Oriana Moreno: International musician and Rowan student

* When I met Oriana Moreno at my on-campus job at the writing center, I knew I wanted to profile her. I wrote this article last semester after interveiwing and spending time with Oriana in Barnes and Noble. Here is her incredible story.*

When she was a little girl, Oriana Moreno wanted to be a dentist… Coming from a family of musicians, this was an unlikely dream. But then one of her favorite teachers in music school, Simon Gollo, gave her a proposition:

“Go to your home and you pack your violin and put it under the bed. If you leave it there for two weeks, if you see that you can be happy without playing your violin for two weeks, you don’t have to think- you are going to be a dentist. But if you can’t go two weeks without playing an instrument- you have to be a musician.”

Moreno did as she was told …She couldn’t resist more than three days.

“You feel something empty. I don’t know how to explain that because music is the only way you can say to tell people who you are without words. And I don’t think people who is not a musician can feel that with the things they do because they need words.-You cry and say ‘I’m gonna quit, I’m not good at it.’ But then you have your concert and you hear this (she claps her hands) just for you. It’s worth it. Everything’s worth it- a feeling that you feel so full. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s beautiful.”

Her father, a guitar player, wanted his children to play instruments as well and had a strict rule of practicing for one hour every day.

“I used to hate violin so much… I was seven years old and I was crying playing my violin and my dad was sitting in front of me like, ‘you’re not gonna stop until you finish your hour. I don’t care if you’re crying,’ so it makes me hate more the violin…And the violin doesn’t sound good in the beginning. It sounds like a crying cat or something like that. It’s really horrible,” says Moreno, now 21 years old.

Moreno couldn’t live without the violin now. It is what brought her to America from Merida, Venezuela in Jan. 2014. She is now a music performance major at Rowan University and will stay here for at least the next four years.

It wasn’t easy for Moreno to get to this point. There has been a protest going on in Venezuela for the past two months against the corrupt government. People are mad because the average pay is about $56 a month and there were about 25,000 deaths last year due to violence, according to Moreno.

“My country is really bad right now and you don’t have opportunities. Here you have more opportunities, I mean if you work really hard. But in my country if you work you don’t get anything. If you are lazy and have a really good connection with the government- that’s it you’re rich. So what is the point to study? In my country everything is ‘free.’ They have, in my country, the public system and the private one. Like the hospital that is public and the private that you have to pay or have to have insurance. So if you go to this hospital that is public you will probably die because they don’t have anything. You have to take your stuff with you to get a surgery. So it’s a really beautiful thought that everybody can be on the same level. It’s beautiful. But it’s not like that. It’s almost impossible.”

If Gollo didn’t leave Venezuela because of the poor economic situation and tell Moreno she needed to come to America, she may not have gotten the opportunity to come here on a scholarship. In Oct. 2012 Moreno came to America and stayed in Philly for five months to audition in-person at Rowan and take the Toelf exam for foreigners.

“I had this feeling here that I was going to be in this new place and I don’t know how it’s gonna be but I’m so excited. I want to know everything I don’t want to sleep I just want to discover everything. But at the same time I wanted my people to be with me. It’s so strange. You’re happy but you’re sad. You’re excited but you’re nostalgic.”

Moreno, who is average height with long, dark curly hair, freckles and a stud nose ring, calls herself a nerd because she is constantly reading, writing, and watching movies with English subtitles to learn the spelling and pronunciation of words.

“I learned to understand by context, not every word, because you will never know every word,” says Moreno.

She may not have known English when she came here but now she has mastered English enough to make jokes and add her own sarcastic, sassy flair. One of Moreno’s biggest pet peeves is when people pretend to know about geography and she’s not afraid to put them in their place.

Moreno was in Philly smoking a cigarette in the street, when this guy asked her for one. She gave it to him and he asked where she was from. Once she explained that Venezuela is in South America he seemed confused.

