We recently connected with Veronica Lopez and have shared our conversation below.

Veronica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’m originally from Huntington Park, CA. My first introduction to the viola was in 6th grade at Henry T. Gage Middle School. I joined a beginning strings class alongside 80+ other middle schoolers. We spent our first year learning the fundamentals of music such as instrument care, clapping rhythms, and more. Knowing what I know now, I would have been more intentional with my practice time. However, I was 11 years old. I had great educators by my side such as Margaret Asato, who knew how to keep me engaged at the time. I have always had the mentality of “we did what we could with what we had.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hola todos! My name is Veronica Lopez. I am currently the Education and Community Coordinator for the Aspen Music Festival and School. My journey to get to where I am has been long and fruitful. In 2008, I made the choice to learn how to play a string instrument. No one in my family is a musician! Through middle school, I learned the fundamentals of the viola, attended Wildwood Music Camp and honor orchestras throughout the city, and eventually attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 2012. After LACHSA, I was blessed with an acceptance to Carnegie Mellon University in 2015 where I began my BFA in Viola Performance and Music Education. In May 2023, I received my Master of Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

I am most proud to be a first generation college student. Through my commitment to music education, I have dedicated myself to helping communities learn about the opportunities that exist in the world to excel through music. I want to provide under-resourced communities with the materials and information that they need to succeed! Music education and higher education is for everyone. Everyone deserves equal opportunity to achieve their dreams.

My degrees have given me the tools I need to enter arts organizations and learn and observe as much as I can about the work they do to help the communities around them. Through my work with the Aspen Music Festival and School Education department, I get to provide music education to 500+ local children on a weekly basis. I am given the opportunity to create and facilitate 6-10 summer and year-round programs that serve local families.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

All through middle school to the end of my undergraduate journey, I believed that I wanted to become a professional orchestra musician. To an extent, I still do! However, during the pandemic, I asked myself…is my current journey bringing me peace and joy?

I have always loved assisting where I saw that help was needed. Whether that was through tutoring young children, staying afterschool to practice with my friends, volunteering, etc. My music education degree brought me a lot of joy because I saw that I was making a change in young people’s lives. I saw this positive change in the kids that I worked with! In May 2021, I decided that I was going to go to graduate school for a degree in arts management. It just so happens that Carnegie Mellon has one of the best arts management programs in the country!

Going back to school for the MAM degree changed my life. I was suddenly learning about all of the “behind the scenes” work that happens in all kinds of arts organizations. I interned for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Aspen Music Festival and School. I learned that I really love being a part of several departments such as development, student services, education, operations, and more. Each department serves a special purpose and I love knowing the functions of each of them!

Being an arts manager is magical and I am so blessed and grateful to be a part of the magic.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I want children everywhere to be given the opportunities that I did not have growing up. Earlier I mentioned that in Huntington Park, we did what we could with what we had. We did not know any better. I did not know what the world had to offer until I was introduced to it through music. It is my goal to advocate for children everywhere when it comes to music education and higher education. Currently, I get to do this for local families in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado. I want to do what I can for others with what I have. I want to leave this world better than I found it.

I wish I knew that I could rent a musical instrument when I was younger. My mom struggled to buy me a good musical instrument throughout high school. My music teacher at the time helped me purchase my first one, but when it came time to buy a second for college, my mom was at a loss. Renting an instrument can be accessible for low prices each month! I know this now and make sure that families in need know that great rental instruments are options.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veronicavviola/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronicajanetlopez/