Just writing to give another update. On Tuesday March, 17, I became the newest member of the Board of the RMCMA, the music school from which I got my start in Opera. I hope to provide an integral source of feedback to the school from a student's perspective. Once some things are put in order, I'm to be the Chair of the Student Advisory Committee! This all came on the tail end of a phenomenal showing at the school's fundraiser, Crescendo, at which I performed; and amazingly, even in this rough economy, the school came in well over its projected gain from the event. My thanks to Hyun Kim of the University of Colorado's School of Music Doctoral program for accompanying me at Crescendo.
Zac
http://www.rmcma.org/
http://www.blacktie-colorado.com/premiere_events/largepics.cfm?id=96243&partyid=2144&picorder=0
http://www.blacktie-colorado.com/premiere_events/largepics.cfm?id=96252&partyid=2144&picorder=0
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Emerald City Opera: Opera Art Institute
Dear Zac Garcia,
Congratulations! Emerald City Opera is delighted to invite you to Steamboat Springs, Colorado this summer as a participant in the 2009 Opera Artist Institute (OAI). Attached please find a 2009 OAI Participant Agreement for your review. A list of the 2009 Event Descriptions, 2009 OAI Faculty Biographies and a 2009 OAI Rehearsal Schedule will follow shortly. This year's Institute will feature participants in a variety of ways. We have chosen a group of singers for their specific capabilities and various levels of training, and have assigned you the following positions in the program:
Menotti One-Acts (1 of 2 perfs/Double Cast):
Il Commissario di Polizia; understudy Ben
The Elixir of Love-Institute (1 or 2 of 4 perfs/Double Cast):
Chorus
The Elixir of Love-Mainstage (3 perfs):
Chorus
Opening Arias Concert (1 perf):
assigned arias/ensembles (repertoire to follow)
Scenes Concert (1 perf):
assigned arias/ensembles (repertoire to follow)
Garden Arias Concert (1 of 3 perfs):
assigned arias/ensembles: TBA
Masterclasses (2 of 7 sessions):
2 arias of your choice: TBD @ Institute
You will be in residence in Steamboat Springs, CO between July 19 - August 16,2009 to perform in The Elixir of Love by G. Donizetti and a triple-bill of “One Acts” Amelia Goes to the Ball/The Old Maid and the Thief/The Telephone by G. C. Menotti as assigned.
Please feel free to contact the Institute Coordinator with any questions or needs. Congratulations, we look forward to working with you this summer in beautiful Steamboat Springs.
Best regards,
Keri Rusthoi
Artistic Director
Congratulations! Emerald City Opera is delighted to invite you to Steamboat Springs, Colorado this summer as a participant in the 2009 Opera Artist Institute (OAI). Attached please find a 2009 OAI Participant Agreement for your review. A list of the 2009 Event Descriptions, 2009 OAI Faculty Biographies and a 2009 OAI Rehearsal Schedule will follow shortly. This year's Institute will feature participants in a variety of ways. We have chosen a group of singers for their specific capabilities and various levels of training, and have assigned you the following positions in the program:
Menotti One-Acts (1 of 2 perfs/Double Cast):
Il Commissario di Polizia; understudy Ben
The Elixir of Love-Institute (1 or 2 of 4 perfs/Double Cast):
Chorus
The Elixir of Love-Mainstage (3 perfs):
Chorus
Opening Arias Concert (1 perf):
assigned arias/ensembles (repertoire to follow)
Scenes Concert (1 perf):
assigned arias/ensembles (repertoire to follow)
Garden Arias Concert (1 of 3 perfs):
assigned arias/ensembles: TBA
Masterclasses (2 of 7 sessions):
2 arias of your choice: TBD @ Institute
You will be in residence in Steamboat Springs, CO between July 19 - August 16,2009 to perform in The Elixir of Love by G. Donizetti and a triple-bill of “One Acts” Amelia Goes to the Ball/The Old Maid and the Thief/The Telephone by G. C. Menotti as assigned.
Please feel free to contact the Institute Coordinator with any questions or needs. Congratulations, we look forward to working with you this summer in beautiful Steamboat Springs.
Best regards,
Keri Rusthoi
Artistic Director
Arias@Avos
Singer Showcase: Sponsored by the Opera Fort Collins Guild
Arias@ Avos this month will showcase outstanding regional high school classical singers.
Headliner Zachary Garcia, baritone, has won numerous awards including Classical Singer High School regional winner and national semi-finalist, two-time first place winner in the Metropolitan State Vocal Arts Competition-High School Division, and Senior Division winner of Kiwanis Stars of Tomorrow. Zachary has performed with Opera Fort Collins, University of Colorado Boulder Light Opera, and Colorado College's Vocal Arts Symposium. He is a student of the distinguished recitalist and award-winning recording artist, baritone Patrick Mason of CU Boulder, who will be performing with Zachary as a special guest.
