Elsten Torres

Elsten Torres (originally Listoriel Leyva Torres) was born in Havana, Cuba during the height of the Cuban Revolution. His father Emigdio Torres was already a political prisoner when Elsten was born. His mother Elsa Torres, left Cuba when Elsten was only a year and half old with his older brother Dorian E. Torres age five at the time, and arrived in New York City. It was in New York that Elsten began his love for music. One of his uncle’s, Listoriel Torres, was a singer/songwriter who had some success back in Havana, would always sing his songs about Cuba at family gatherings. Elsten began seriously learning the guitar at the age of twelve. By the time he was sixteen, he was in his first rock band named “Refugee” with some of his local neighborhood friends. At one show, the lead singer never made it, so Elsten was asked to take the role of lead singer as well as lead guitarist, and from that moment on, his love for singing began. He wrote his first song at the age of sixteen from a love note he found on the floor of his high school English class. The song was called, “Girl, the world is changing fast”