Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Carlos Acosta.
Juan, before we jump into specific questions about your organization, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was born and raised in San Diego. I spent my first 16 years in Southeast San Diego, commuting around town for school and extracurricular activities that included singing in the boy’s choir at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral. From an early age, I had the music bug and have always had music in my life in some form or another. In high school that was in the form of a punk/ska band, and then I kept adding things, including marching band, jazz band, and choir. By my senior year, I was in the San Diego Unified School District “All City” honor orchestra, honor jazz band and honor choir. I went on to San Diego State University for a Bachelor of Music Education, thinking that I would end up in the classroom. I worked all through college first as an assistant director in a middle school choir, then section leader in a church choir and then eventually with my choirs. By the time I graduated I was singing with San Diego Opera, touring with local professional choir Cappella Gloriana, and leading two choirs of my own. I spent eight years conducting and singing around town before going back to SDSU for a Masters in Choral Conducting with the ambition that I might direct at a community college or be an assistant conductor for a group like SACRA/PROFANA. A year after I got my masters, the position of Associate Artistic Director for SACRA/PROFANA was posted and several friends in the group encouraged me to apply. I joined the group as Associate Artistic Director in 2015, conducting four to five programs a year, and preparing the group for appearances with the San Diego Symphony, Art of Elan, and other collaborations. I was named Artistic Director in 2018.
Has it been a smooth road?
Certainly, the hardest part of being a professional musician at this point in my career is balancing my time. I have been incredibly fortunate to have some opportunities that I consider “dream jobs” that I have had to let go to spend time with my family and concentrate on delivering high-quality work with SACRA/PROFANA and my church choir (at the Village Church in Rancho Santa Fe). I have two young kids at home (5 and 3) and have been able to arrange my schedule to maximize my time with them while continuing to operate professionally at a very high level. I consider myself very fortunate.
We’d love to hear more about your organization.
SACRA/PROFANA is now in its eleventh season as a professional choir and has already accomplished a great deal. We have achieved critical success, given world premieres by some of the biggest names in music, and are being recognized for our efforts in programming at a national level. Last year we celebrated our tenth anniversary season, and this year we are in many ways building upon our successes and moving forward. I’m particularly excited about our upcoming Holiday Concert and recording project to follow. I’ve been doing choral music for a long time and as much as I love the Holidays, eventually musicians experience fatigue with having to sing this music as early as September or October every year. That being said, this program features several talented young choral composers who have honed their craft and created poignant and innovative takes on familiar tunes and texts. In January we will be working with Grammy award-winning producer Peter Rutenberg to record much of this year’s program for a Holiday CD that will be released in 2020. It has been eight years since we have released a CD, so we are excited to get back to the studio and for the chance to work with Peter. We were successful in applying for the inaugural “Diverse Voices Grant” through the American Choral Directors Association with my good friend Brandon Waddles, so I’m looking forward to premiering that piece in 2020. We are looking down the road to additional recording and collaborative projects over the next few years.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
THE ROLE OF LUCK: Well if you call life circumstances “luck” then I would say it has been everything. I am only the person/artist I am because of the teachers, role models, and opportunities I have received over the years. I look back at some of the opportunities I had early on, and cannot believe how kind and generous my teachers and mentors were with me. I have been very fortunate that my teachers often saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen in myself, they invested in me and I continue to reap the dividends of that investment. It is because of that luck that I make a point of trying to invest in younger musicians and to use my positions to shine a light on talented artists who may not have had the same breaks I did.
Pricing:
- Tickets for concerts are $10-$35
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sacraprofana.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacraprofana/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sacraprofana/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/sacraprofana
Image Credit:
Adam Ferrara, Gary Payne
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