About Us
Diego Garcia, cello
Born in Cali, Colombia, cellist Diego Garcia began his musical career at the age of five, studying piano, cello performance, and later conducting, at the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory, in Cali. By age fifteen, he had already won a cello position with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Valle, becoming the youngest member of one of Colombia’s premiere orchestras. From age fourteen to eighteen, Mr. Garcia routinely conducted the String Chamber Orchestra at the conservatory, where he was already the conducting assistant to his teacher, Alexander Korjenko. In 1993 Mr. Garcia came to the United States to study cello performance with Alan Stepansky at the Manhattan School of Music and Alan Harris at the Eastman School of Music. While pursuing his degree, he maintained an active professional life, touring Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Central America as chamber musician, recording artist, orchestral player, and soloist.
In 1996, Mr. Garcia traveled to his native country to win a prize in the Carolina Oramas Competition, and returned to New York City to give several solo and chamber music performances in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Simultaneously, he conducted an off-broadway production of ’La Gran Via’, a Spanish operetta. In 1998, Mr. Garcia received his Bachelor’s Degree in cello performance from the Manhattan School of Music. In 2001 and in 2003, he was invited by Phillipe Entremont to perform as Assistant Principal Cellist in the Santo Domingo Music Festival. In 2007 Mr. Garcia performed as Principal Cellist of the Todi Music Festival in Portsmouth, Virginia. Since 2003, Mr. Garcia has continued to pursue his study of conducting with Bill Weinert, at the Eastman School of Music. In 2005 and 2006, he received a conducting fellowship to the Conductor’s Institute at Bard College, where his mentors included Harold Farberman, Leon Botstein, Marin Alsop, and Raymond Harvey.
In 2004 Mr. Garcia was appointed Music Director of the Eastman Youth Chamber Soloists, and subsequently created an exchange program with the Hampton Roads Chamber Players, in Virginia, where he is a frequent guest conductor. In 2007 Mr. Garcia conducted and coached young string players from both groups at "Travelling Notes" an international string festival, hosted in Santo Domingo in summer 2007. Now in his fourth season as Music Director, Mr. Garcia has established the Eastman Youth Chamber Soloists’s prestigious reputation for virtuosic string playing, artistic excellence, and consistently high caliber performances. Mr. Garcia is also the co-director of the Eastman Kaleidoscope Community Orchestra with his wife Karine Stone. He has been guest conductor of the Finger Lakes Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester School of the Arts Orchestra, New Horizons Orchestra and the Greece Symphony Orchestra. He is on the cello and conducting faculty at the Eastman Community Music School.