"Invocación" expresses the diversity of her musical universe; a passionate and fascinating album from an artist who draws on her Cuban roots but refuses to lock herself into clichés. Yilian represents the young Cuban musicians who are gifted, creative and proud of their traditions.

A songwriter able to play and sing at the same time, with a genuine and powerful presence on stage, she has many feathers in her cap. Yilian was born in Havana, into a sporting family. She seemed pre-destined for an athletic career, however, the one pursuit that made sense to Yilian from an early age was music. She started singing aged four, and was playing music by seven. Yilian asked for piano lessons but says, “the minute I saw the violin I felt such a pull towards it that I knew it had to be my instrument.”

She distinguished herself as a child prodigy and got a solid musical training in her hometown, following the Cuban tradition but with a Russian violin teacher. She won the National Violin Contest of Cuba several times and at 14 years old she received the opportunity to continue her musical training in Venezuela, as a member of the famous youth orchestras program 'El Sistema'. She was torn between leaving her family, friends and country and the excitement of making her dreams become true. So, Yilian didn't leave Cuba until she was 16, when the country was in the midst of a serious economic crisis.

She arrived in Venezuela alone, with her violin and $7 to her name! After two years of training in Caracas, a European violin teacher noticed her talent and offered her the opportunity to study in Switzerland - she was on her way to becoming a violinist. But once she had her violin diploma, Yilian refused to follow the path of a classical musician. Suddenly, playing in an orchestra wasn’t enough. After these years of exile, Yilian needed to renew contact with her cultural roots. She was fascinated by non-classical avenues that the instrument could open for her and she created her quartet, 'Ochumare'. It was with this project that she won the Montreux Jazz Festival Competition in 2008. and she was a favourite young talent of Montreux founder Claude Nobs. Yilian was invited by Gilles Peterson to join the Havana Cultura project in 2011. In 2013 she released her first solo album with Naïve records, followed by Invocación (2015). She has been catalogued as a Latin jazz rising star by the French press. Her career has rapidly taken off and has toured Europe, South America and Cuba.