Author: Andrea Cornelius
Oxy’s Music Department offers a wide range of applied music lessons, providing both beginning and expert musicians with opportunities for instruction. With skilled adjunct professors specializing in everything from harp to electric bass, Oxy students have many musical choices to explore.
However, a recent addition to the Music Department faculty is expanding these options even further.
The Music Department has added Adjunct Professor Cathy Segal-Garcia to its faculty this semester to teach private jazz vocal lessons. The new professor and genre of lessons came at the request of students specifically looking for jazz vocal instruction.
“I always wanted jazz instruction,” Kristine Nowlain (sophomore) said. Nowlain noticed that most of Oxy’s musical instruction focuses on classical practices. After discussing the issue with other students and discovering that there were others who wanted a jazz vocalist, Nowlain spoke to Head of the Music Department Irene Girton.
“She was very supportive,” Nowlain said about Girton’s response to finding a jazz instructor for voice lessons.
“Kristine was the catalyst, but we have been thinking about increasing our vocal offerings in the area of jazz (as we have done with guitar and piano) for some time,” Girton said in an e-mail interview with the Weekly.
Thus the search for a new jazz instructor began. “I spoke to professionals in the Los Angeles jazz community. More than one mentioned Cathy Segal-Garcia as a good potential candidate,” Girton said.
Garcia is a Los Angeles-based jazz musician with an extensive personal and professional background in music. She offers private lessons independently of Oxy. Garcia has also been organizing and hosting music and performance workshops for 13 years.
In addition, Garcia has been a producer of events for many years and has traveled the world performing, teaching and producing. In an e-mail interview Garcia said, “I’ve been singing professionally since I was five. I went to Berklee College of Music in the ’70s. I am a composer of over 60 songs at this moment.”
With an impressive six-CD discography, Garcia is respected and active in the Los Angeles music scene. “Presently I have a weekly popular jam session which has been going for eight years,” Garcia said.
As an educator, Garcia has taught for the last 20 years and is an expert in vocal technique, coaching for overall musicality, for live and studio performance and for improvisation.
With this experience in music, it is no wonder that after three classes, Nowlain said of Garcia, “I’m impressed. She gives a good jazz vibe.”
Occidental College has made its impression on Garcia as well. She said of the campus, “Very nice vibe! I’m looking forward to being here!”
Private jazz vocal lessons are available for any Occidental student who is interested. Garcia’s course is open to students in any level. “It’s fun and a real-life experience. It can be light or deep in its level of proficiency and life lessons,” she said.
For more information about Cathy, visit www.cathysegalgarcia.com. To contact Cathy, e-mail cathy@cathysegalgarcia.com.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