Featured singers are the 2009 winners of the regional preliminary of the Classical Singer High School competition: mezzo soprano Tatiana Ogan, soprano Katie Bray, soprano Kahlie Metz, and soprano Vidushi Goyal. Karen Stoody is the pianist. Cynthia Vaughn is the program coordinator. Avogadro's Number, 605 S. Mason, Fort Collins, 4-6 pm, Sunday, March 29. Donations to the Opera Fort Collins Guild support local opera programs.
Arias@ Avos this month will showcase outstanding regional high school classical singers.
Headliner Zachary Garcia, baritone, has won numerous awards including Classical Singer High School regional winner and national semi-finalist, two-time first place winner in the Metropolitan State Vocal Arts Competition-High School Division, and Senior Division winner of Kiwanis Stars of Tomorrow. Zachary has performed with Opera Fort Collins, University of Colorado Boulder Light Opera, and Colorado College's Vocal Arts Symposium. He is a student of the distinguished recitalist and award-winning recording artist, baritone Patrick Mason of CU Boulder, who will be performing with Zachary as a special guest.
Featured singers are the 2009 winners of the regional preliminary of the Classical Singer High School competition: mezzo soprano Tatiana Ogan, soprano Katie Bray, soprano Kahlie Metz, and soprano Vidushi Goyal. Karen Stoody is the pianist. Cynthia Vaughn is the program coordinator. Avogadro's Number, 605 S. Mason, Fort Collins, 4-6 pm, Sunday, March 29. Donations to the Opera Fort Collins Guild support local opera programs.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
February 15
As of now, I have been accepted into both CU and CSU. The CU College of Music gave me a full-tuition waiver plus four thousand dollars per year. I was excited to find that I am the first undergraduate at the CU College of Music to ever have received this amount of scholarship, or to get an early offer. I am also excited that my previous assumption of a $9700 gap between full tuition and full ride, is not so. The full tuition waiver was given to me by the College of Music, and thus I am still eligible for in house admission scholarships in addition to the FAFSA. I have accepted CU's offer and will be enrolling there in the Fall.
CSU offered me a full tuition scholarship through the Classical Singer competition in 2007, but I would still have to audition to get accepted.
I unfortunately did not make it into any of the big competitions to which I applied, but I did win second place in the Metro State Vocal Arts Competition High School Division! The end of last year was full for me as I performed in Unity Church of Boulder's Christmas service and completed my seventh semester finals. I did exceptionally well, scoring all A's, and have sent my midyear report to CU. Last week I sang the national anthem at the Standley Lake basketball game at the Pepsi Center in Denver, and as a perk, got to stay for the Nuggets game afterward.
This year I am finishing up my last semester of senior year, and am winning the battle against Senioritis by turning my Anatomy and Physiology class into an independent study modeled after the Undergraduate Vocal Pedagogy class offered by CU. I received my transcript from the University of Miami for the classes I took with them in Austria and the music theory course I completed in December. I am happy to report that I currently have a 4.0 GPA at the University of Miami. That's my life so far this year.
CSU offered me a full tuition scholarship through the Classical Singer competition in 2007, but I would still have to audition to get accepted.
I unfortunately did not make it into any of the big competitions to which I applied, but I did win second place in the Metro State Vocal Arts Competition High School Division! The end of last year was full for me as I performed in Unity Church of Boulder's Christmas service and completed my seventh semester finals. I did exceptionally well, scoring all A's, and have sent my midyear report to CU. Last week I sang the national anthem at the Standley Lake basketball game at the Pepsi Center in Denver, and as a perk, got to stay for the Nuggets game afterward.
This year I am finishing up my last semester of senior year, and am winning the battle against Senioritis by turning my Anatomy and Physiology class into an independent study modeled after the Undergraduate Vocal Pedagogy class offered by CU. I received my transcript from the University of Miami for the classes I took with them in Austria and the music theory course I completed in December. I am happy to report that I currently have a 4.0 GPA at the University of Miami. That's my life so far this year.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
First Quarter
Hi,
I just wanted to give a little update on my life and musical endeavors. On September 29th, I auditioned for the College of Music at Colorado University. On October 3rd, I was notified of my acceptance to the program. I talked with Professor Mason, my vocal coach, and learned that the Dean of the College of Music authorized them to make a scholarship offer before March. Thus I am receiving a letter, not valid until my acceptance by the University, which guarantees me a full-tuition scholarship plus one thousand dollars per year. I also learned that in my audition, I scored the higher than any applicant in the past decade! So now I have to wait until December 15th for my acceptance to become official.
