Eric Garcia
Praised for his “elegant and expressive” conducting, Eric Garcia currently serves a Music Director of the Boise Philharmonic. Garcia previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, conducting subscription, education, pops, and community concerts. He served as producer for recordings on the Naxos label and conductor for Brandi Carlile’s acclaimed Columbia Records release: Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony. He has collaborated with such esteemed artists as Marvin Hamlisch, Herbie Hancock, Cirque de la Symphonie, Pink Martini, The Chieftains, Assad Brothers, and Indigo Girls. Garcia has served as Associate Conductor of the Eastern Music Festival and cover conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He has served as guest conductor with Oklahoma City Ballet, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Octava Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Seattle, Philharmonia Northwest, Rainier Symphony, Northwest Festival Orchestra, Greensboro Ballet, Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Boychoir, Pacific Youth Choir, Seattle Chamber Singers and Vocalpoint Seattle. This season marks Garcia’s debuts with Symphony New Hampshire and Ballet Idaho. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Garcia has collaborated with such esteemed composers as John Adams, Sergio Assad, George Crumb, Frank Ferko, David Lang, Lowell Lieberman, Nico Muhly, Eric Nathan, and Jay Alan Yim. In addition, Garcia has served as principal conductor at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy.
Garcia was a member of the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he studied with James Conlon, Nicholas Kraemer, Murry Sidlin, Leonard Slatkin and David Zinman. At Aspen, he worked with the Susan and Ford Schumann Center for Composition Studies and the Aspen Opera Theatre Center. Garcia was also a recipient of the Bruno Walter Foundation Scholarship at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, where he studied with Marin Alsop. His principal conducting teacher is Victor Yampolsky. Additional conducting teachers include Peter Bay, Dan Lewis, Gustav Meier, and Larry Rachleff. Garcia received a Doctorate of Music and Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University. He received a bachelor’s degree in Music Theory from the University of Texas at Austin.
