Sasha Garcia

Sasha Garcia is a jazz musician and bandleader based in Dallas, Texas. Currently, she is finishing her degree at the University of North Texas working under the wonderful Rosana Eckert and Jennifer Barnes.

Before attending UNT for vocal jazz, she started out as a music director for North Texas Performing Arts. In the summer of 2022, she was awarded the Broadway World Award for Best Music Direction & Orchestra Performance for her musical direction and pit band conducting on Spongebob: the Musical.

Garcia has an extensive background in Jazz, Musical Theatre, Pop, RnB, and Classical genres. She also was trained in classical guitar for 7 years before coming to UNT. She also plays jazz piano and contemporary guitar styles. Beginner to professional voice, beginner piano, and beginner guitar are her specialties.

Garcia has been seen performing with UNT’s Five O’Clock Lab Band directed by Renée McGee and the Four O’Clock Lab Band by Ken Ebo. With these big bands she has performed in various festivals including the State Fair of Texas and Denton Arts and Jazz. She also has performed with a few vocal jazz groups while attending UNT: Avenue C, The UNT Jazz Singers, and her own vocal a cappella group Surround Sound. Garcia performed with Avenue C and Jazz Singers at DAJ in 2023 and 2024, and also performed with the contemporary/funk group “Zebras,” winning a DownBeat Music Award for their rendition of a few fusion tunes. This year, Surround Sound was the winner of DownBeat Music Awards’ “Undergraduate Collegiate Small Vocal Ensemble” category.

Garcia also leads her own big band. Her debut album Here I am, There You Go is set to be recorded in the fall of 2025; this project is an 8 track big band album featuring arrangements by Garcia herself and a few of her arranging mentors. This album has gained support from renowned musicians and directors Alan Baylock, Rosana Eckert, Rob Parton, and many more.

All of these amazing opportunities have molded Garcia into the strong, driven woman she is today. She is endlessly grateful to the Lord for giving her such an encouraging environment to craft her instrument; without Him she would not be able to do any of this!

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