Winners of the 2026 Artists of Promise Competition of the Maricopa County Community Colleges District (MCCCD) join KBACH's Greg Kostraba for conversation as well as music for solo guitar, guitar quartet, voice, and solo piano from the KBACH Performance Studio. Greg also chats with Rose French, Coordinator of Instrumental Music for the MCCCD about the competition, as well as instrumental programs across the District. Information about the competition is here.
Audio Transcript
[00:00 - 03:07]
(Classical guitar music plays)
Greg Kostraba: An anonymous Saltarello from the Renaissance era, arranged by Christopher Parkening and performed by guitarist Elysa Lela. She’s a winner of the 2026 Artists of Promise competition of the Maricopa Community Colleges. I'm Greg Kostraba, and we have several winners from the instrumental music portion of that competition with us in the KBACH Performance Studio. Rose is the coordinator of instrumental music for the Maricopa County Community College District, and she's joining our young musicians in the KBACH Performance Studio. Welcome.
Rose French: Thank you for having me.
Greg: Tell us some background about the Artist of Promise competition. It’s a terrific idea. When did it start, and what’s the whole idea behind it?
Rose: It started about 20 years ago, and it’s nine different disciplines throughout the district including creative writing, dance, visual arts, theater, music, film media, and production. And so, there’s a district-wide competition for each of the subcategories in each of these areas, music being one of them. And so, I’ve been running this competition now for two years, and wanted to find some opportunities for our students outside of the scholarships or talent awards that they receive for winning the competition as a way to introduce them into the field that they’re pursuing their degree in.
Greg: Right. So, performance degrees—what do you do? You perform.
Rose: You perform.
Greg: And tell us a little bit about the prizes.
Rose: There are three prizes. There’s first place, second, and third place. And the first place is a $500 scholarship. There’s a $200 and then a $100 scholarship. We also have a huge celebration which happened on March 6th at Phoenix College that combined visual arts, some music, and some representation of each one of the categories. But as you can imagine with nine different disciplines, it is impossible to create an event that can contain all that in one evening. So, kind of highlights of each. The guitar quartet performed, and Elisa performed as well. And so, we’re—we have a couple of different opportunities in music for students to perform. They’re performing here today and then also at the MIM in a couple of weeks.
Greg: Oh, that’s wonderful! Great opportunities for young musicians to perform. That’s why you’re all here in music, right? It’s to perform. Well, Elisa Lella is back with her guitar, joined right now by three other guitarists here in the KBACH Performance Studio: Alan Gomez, Nelson Flores, and Trevor Beach. They brought in some music by American composer and guitarist Matthew Cochran. This is The Promise of Something New, winners of the chamber music division of the Maricopa Community Colleges 2026 Artists of Promise competition, on 89.5 KBACH.
[04:47 - 07:15]
(Classical guitar quartet performance)
Greg: What a lovely piece! That was The Promise of Something New by Matthew Cochran. We heard guitarists Elisa Lella, Alan Gomez, Nelson Flores, and Trevor Beach here in the KBACH Performance Studio. They’re winners in the chamber music division of the 2026 Artists of Promise competition of the Maricopa Community Colleges. Rose, before the next competition winners join us, tell us about the instrumental music programs, not just at Phoenix College where you teach horn, but also throughout the Maricopa County Community College District.
Rose: So, we have instrumental and vocal programs throughout the entire district, and the district itself is 10 colleges. And each one of our campuses that has a music department or music program kind of serves two purposes. The first purpose is for students that are looking to complete the first two years of a bachelor’s degree, so that at the end of two years they would be auditioning to go on to maybe ASU or NAU or another university somewhere in the country. And then the other aspect is that we are community colleges, so we serve our community as well. And each campus is a little bit different, kind of a reflection of the community that they serve. So, at Phoenix College we have a Mariachi and a steel pan program, whereas Chandler-Gilbert has a harp ensemble. And so, everywhere in the Valley we kind of strive to serve the community that surrounds us. Kind of a dual purpose, which is—makes my job really, really a lot of fun.
