mentor during her years at Cornish, Jovino Santos-Neto, a two time Latin Grammy nominee, who encouraged her to return to her Latin roots and also exposed her to Brazilian music which she quickly fell in love with. Because of a limited Latin curriculum at Cornish, with the help of the music department faculty, Mikaela was able to custom tailor a program that would assist in her development as a Latin performer. As a result, Mikaela received the privilege of being able to work with Carlos Cascante, of Tumbao and Spanish Harlem Orchestra, who coached her in various styles and aspects of Latin music.