Join us for our annual Sundays in the Garden Spring Concert Series featuring the Latin American music of the Carlos Zapien Trio. The concert is free with admission and free for members as one of the many amazing membership benefits.
Be sure to visit the cash bar for beer and wine, prickly pear lemonade, and our famous prickly pear margaritas. Treat yourself to a wonderful afternoon outdoors, sipping wine, and listening to live music. Seating is limited, so please arrive early. The concert series is brought you in part by the Tucson Guitar Society. Please note performers are subject to change.
Carlos Zapién was born in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. He studied piano and organ at the Conservatorio de Las Rosas in Morelia, Michoacán. In 2004 he obtained a degree in music from the University of Oregon, where he studied piano with Victor Steinhardt and voice with Eric Mentzel. He later obtained a master’s degree at the same university in 2006. He obtained the title of Soloist at the University of Music and Performing Arts of Stuttgart, Germany, under the tutelage of tenor Francisco Araiza and soprano Dunja Vejzović.
While at the University of Oregon, he was a member of the Oregon Opera Ensemble, where he participated in several opera productions including La Cambiale di Matrimonio, The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro. In 2007 he debuted in Europe playing Count Belfiore in La finta giardiniera, with the Thuringia Philharmonic at the Ekhof Festival. He also sang Schubert’s Mass in E flat major at the Gasteig (Philharmonie) in Munich with Munich’s Bach Collegium. In Pisa, Italy, he also had the opportunity to play Alfred in Die Fledermaus with the Orchestra of the University of Jena. In 2009 he performed with the Reutlingen Philharmonic in a gala concert dedicated to works by Rossini and also participated in the Schloss Solitude in Jommelli’s Didone Abandonata opera with the Stuttgart Classical Philharmonic.
In 2009, Carlos Zapién was named Artist in Residence at the Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where he played various roles in Il Trovatore, Pinnochios Abenteuer, Le Nozze di Figaro and the vocally challenging character of Niko in Gegen die Wand, a production that won the Faust-Preis, a prize awarded by the German critics. He also created the role of Medea’s son in the world premiere of Hans Thomalla’s Fremd, where he collaborated with maestro Johannes Kalitzke.
As a soloist, Carlos Zapién toured some of the most important stages in Austria, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, the United States and Mexico, he has collaborated with outstanding directors such as Hansjörg Albrecht, Robert Ashens, Frieder Bernius, Hermann Breuer, Luis Berber, Jörg-Hannes Hahn, Manfred Honeck, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Glen Cortese, David Parry, Bernhard Epstein and Sebastian Krahnert, and his recording activity includes Fremd, an opera recorded with the Stuttgart Opera; in addition to boleros, such as the album Siempre Mía and Latíntimo; as well as special appearances with symphonic orchestras from Europe and the United States.
Born in Sonora, Misael Barraza Díaz is one of the most outstanding Mexican guitarists of his generation. The artist possesses a Doctorate and a Masters degree in Musical Arts from the University of Arizona, where he studied with Thomas Patterson, David Russell, and Sergio and Odair Assad. In addition, Misael graduated with honors from the Master of Classical Guitar Performance at the University of Alicante, where he studied with world-renowned musicians such as David Russell, Manuel Barrueco, Ignacio Rodes, Paul O’dette, Hopkinson Smith, Fabio Zanon, Roberto Aussell and Shin Ishi Fukuda. Throughout his career, Mr. Barraza-Díaz has been the first prize winner of ten international guitar competitions, in addition to having won over thirty national and local contests. These prizes have led the artist to perform extensively throughout Europe, as well as North and South America.
Guitarist, composer, arranger and director. He has won more than 70 national and international awards for interpretation and composition in different countries in Latin America, the United States and Europe. He received masterclasses from important figures such as Abel Carlevaro, Eduardo Fernández, Álvaro Pieri, Pepe Romero, and Leo Brouwer, among others, and has performed as a soloist and accompanied by orchestras in Europe, Asia, and America. His recording activity includes more than 50 titles in different genres and styles, some of them as a member and composer of the Dúo Villa-Lobos, while in his academic facet he is a graduate of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo de Barcelona, Master in Symphonic Conducting from the National University of Colombia, professor at the Sergio Arboleda University in Bogotá, as well as assistant profesor and DMA. candidate at the Fred Fox School of Music at the University of Arizona.
His compositions are published by Bergmann Editions, and he is a Knobloch Strings, Guitarlift and Naxos artist.