Pala Garcia

Pala Garcia is a critically acclaimed violinist, balancing a full performance schedule with her work as an educator and advocate of socially conscious artistry. As a contemporary music specialist, Ms. Garcia is the co-founder of Longleash, an “expert young trio” (Strad Magazine) that recently added two highly acclaimed releases to their discography: a debut album, Passage, that earned them Sequenza 21’s Best New Recording Artist of 2017, and a work on the album Soft Aberration, named a Notable Recording of 2017 by The New Yorker. Their work has been recognized and supported by Chamber Music America, the Alice K. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, The Amphion Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Puffin Foundation, Music Academy of the West, and the Atherton Family Foundation.

Palahas performed as a featured artist throughout Asia, Europe, and North America, and has also performed as a regular guest in some of the world’s most respected ensembles, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, her longstanding involvement with Carnegie Hall's social impact programs has led to meaningful artistic collaborations with New Yorkers from all walks of life, making music, celebrating creativity and building community in prisons, shelters, and hospitals.

Ms. Garciais Assistant Faculty at the Juilliard School's Precollege Division, a Graduate Teaching Fellow at Hunter College, and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, which supports talented young students from backgrounds underrepresented in the American performing arts. With Longleash, Pala also co-founded the Loretto Project, an annual weeklong graduate composition seminar in central Kentucky, and guides its Pathways Initiative, a high-school composition workshop invested in issues of gender justice and representation. She received BMA and MMA degrees of The Juilliard School, where she studied with Naoko Tanaka and Joel Smirnoff. She is currently a Graduate Center Fellow at CUNY's doctoral program in music performance, where she is also pursuing a Certificate in Women’s Studies.