In the meantime, I have entered into several competitions to try and make up the $9700 gap between full-tuition and full-ride. This Friday, Halloween, I am competing in the Third Annual Metro State vocal Arts competition with a prize of $300. I just completed my DVD demo for the Young Arts competition in Miami, Florida, and I should hear from them in December. If I make it through the pre-screening, I will get a one week, all expenses paid trip to Miami to receive vocal instruction, movement and theory classes, and compete in the final competition for $10 000 cash. In addition, I am a member of the FastWeb scholarship program which sends me notifications of upcoming scholarship opportunities, especially concerning music. Recently it notified me that I would qualify for the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship should I choose to apply. I did some research and the scholarship is $10 000 that I can put toward whatever musical exploit that I want. I got the (large) application and sent out a demo CD and my letters of recommendation. I should be notified of acceptance or denial, hopefully the former, by January first. If I get into the final competition for the award, I will get my flight to Boston and hotel paid for and I will appear on NPR’s From The Top radio show. I am very excited for the coming months to hear from these various programs and hopefully be travelling and competing.
On the academic front, I was nominated for the Boettcher Scholarship, a prestigious award of full-ride plus stipend, given to Colorado students who exhibit academic excellence. From the entire state, the top five students from each of the high schools are nominated for the award. A lengthy application is given, and submitted, and on November 28th, eighty people are notified of their advancement. Those people are given interviews and then forty are chosen to move into the final round, from which several get the Boettcher Scholarship. Hopefully I will be one of those people. I have had a number of other things working in my favor on college applications. I scored highly on the PSAT/NMSQT making me a National merit Commended Student and a National Hispanic Scholar, and I scored highly on the AP exams, making me an AP Scholar with distinction. With these awards my mailbox has been flooded with letters of scholarship to colleges I have absolutely no intention of applying to, like New Mexico Tech… But nonetheless, I am happy when I see that all of these colleges are interested. Upon my return from Austria, I enrolled in an online theory course through the University of Miami. So far I have been acing it, scoring perfect on the Midterm and near perfect on all the other exams. I hope that this class will give me a jump on my theory classes as a freshman at CU.
Keep checking my blog, and I'll update whatever happens next with scholarships, competitions, etc. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Zac Garcia
I just wanted to give a little update on my life and musical endeavors. On September 29th, I auditioned for the College of Music at Colorado University. On October 3rd, I was notified of my acceptance to the program. I talked with Professor Mason, my vocal coach, and learned that the Dean of the College of Music authorized them to make a scholarship offer before March. Thus I am receiving a letter, not valid until my acceptance by the University, which guarantees me a full-tuition scholarship plus one thousand dollars per year. I also learned that in my audition, I scored the higher than any applicant in the past decade! So now I have to wait until December 15th for my acceptance to become official.
In the meantime, I have entered into several competitions to try and make up the $9700 gap between full-tuition and full-ride. This Friday, Halloween, I am competing in the Third Annual Metro State vocal Arts competition with a prize of $300. I just completed my DVD demo for the Young Arts competition in Miami, Florida, and I should hear from them in December. If I make it through the pre-screening, I will get a one week, all expenses paid trip to Miami to receive vocal instruction, movement and theory classes, and compete in the final competition for $10 000 cash. In addition, I am a member of the FastWeb scholarship program which sends me notifications of upcoming scholarship opportunities, especially concerning music. Recently it notified me that I would qualify for the Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship should I choose to apply. I did some research and the scholarship is $10 000 that I can put toward whatever musical exploit that I want. I got the (large) application and sent out a demo CD and my letters of recommendation. I should be notified of acceptance or denial, hopefully the former, by January first. If I get into the final competition for the award, I will get my flight to Boston and hotel paid for and I will appear on NPR’s From The Top radio show. I am very excited for the coming months to hear from these various programs and hopefully be travelling and competing.
On the academic front, I was nominated for the Boettcher Scholarship, a prestigious award of full-ride plus stipend, given to Colorado students who exhibit academic excellence. From the entire state, the top five students from each of the high schools are nominated for the award. A lengthy application is given, and submitted, and on November 28th, eighty people are notified of their advancement. Those people are given interviews and then forty are chosen to move into the final round, from which several get the Boettcher Scholarship. Hopefully I will be one of those people. I have had a number of other things working in my favor on college applications. I scored highly on the PSAT/NMSQT making me a National merit Commended Student and a National Hispanic Scholar, and I scored highly on the AP exams, making me an AP Scholar with distinction. With these awards my mailbox has been flooded with letters of scholarship to colleges I have absolutely no intention of applying to, like New Mexico Tech… But nonetheless, I am happy when I see that all of these colleges are interested. Upon my return from Austria, I enrolled in an online theory course through the University of Miami. So far I have been acing it, scoring perfect on the Midterm and near perfect on all the other exams. I hope that this class will give me a jump on my theory classes as a freshman at CU.
