Scott Cmiel leading guitar students

Music in the Schools: SOTA Strings Young Legends

Mark MacNamara on October 10, 2013
Scott Cmiel SOTA

One day Gianfranco Baltazar walks in to an audition at the Ruth Asawa School of the Performing Arts in San Francisco. ‘Gian’ was 14, two years ago.

His father’s a butcher, part time. His mom works as a mom, all the time. All from Lima, Peru, once upon a time.

A few years ago, Gian’s brother buys him a guitar. It cost $100, in Peru. His brother’s down in San Diego, studying biology.

And then the kid’s talent just comes out one day. Like, from nowhere. Like a miracle. Turns out he has an ear: He listens and he plays. He’s like a musical alternator.

His dad teaches him the strings. His dad plays just enough guitar for that. For the boy, it’s all just a hobby.

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Ruth Asawa San Francisco School Of The Arts performs its World Music Concert with Monina Sen Cervone, Director on April 26, 2013

But then, little by little, he catches attention. He pays attention. He goes on YouTube and watches every single guitar video. He has no money for a teacher; suddenly, he has a hundred online teachers. Someone says, “you should do something with that talent.” So he goes online and looks for schools and finds SOTA. He reads the audition instructions, which say you have to be able to sight-read. But he can’t sight-read. He’s hardly seen sheet music.

But he goes to the audition anyway. Why not?

By the way, Gian plays soccer — some midfield, but mostly striker. He can finish. (That’s the secret to being a striker; you have be able to finish.)

He’ll never forget the day he walked into that school. They took him to a little private room where he could get comfortable, put his mind on, wind up the talent machine. When his turn came, they took him to the orchestra room where three judges were waiting.

One was Scott Cmiel, who directs the guitar program at SOTA. He’s also a member of the prep division guitar faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an instructor in the Nueva School Menuhin Program.

Gianfranco Baltazar

As Cmiel recalled the audition: “He played “Spanish Romance” beautifully, a very soulful and much-loved standard. When I asked him to do the sight-reading, he admitted that he didn't know how to read music and that he had learned “Spanish Romance” by watching people play it on YouTube. I require students to be able to sight-read on the guitar but Gian played so beautifully and I took into account a glowing letter of recommendation from Jon Frank, Director of the Herbert Hoover Middle School Orchestra. Jon praised Gianfranco’s character and told me he was a very musical violinist who wasn’t able to afford private instruction but whose great love was the guitar.”

“When the mail came one day, I read it. I wasn’t expecting to get in. You know, because the sight-reading was important. But they took me, because I was such a good player and because they knew they could teach me.”

“I try to get an image from the music and then convey that: happy, sad, confused, you know, a dark area — I try to play that feeling. And when I’m down that’s how I get out.” - Gianfranco Baltazar You’ve got to be able to finish and he did. Now he practices two or three hours a day, five days a week. He works for another 90 minutes a week with Cmiel at the conservatory. He’s playing Flamenco, Peruvian. He’s learning to improvise. He’s getting the sight-reading down.

And when he’s playing at home, he’s completely lost.

“I get lost in my world. I close my eyes. I imagine myself in another place. I try to get an image from the music and then convey that: happy, sad, confused, you know, a dark area — I try to play that feeling. And when I’m down that’s how I get out.”