ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Becca Holmes is the ALTO Co-Manager and Artist in Residence at The Santa Fe Opera. She designs and implements arts integrated curricula for Rio Rancho and Santa Fe Public Schools. Since 2006 Becca and her team of skilled composers have helped students to present around 45 original operas. Holmes is also a freelance stage director – local credits include “The Waiting Room” at Mother Road Theatre Company, “Wonder of the World” at Aux Dog, and “The True History of Coca Cola in Mexico” for Ka-Hootz! Theatre Company. Theatres for Young Audience credits include “Afternoon of the Elves” and “The BFG (Big Friendly Giant)” at Albuquerque Little Theatre. Becca is a graduate of UNM’s Department of Theatre and Dance and a certified Drama Resource Teacher by Fairfax County Public Schools in Northern Virginia. Holmes is a member of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts “Partners in Education” New Mexico team. Mariano Morales (Composer) is an Albuquerque based composer, pianist, conductor and teaching artist. He holds a Doctor of Music Degree in Composition from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. His many classical compositions have been performed in the US and abroad. Dr. Morales is a former member of the Music Education Faculty at the Conservatory of Music in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. In 1998 and he toured as a guest violinist with Marc Anthony. Casey Mraz (Theater/Composer Artist in Resident) is an Albuquerque-based playwright, musician, composer, educator, designer and filmmaker. He studied playwriting at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic and holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico. He is the co-author and composer for the play for young audiences, Rosario & the Bull: A Musical in One Act, published by Heuer Publishing Co. He is the Music Director and Resident Scenic Designer for Tricklock Theatre Company and a Company Member of Buran Theatre Company. He is currently a Special Education teacher at Longfellow Elementary School and a music teacher for Circo Latino at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. He is also the co-producer of The Playwrights’ Playground: A New Play Festival for Young Actors and Audiences at The Box Performance Space. Mraz became an Artist in Resident with The Santa Fe Opera in 2010. Jason Mullen has experience as a performer and composer within a wide variety of genres and styles. Jason has composed music for films, the stage and an assortment of themed events. His background as a performer is diverse and ranges from classical guitar concerts to rock n’ roll, country, hip-hop, and jazz performances. As a student of the classical guitar he has studied first-hand with the leading players and pedagogues. Jason has a longstanding affinity for teaching and working with children. He is currently pursuing his Suzuki teaching accreditation. Jason holds a masters degree in music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and bachelors of music from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Milton Villarrubia, III was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1976, and began playing the snare drum when he was 12 years old. He was influenced by the rhythms of his hometown, which he was exposed to by attending Mardi Gras parades with his family as a child. Milton took his first drum lessons with a family friend and he progressed quickly at which point the instructor recommended that he study at the city’s finest drum shop, Ray Francen’s Drum Center. While studying with Ray, Milton learned the fundamentals of rudiments, stick control, basic rock and funk patterns as well as focusing on orchestral snare drum, mallet and auxiliary percussion pieces assigned by his schools’ concert band. In 7th grade, while attending St. Stanislaus boarding school in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Milton joined his high school marching band performing on the cymbals. A year later, he was promoted to bass drum at which point he began taking snare drum lessons from drum captain Jared Martzell. Martzell introduced Milton to the drumming of Drum Corps International (DCI) and even brought him to his audition camp for the Expressions Drum and Bugle Corps based in Hammond Louisiana. In 1991 Milton went on tour with Expressions and toured all over the US competing against corps in stadiums all across the country. That summer culminated with Milton performing at The Cotton Bowl in the DCI finals, performing in front of an audience of ten thousand or more people. After having studied rudiments in depth with Expressions and having learned about being able to dedicate many hours each day to practicing with the corps, Milton used his newfound skills to begin studying drum set in the 9th grade. While attending the Mississippi based boarding school, Milton would travel back to New Orleans every weekend to take lessons on drum kit at the esteemed Ray Francen’s Drum Center. Milton continued to develop his limb independence on the drum kit and devoured the new information that Ray was passing onto him. Upon graduating from High School in 1995, Milton enrolled at The University of New Orleans as a Music Composition major. After one unsuccessful semester at UNO, Milton packed his drums and headed for Santa Fe, New Mexico. For five years, Milton started cooking professionally and played music with different groups around time. Eventually, he met bassist Carlos Santistevan which created the groups At A Loss and the jazz trio Twenty-nine Fingers. In 2001, he moved back to New Orleans to once again study at UNO, only this time as a Jazz Performance Major. While in the Big Easy, Milton met, played and studied with some of the best musicians in the world, including: Johnny Vidacovich, Steve Masakowski, Ricky Sebastian, Hank Mackie, Ed Petersen, Harold Battiste, Brian Seeger and Troy Davis. He formed several groups while going to school and began teaching drum lessons at Ray Francen’s Drum Center. Incidentally, as a day job, Milton was hired at Emeril’s restaurant where he worked for almost two years. He was forced to leave New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina and relocated to Santa Fe where he finished his studies and eventually earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Jazz Performance in 2006 online from UNO. Shortly after graduating, Milton began working for The Santa Fe Opera (SFO) as an artist in residence as composer for their Student Produced Opera program. He worked at SFO for two years when he decided to move to New York City to listen to and study with his musical heroes. While in New York, he performed with Blood Vision as well at Big Pedro and The Rooster Kings, which played New Orleans R&B and second line music. He also began working as a sales person at the world renowned Drummers World as well as teaching out of that store. While in New York, he embraced the opportunity of seeing many of the living jazz masters perform as well as having the opportunity to study and just simply spend time with them. As his name and reputation spread throughout the city, Milton also gained employment as the drum technician at The Jazz Standard. Milton was living in Brooklyn and frequented venues with music that was of interest to him. One of these venues was called Barbes and was located only a few blocks from his apartment. There, Milton met vibraphonist/percussionist Matt Moran (Claudia Quintet) and performed with his quintessential group Slavic Soul Party. In 2009 Milton moved back to Santa Fe and became the Marimba and Music Instructor at The Academy for Technology and the Classics. From there, Milton became the Educational Director of The Candyman Strings and Things private lesson program. He used the knowledge that he had gained through many trial and error lessons while teaching his own private students to create a private lesson program for the cities largest music retail outlet. In 2012, Milton began teaching at New Mexico School For The Arts, a charter high school focused on the arts. In early 2013, Milton began working as an Artist In Residence as composer with the Santa Fe Opera’s Outreach Program and has also become a faculty member at Northern New Mexico College, teaching percussion.