Keep checking my blog, and I'll update whatever happens next with scholarships, competitions, etc. Thanks.
Sincerely,
Zac Garcia
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Wednseday 13
Wow, I was sitting in my room packing last night and wondering how exactly the trip had ended so soon. My flight out is at 9:20 tomorrow morning. I fly to Heathrow and sit for three hours, then I fly direct to Denver and get home at 4. Climbing Untersberg didn't work out so well, it rained and rained so we cancelled the trip. Sunday I went with my friend Lauren to the Salt Mines in Haline. They were so cool. At their deepest point, we were 200m below the surface, and the mine went into Germany! Monday I went to German in the morning, then went home and slept until it was time to perform my Don Giovanni duet. After that, we went home and had mashed potatoes and eggs with ham for dinner. Yesterday I sang at the Masterclass given by Betty Bullock. She gave very good tips and I was flattered with how nit-picky she got (that means all the vocal errors I could have made were fine). I then went home and packed. This morning I went to German to take my final exam for the class. I think it went well, but we'll see. Now I'm sitting in a coffee shop about to leave to meet a friend and talk. Later this evening I have my final concert of the program where I will be singing Alerseelen. This may be my last post of the trip. If it is, thank you to all who have supported me and my trip to Austria. It really has been unforgettable and I would not have been able to do it without the help of so many people like my mom for always supporting me and encouraging me, my church for giving me the venue to raise money for the trip, my tia, Tom for my website and all the people who donated money and effort so that I could make this dream a reality. Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope to see you all back in the States.
Alwiedersehen,
Zac
Alwiedersehen,
Zac
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Friday 8
First off, happy birthday to my mom. I gave her a call at about 12:30 in the morning her time which was about 8:30 here so that my German class and I could sing her Zum Geburstag! (Happy Birthday in German). After the phone call I took my German test, which I think I did fairly well on. That kind of scares me, because everytime I think I did really bad on a test, I usually do well, but everytime I think I did well, I do terribly. Well, we'll see Monday. So yesterday I had a fabulous masterclass led by Michelle DeYoung, a Soprano singing at the Fespiel Haus right now in Bluebeard's Castle. She was a wonderful teacher and she lives in Evergreen, Colorado! The other two CU kids and I went up to her after the class to ask her if she had any desire to teach at CU, and she said that she was really hoping to get a postion on the faculty! After the masterclass, I went home, went for a bike ride - I almost made it to Germany - and then went out to see La Traviata being shown on the big screen at the Domplatz. The film got maybe through the first act and then in began pouring. My friends (who were smart enough to bring an umbrella) and I (not so smart) left the plaza and went home.
Today, after German and lunch, we ran through the opera scenes for the performance on Monday, and we got together to visit Hellbrun Castle. It was sunny and warm so I again left my umbrella. By the time we got on the bus and made it out of the city, it was pouring...again. We got off the bus, toured the museum and went to the Watergames. The Watergames is what the Prince-Bishop of Salzburg built in his spare time. It started out in a courtyard (still raining) with a table for ten. The guide asked for ten brave volunteers to sit at the table and they did. If the guests got too drunk, too rowdy, or too boring, the Prince-Bishop would flip a swich and water would shoot up from underneath their seats and all around them. The tour continued to a "bird-room" where pipes were played to sound like birds, controlled only by water pressure. At every stop along the way, nozzles were hidden in the rocks and walls around us ready to soak us when we passed. Luckily I saw most of the nozzles and got out of the way. On our way back home, I made plans with some friends to climb the 1972m Untersberg mountain behind the Festung(Fortress). Those plans will most likely fall through as the rain is supposed to continue throughout the weekend. I'm going to bed now, just in case we do climb a mountain tomorrow.
Bis spater
Today, after German and lunch, we ran through the opera scenes for the performance on Monday, and we got together to visit Hellbrun Castle. It was sunny and warm so I again left my umbrella. By the time we got on the bus and made it out of the city, it was pouring...again. We got off the bus, toured the museum and went to the Watergames. The Watergames is what the Prince-Bishop of Salzburg built in his spare time. It started out in a courtyard (still raining) with a table for ten. The guide asked for ten brave volunteers to sit at the table and they did. If the guests got too drunk, too rowdy, or too boring, the Prince-Bishop would flip a swich and water would shoot up from underneath their seats and all around them. The tour continued to a "bird-room" where pipes were played to sound like birds, controlled only by water pressure. At every stop along the way, nozzles were hidden in the rocks and walls around us ready to soak us when we passed. Luckily I saw most of the nozzles and got out of the way. On our way back home, I made plans with some friends to climb the 1972m Untersberg mountain behind the Festung(Fortress). Those plans will most likely fall through as the rain is supposed to continue throughout the weekend. I'm going to bed now, just in case we do climb a mountain tomorrow.
Bis spater
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