Meet
Esther González, Ensenada’s Sublime Soprano
text
& photos by connie ellig
 Ever
since she was a child, Esther González
saw herself as an opera singer. And with an upcoming audition scheduled
with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, it’s quite possible that dreams can
come true for this hardworking, aspiring soloist from Ensenada.
“When we were young, my father – who loved
music – punished my brothers
and me by making us listen to opera and classical music,” Esther
declares
with a smile. “That’s how my taste in music developed. Mario Lanza was
one of the first musical influences in my life.”
Blessed with a full lyric soprano voice,
Esther formally began singing
at age fifteen under the guidance of her high school music teacher,
Jesús
Véliz, a well-known pianist and vocal coach in Ensenada. After
high
school, she attended the Pro Música Ensenada, A.C. Academy of
Music,
where she studied voice with Flavio Becerra and sang in the Pro
Música
choral ensembles for two years. She later continued her vocal studies
with
Ignacio Clapés at Ensenada’s Centro de Estudios Musicales (CEM)
while, at her father’s request, pursuing a degree in engineering at the
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC), a career path
that
she abandoned after two years.
Determined to follow her dream, Esther began
studying voice with Mary
MacKenzie at the Conservatorio de Tijuana in 1998. A year later she was
rewarded for her perseverance by winning second place awards in San
Diego
at both the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus Young Artists Competition and
the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition.
Believing that there would be greater
opportunities to pursue her musical
career in the capital of the republic, Esther moved to Mexico City in
the
year 2000. “That was one of the biggest mistakes of my life,” she says
ruefully. Although she never found the right music teacher to suit her
particular needs, Esther gained valuable experience as a soloist with
the
Mexican Navy Symphonic Band and Orchestra while touring Mexico for more
than three years.
 Realizing
that her best interests might lie closer to home, Esther returned to
Ensenada
in 2003, began studies for a bachelor’s degree in music at the UABC
Escuela
de Artes, and arranged for private tutoring sessions once a week in San
Diego with Mary MacKenzie, who remains her main vocal coach. She
resumed
studies at Pro Música and currently is one of its featured
soloists,
performing opera, oratorio (church music) and art songs at concerts in
Ensenada, Tijuana and Mexicali. During the past two years, she also has
performed as a soloist with the Cabrillo Chamber Orchestra of San Diego
and the La Jolla Symphony and Chorus, and was one of the winners of the
2005 Musical Merit Competition in San Diego. For many years she has
been
an invited musician at the Santo Tomás Street Fair, one of the
most
popular events of Ensenada’s annual Fiestas de la Vendimia (Grape
Harvest
Festival).
Last year while attending a music course in
Saltillo, Coahilla, Esther
met Yelena Kurdina, an assistant conductor at New York’s Metropolitan
Opera
Theater who has collaborated with many singers including Plácido
Domingo, Renee Fleming, June Anderson and Mirella Freni. Yelena not
only
worked with Esther to develop her interpretive and presentation skills,
but also encouraged her to apply for admittance to a unique one-month
program
for emerging opera singers at the New York Vocal Institute in
Manhattan.
When Esther received notice that she would be one of the twenty
students
selected for the 2006 summer program, she was thrilled and her
teachers,
family and friends were filled with pride. While attending the New York
Vocal Institute, Ensenada’s enterprising soprano also was able to land
an audition with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, scheduled for September
25. To prepare for her audition in The Big Apple, Esther will first
travel
to Los Angeles to receive additional training from Yelena Kurdina, who
will be in town conducting an apprentice program with the Los Angeles
Opera.
What does the future hold in store for
Esther González? Although
her September 25 date with destiny puts stars in her eyes, Esther’s
feet
are firmly planted on the ground. She plans to continue teaching
private
music lessons and soon hopes to add German to her repertoire of
languages,
which currently consists of Spanish, English, Italian and French. “By
2007,
I plan to obtain my degree in music at the Escuela de Artes,” she says.
“And then I expect to move to New York to fully develop my career as an
opera singer.”
For more information about Esther
González and upcoming performances,
contact her by e-mail
Ensenada's
Esther María González Lozano Wins The Next Star Talent
Competition
 SAN DIEGO, California – After surviving two
rounds, the
three
finalists of Orchestra Nova’s The Next Star
amateur talent competition
performed with the orchestra in their third and last concert on Monday,
March 8
in La Jolla. Internet voters and audience members at the three concerts
were
the judges – even the orchestra’s musicians got to vote – in what
transpired to
be one of the closest races ever for a talent competition. The winner
was
Ensenada soprano María Esther
González Lozano, under her stage name of Maria
Lozano, a graduate student at San Diego State University. Hei-ock Kim
and
Gorden Cheng, both pianists, were “neck and neck” with Maria to the
very end.
Audience members at all three concerts expressed their joy and
enthusiasm for
the performances through shouts of “bravo,” applause and standing
ovations.
There was no age limit for this competition but it was
limited to amateurs living in San Diego County. It’s the first known
classical
music talent competition where audience and Internet voters were the
judges.
The winner will perform with Orchestra
Nova in the future.
Maria, who was featured in the September 2006
edition of
EnsenadaGazette.com, was born and raised in Ensenada, Baja California.
With
four older brothers and a younger sister, she learned to love music
from her
opera-loving father who listened to opera on KPBS on his only day off
from work
and studying. After secondary school, she moved to Mexico City and
joined the
Mexican Navy where she sang with the Navy chorus. She subsequently
studied
computer engineering at Baja California University before switching to
music,
the great love of her life. She spent a grueling year taking a
nine-hour
round-trip bus trip every day to study voice with Mary MacKenzie at San
Diego
State University and earned her B.A. degree. She is now living in San
Diego as
a graduate student at SDSU.
Congratulations, María (aka Esther)!!!
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