“You get to be on the same team and work together every day…I think a lot of what I’ve learned musically comes from sharing things with Julia and going through this journey together.”
-Lila Baca, class of 2018
Above: Lila Baca (left) and Julia Baca (right)
After spending two years at New Mexico School for the Arts playing viola in NMSA’s Music Department, Junior Julia Baca was thrilled to see her sister Lila, a cellist, auditioning for NMSA last year. “I knew she would get in,” says Julia.
Julia recognized her own passion for the viola early on—she found comfort and beauty in the instrument, following in the footsteps of her grandmother, a professional musician who played piano, French horn, and viola. “…I knew I wanted to play with that sound and recreate that feeling of glorious beauty,” she writes.
Lila’s musical path has been similar. After playing the viola for a few years, she switched to cello after hearing the sound of the instrument near her viola teacher’s office. “I became really attracted to the sound [of the cello], and kind of wanted to do something different from my sister…it was a way of asserting my independence.”
Both Julia and Lila have come to appreciate the rigorous, challenging, and rewarding environment of NMSA, as well as becoming appreciative of having a sibling at the school. They’ve been able to learn from each other and become closer, while planning for their futures. “NMSA has made me sure of what I want to do for college and my career,” Julia writes. NMSA has helped her get a taste of what it means to be a professional musician. Similarly, after her first nine months at NMSA, Lila loves the hard-working and creative atmosphere that prevails at the school. “My favorite thing about NMSA is probably getting to collaborate with people who put as much time and effort into their art as I do and are dedicated to it.”
The sisters’ dedication, collaborative spirit, and sense of determination has been instilled in them through a variety of activites — both Lila and Julia participate in 4H, where they show about six different species of animal at livestock competitions. “We were always taught to set goals, work hard to achieve them, and be proud of the result. And that carries over into both 4H and music, because you want to see the same result – you want to see success,” says Julia. They understand that cultivating skills in the most dissimilar activities can help shape one’s ability to gain knowledge and interdisciplinary problem-solving. For example, Lila used the money she earned and saved via her economically-focused 4H projects to purchase her cello last semester.
“Hard work in 4H definitely applies to [cello] practice. Studying and analyzing music definitely applies to animals, and anything you can do in 4H…the more skill sets you can gain from a variety of places, the more independence you can have, and the more well-rounded a person you can be,” says Lila.
Be sure to join us on
May 22, 2015
for ARTSPRING
An array of inspiring performances and a visual arts exhibition by NMSA students!