“So you are part of the continent of the Dominican Republic?- Are there buildings like here?” he replied.

That doesn’t make any sense, what are you talking about? I’m not living in the jungle naked, thought Moreno.

“How am I supposed to talk with a person like that? People try to be nice and seem to know everything about your culture but they are just being stupid. I will explain, I have no problem with that. But don’t try to say something that you don’t know. I don’t know every country around the world. -If you pretend to be smart, people will know that you are not,” says Moreno.

Noel Munoz, Moreno’s good friend who is part of her “New Jersey family” and is also Spanish as well as a fellow violinist describes Moreno as a very honest person.

“She’s very frank, but not in a mean way, but certain people don’t know how to take being very straight forward so they think of it as an insult but it’s not, she never does it as an insult to anyone,” says Munoz who also explains that Moreno values respect and, “The way that she carries herself kind of demands respect.”

Munoz, who feels that he has known Moreno for longer than just a few months, confessed to Moreno that he is shy and she replied with,

“‘I don’t believe in that word. Like there is no reason to be shy. We’re all social beings so embrace it. If they don’t like you, they don’t like you, big deal. You can’t cower behind a facade or a preconceived notion of how they are going to perceive you.’”

Munoz feels that Moreno helps him to become more optimistic because he describes himself as, “a glass half empty,” kind of guy but she helps him to see the fullness in things.

When it comes to friendship, Munoz explains that Moreno is very intuitive and caring. She always tries to get her friends to open up to her when she knows they aren’t happy so everyone can enjoy themselves.

“She definitely appreciates unity and cohesion with everyone and that’s even to say with her relationships. I’ve seen how she is with her boyfriend and she’s very exclusive. -They’re well suited for each other, they balance each other. He’s more shy, she kind of gets him to mingle a little bit,” says Munoz.

Moreno’s boyfriend, who lives in Venezuela, is a drummer and he’s trying to get accepted to Rowan as well. They have been together for about two years. Moreno did admit that it’s difficult to maintain their relationship since they are so far apart and if he doesn’t get into Rowan it would only be fair to break up.

“Family and friends are one of the most important things to [Oriana], besides her music,” explains Sarah Wlazlowski, Moreno’s good friend who is also a violinist at Rowan.

Moreno says she has a beautiful relationship with her mother, who is more like her friend. When she is home in Venezuela she likes to lay next to her mom in her bed for a little bit and just be with her before she goes to sleep. Now, she keeps in touch with her family by Skyping them. They joke around, laugh, and she tells them about her classes while they tell her about her country.

She misses people’s hugs the most. Moreno feels people don’t give really good hugs in America. They like their personal space and aren’t as warm as she is used to in her country.  Also, in her culture people kiss each other often.

“Even if you see that person ten times a day, a kiss to say hello and to say goodbye. Here if you try to give a kiss people will think you are a lesbian or you want that guy,” says Moreno.

Moreno makes her close friends kiss her when they see her so she feels at home. Munoz, who is Puerto Rican and speaks Spanish makes Moreno feel comfortable because he’s the closest thing she has to her culture here.

Moreno is thankful for her violin professor at Rowan, Lenuta Ciulei.

“I’m lucky. I’m stealing angels from other people. I have a lot. Like my professor. She’s an angel. I respect her so much and I love her. She’s always hugging me. She’s really strict in lessons. She makes everybody cry all the time. Not me. I mean I can take it. I like when people push me because I can be better. I love pressure because it makes you improve. I hate when people say, ‘oh you are the best in the world, you are doing it perfect,’ and I know I am not doing it perfect.”

Moreno plans to get two masters in music performance and chamber music, which she hopes to complete in Europe.

“I would love to live here in this country. It depends. I don’t know what kind of path I’m gonna be on or what kind of opportunity I will have. ”

Despite hating violin in the beginning and not knowing if she wanted to be a musician, Moreno is sure now. She makes sure to tell her father thank you all the time for making her practice even when she was in tears.