CECILIA K. has studied music for over forty years, and taught for more than thirty. She began with piano at the age of five, and studied with Mario Miranda, protegé of the internationally renowned Chilean pianist, Claudio Arrau.
She started to play the guitar at ten, and studied with Kent Sidon, founder and director of The Guitar Workshop in Roslyn, NY, which was accredited by the New York State Board of Regents. She also studied with singer-songwriter Raun MacKinnon, jazz guitarist Carl Thompson and classical guitarists Javier Calderón and Alberto Valdés-Blain, among others. She began teaching at the Guitar Workshop at eighteen, and taught there for many years.
She began voice studies with Joyce Mathis, who appeared with The Boys Choir of Harlem in their Broadway show, and is featured on their album, “A Celebration in Song”, as well as on her own solo debut, “Joyce Mathis Sings”. Miss Mathis performed at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center and many prestigious concert halls throughout the United States and Europe. She was a graduate of Juilliard.
After ten years of study with Miss Mathis, Cecilia has continued studies with Jim Carson, a well-known and highly respected trainer of both opera and popular singers. Mr. Carson sang with the Metropolitan Opera touring company, as well as on and off-Broadway. Jim Carson was the vocal coach for the cast of Julie Taymore’s (The Lion King) film, Across the Universe, working with cast members Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood, Dana Fuchs and others. The soundtrack sold over a million copies and was certified a platinum record. (For more information on Jim Carson, go to http://carsonvoicestudio.com/.) Ms. K. also studied music at Indiana University, and at Mannes College of Music in Manhattan.