When Afro-Cuban percussionist Melena took the stage at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival, she reached a personal and historical milestone. “It was a tremendous honor to have been the first female instrumentalist to be invited to perform with the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro since 1927,” the musician says of her experience accompanying the renowned Afro-Cuban ensemble on congas.

That moment marked the latest highlight in a career studded with notable accomplishments.

The professional biography of this Afro-Cuban jazz and salsa artist includes television appearances on Saturday Night Live, Prison Break, and the Fernando Hidalgo Show (in Miami), to name just a few. She was the featured percussionist on HBO’s Loco Slam with Carlos Mencia and has worked with musical luminaries ranging from Stevie Wonder and Julio Iglesias to Macy Gray and Placido Domingo. “My first professional tour was with Barry White,” she recalls. “I will hold that experience dearly in my heart forever.”

A master of several percussion instruments-ranging from congas and timbales to bongos and shekere-Melena is accustomed to traversing terrain only recently open to female performers. If you would like to be able to play the timbales like her, you may want to think about getting some lessons in playing the instrument. Specializing in the bata drums,”one of the most complicated percussion instruments in the Afro-Cuban family tradition,” places her in a field occupied by few women. “I’m really proud and honored to be part of the new generationof female bata players,” she says, explaining that women are now permitted to play a form of the sacred instrument that was originated by the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

“We still cannot play the fundamento (blessed) bata drums, but we can play aberikula (non-blessed) bata drums,” she points out, adding that performance on these drums requires careful study of the “specific rhythms, chants and dances” for which they are intended.

Knowledgeable and passionate about the history of her art, Melena speaks eloquently about the technique, evolution, cultural significance, and diverse roots of the music she plays. While she moved to the U.S. shortly after her birth in Havana, she says the seeds of her early interest in music, particularly drumming, were planted in Cuba.

“Many of the African traditions were maintained in the cabildos (temples) and Havana had one in every barrio. I was surrounded in this musical environment and I feel that, although I left Cuba at a very young age, Cuba never left me…Cuba is expressed through my spirit when I play the drums.”

Melena’s sense of connection to her native land would bring her back to Cuba, where she honed her skills and became fluent in the country’s rich musical tradition. This reunion with her heritage, she says, has been the most rewarding experience of her career.

Now based in Richmond, Melena performs with the Latin Ballet of Virginia and recently wrote, directed, and performed in a play about her life. A Cultural and Musical Journey into My Afro Cuban Roots, was presented at Petersburg’s Sycamore Rouge Theater.

She continues her work leading three bands-based in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and North Carolina-and conducting master classes in the Richmond area and beyond. Busy preparing for upcoming appearances that will bring her to Europe, Mexico, Miami, and Nashville in 2013, Melena is also currently promoting her second CD, Simplemente Rumbera, which, she says, “features legendary Cuban folklore vocalist Lazaro Galarraga.”