Samuel appears on Show 447.

Samuel Garcia (violin), 18, hails from Monroe, Louisiana, where he is homeschooled and currently studies violin with Dr. Andrej Kurti of Natchitoches, Louisiana.

Samuel has soloed with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Rapides Symphony Orchestra, the Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Monroe Symphony Orchestra. He was a 2023 Sphinx Competition Junior Division Semi-Finalist and a 2023 Heifetz International Music Institute String Scholar. He was the 2023 Marjorie Stricklin Emerging Artist Competition Grand Winner and was the 2024 Louisiana MTNA Senior Strings winner. Most recently, Samuel was selected as a From the Top Fellow.

Originally from Crossett, Arkansas, and later studying violin in Mississippi, Samuel has strong musical ties throughout the Arkansas- Louisiana- Mississippi region. He began his violin studies at age six with Mrs. Samantha Parker. He then studied with Professor Song Xie in Mississippi for six years and played in the Belhaven University Orchestra from age ten. He was selected as Mississippi All-State concertmaster four times, first at age eleven. He’s spent many years traveling the tri-state region and is grateful for his musical family in all three states. In Arkansas, he has received coaching from Conductor Geoffrey Robson and long-term support from Dr. Hee-Kyung Juhn.

Samuel performs on From the Top with Dr Hee-Kyung Juhn. Dr. Hee-Kyung Juhn was born in South Korea, lived her teenage years in Paraguay, South America, and was later trained at Rutgers University (BM), The Juilliard School (MM), University of Michigan, and Indiana University (DM). Her summer training included Tanglewood Music Center in Boston, Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin, Yale Summer Piano Institute, and International Summer Institute in Brasilia. Her teachers include Leonard Hokanson (a pupil of Artur Schnabel), Arthur Greene, Martin Canin, and collaborative pianists Martin Katz and Jonathan Feldman. A versatile pianist, Hee-Kyung Juhn has worked as opera coach/repetiteur, harpsichordist/organist, and collaborative pianist at several summer institutions (Music Academy of Santa Barbara, Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, Martina Arroyo Foundation, Inc. in NYC, and Bay View Summer Festival in MI). She is currently the music director at Trinity UMC in Little Rock. As an academic, Dr. Juhn has taught at the University of California in Santa Barbara, Henderson State University, and as artist-in-residence at University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff. She has taught piano masterclasses at University of Georgia in Atlanta, University of Texas in Arlington, Baylor University, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Daegu Catholic University, JoongAng University, Eastern China Normal University, etc., and has served as a judge/adjudicator at several music competitions in the states of Alaska, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, etc.