Two singers from Miami have received half a million dollars in scholarships as part of a program to help aspiring young Latin musicians earn their bachelor’s degrees.
This year’s recipients of the Frost School of Music Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Scholarship are vocalists Lea Garza and Melissa Cruz.
Together, they received scholarships totaling $525,000. The scholarships are full rides, and they include extra activities supervised by the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation that provide career enrichment opportunities.
The students have diverse musical backgrounds. Lea was born and raised in Miami but moved to Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico at eight years old. She lived there for the past ten years, absorbing all the music from her family. Her dad was a drummer who then went into audio and sound engineering.
“ And my mom, when she was pregnant with me, she would even nap in the studio, so I was just constantly hearing all kinds of tunes, especially Latin tunes,” Garza said.
Cruz was influenced by her own dad, who plays the laud, a 12-string instrument, and would perform all over Cuba. She eventually toured with him.
“ I would always go to his gigs when I was younger, so I just grew up in that atmosphere, and I grew up watching people do their thing and share their passions, and I always thought that was so beautiful and so inspiring,” she said.
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Both students told WLRN they felt that applying for the scholarship was a shot in the dark, but they wanted to try to get into their dream school.
Applicants need to first be admitted to the Frost School of Music, which includes an audition to be considered for the Frost School of Music Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Scholarship. Then they have to apply for the scholarship separately.
“ I wasn't too confident, I'll be honest. I wanted to just try it out to see, you know?”, Cruz said. “ I just remember opening my computer … when I saw that the Latin Grammy gave me the scholarship, I couldn't believe it. I didn't think it was real.”
“ Same as Melissa, I opened the email, I started reading, and at the, like, 10th word in the sentence, I was already crying,” Garza said.
Investment in Latin talent
The scholarships come as part of an investment by the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation in the next generation of Latin music artists in South Florida.
”I think this partnership demonstrates a commitment of ours to really support Latin music,” said Serona Elton, vice dean of the Frost School of Music.
“We believe that all music is of tremendous value to everybody, and this amazing partnership gave us an opportunity in particular with respect to Latin music to demonstrate that.”
With this scholarship, the Frost School of Music hopes to not only further support Latin music, but also provide students with guidance as the music industry constantly changes.
“ Artists today are small businesses in and of themselves, and so that means coming up with a strategy about how you're going to go about making your music, how you're gonna get your music out there to audiences,” Elton said.
“And so we really very much believe you need both the talent as well as those skills to complement that and get your music and get your artistry in front of the right people.”
