SPONSORED BY JOHN & CHRIS WESTWATER
Praised for his “elegant and expressive” conducting, Eric Garcia is Music Director of the Boise Phil and Artistic Director and Conductor of the McCall Music Society SummerFest. 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. Garcia has served as Associate Conductor of the Eastern Music Festival, faculty of the Eastern Music Festival Conducting Institute, and principal conductor at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy.
The 2021-22 season marks his debut with the Rockford Symphony Orchestra (IL.). He has appeared as guest conductor with Symphony New Hampshire, Oklahoma City Ballet, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Octava Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Seattle, Philharmonia Northwest, Rainier Symphony, Northwest Festival Orchestra, Greensboro Ballet, Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, and cover conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
A champion of music education, Garcia has served as Music Director and Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Greenwood School of Music at Oklahoma State University and the Wanda L. Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University. In addition, he has served as a clinician for high school orchestras throughout the country.
An avid supporter of contemporary music, Garcia has collaborated with such esteemed composers as John Adams, Sergio Assad, George Crumb, David Lang, Lowell Lieberman, Nico Muhly, Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and Jay Alan Yim, among others.
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.
Eric hosts a podcast and series on Radio Boise entitled Noted, which is designed for the seasoned or casual listener of classical music.
