Jen (flute) and Joanna Garcia (piano) will give a recital on Saturday, May 3rd at 11 a.m. and the programme will include James Galway favourite ‘La flute de Pan’, together with works by John Rutter and Khachaturian. Admission on the door is £7, including refreshments and parking in the Rawcliffe Street car park until 1 p.m. Under 18s and students are admitted free.
Jen graduated from Leeds College of Music (Leeds Conservatoire) and is now undertaking the highly-regarded MMus in Performance at the University of Leeds. She has been awarded numerous awards and scholarships, including the LUUMS String Orchestra Concerto Competition 2025, 2nd prize in the Royal Maas International Competition 2025, shortlisted as a finalist in the Vienna International Music Competition 2025 and multiple other awards and scholarships.
She studied under Carla Rees, Alena Walentin, Luke O’Toole, Claire Southworth and many other eminent flautists.
Jen has performed as a soloist in Israel and Holland and at venues across the UK, including Art Galleries, many cathedrals and churches, the Universities of Leeds, York and Leicester, Leeds College of Music and Buxton Opera House where she performed the Ibert Flute Concerto with orchestral backing.
As a chamber and orchestral musician she has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and Chatsworth and Harewood Houses.
Joanna gained a First Class Honours Bachelor of Music degree from Manchester University in 1996, also winning three Hargreaves Music Prizes and the Sir Thomas Beecham Medal for outstanding achievement throughout the course.
She continued her studies at the RNCM with Paul Janes and Renna Kellaway, and David Francis for harpsichord, obtaining the sought-after Professional Performance Diploma and a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance. Joanna won the Granada Chamber Music Award, the Song Cycle Accompanist’s Prize, an Allcard Award, and an English-Speaking Union scholarship to study piano in France with teachers from the Paris Conservatoire.
Following her studies, Joanna was offered a two-year Junior Fellowship in accompanying at the RNCM, and was subsequently appointed as Assistant Staff Tutor in Accompaniment. She also worked as Staff Accompanist at Chetham’s School of Music, and taught piano at Manchester University.
Joanna has performed with eminent musicians such as Sir John Tomlinson in a concert shown on the South Bank Show, had a long-standing duo partnership with viola player Robin Ireland, performed a recital in Buenos Aires with tenor Roberto García López, and performed with the Lindsay Quartet in their Sheffield Festival. She has a CD of contemporary music which is available internationally, and she is particularly passionate about collaborative musicianship.
Joanna particularly enjoys working with singers as a coach, and has been repetiteur and conductor with Heritage Opera, conducting operas such as Tosca and Don Giovanni. She is currently the Vocal Director for EYSM. She has a passion for music in education, having worked from 2001 until 2018 as both a primary and secondary school teacher, specialist music teacher, and then Assistant and Deputy Headteacher.
Joanna now has a busy teaching schedule as director of the Joanna García Piano School, and works with students internationally. She has a particular interest in teaching piano teachers, as well as adults who are striving to overcome performance anxieties, and is also a pedagogy coach, a music consultant in schools, and freelance staff pianist at the RNCM.
The musicians are currently undertaking a tour of England, including concerts at St Brides Church on Fleet Street, London, St. Paul's Church, Bedford, and Lincoln and Worcester Cathedrals, the University of York and Otley Courthouse.