Greg: Yeah, I’m sure it does! Where you have students that you deal with all the time and then you have community programs—it’s just wonderful.
Rose: Exactly.
Greg: Next, we’ll hear two vocalists: tenor Eyan Armenta and soprano Gracia Camacho. Gracia is at the microphone, and tell us a little bit about your journey with music. When did you start your vocal studies, and what are your plans after graduating with your associate degree?
Gracia Camacho: I’ve actually had a lengthy music journey. I actually started performing in competitions at the age of—when I was in fourth grade. I started competing vocally. I started joining lots of choirs, and growing up in church it was very easy for me to get into the music. With the school that I grew up with, they had a very big fine arts program and emphasized that a lot. So, that fueled a bit more of my hunger for music, and I come from a musical family as well. My dad is a guitarist and he also sings, so he helped me a lot with holding my hand and helping me push me through music. And there were some times I didn’t like it, but I’m glad he continued to push because now I’m here still singing and I’m still in the process of finishing my degree. I hope to be able to be a vocal instructor when I graduate. Actually, my dream is to open up my own vocal studio, music studio, and cater to as many students as I can both vocally and instrumental-as wise. I play piano, flute, and a bit of violin as well, and I plan and hope to gain more knowledge with more instruments and broaden my horizons by being able to cater to more students out there in the future.
Greg: That’s wonderful! So, the students that you’ll be teaching will have the same opportunities you’ve had growing up.
Gracia: That’s the hope.
Greg: We’ll hear you in just a second. First, though, tenor Eyan Armenta, joined by pianist Annie Taylor Scott to perform Vesti la giubba, or "Put on the Costume," by Ruggero Leoncavallo from the opera I Pagliacci. Then soprano Gracia Camacho joins pianist Masura Sakuma for Trees by Oscar Rasback, on 89.5 KBACH.
[10:50 - 13:42]
(Tenor and soprano vocal performances with piano accompaniment)
Greg: Soprano Gracia Camacho and pianist Masura Sakuma with Trees by Oscar Rasback, a song that Paul Robeson recorded in 1938. And before that, tenor Eyan Armenta and pianist Annie Taylor Scott performed Vesti la giubba, or "Put on the Costume," by Ruggero Leoncavallo from the opera I Pagliacci here in the KBACH Performance Studio. They’re winners of the vocal division of the 2026 Artists of Promise competition of the Maricopa Community Colleges.
Greg: Our next and final winner, pianist Eli Nichols, won in the solo piano division. Eli, tell us a little bit about your journey with the piano and any plans you have after graduating with your associate?
Eli Nichols: I started playing piano at 13. I wasn’t into music very much at all until that point. I heard a Chopin piece, Opus 25 No. 5, "Wrong Note Etude," and it made me feel very intensely, and ever since then I wanted to share that feeling with other people—to make them feel the way I felt when I heard that. I hope to teach when I finish my degree, but I’d also hope to be able to perform concerts and the such.
Greg: So, after your associate degree, are you looking to move on to a four-year college to get a bachelor’s?
Eli: Yes, the goal is ASU right now.
Greg: The goal is ASU. A lot of pianists start when they’re really, really young. I love the fact that you started when you were 13. What do you think about the music of Chopin that clicked in your brain that made you want to do this, whereas before you hadn’t even maybe even thought about it?
Eli: He’s got such nice colors in his music. It’s beautiful. Whereas in some of the pop music or rock that I would listen to before, it changes so drastically with chromaticism and that classic Chopin crunch—you know what I mean? It did something to my ears that I’ll never be able to undo.
Greg: That’s absolutely fantastic! Pianist Eli Nichols now performing the Fantasy in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the KBACH Performance Studio, right here on 89.5 KBACH.
[15:35 - 19:33]
(Solo piano performance)
Greg: Dramatic, passionate music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. That was the Fantasia in D Minor performed by Eli Nichols, winner in the solo piano division of the 2026 Artists of Promise competition of the Maricopa Community Colleges. And he, like all of the other young musicians you’ve been hearing, are in the KBACH Performance Studio. Thanks to all of you for coming in and to Rose for coordinating this visit.
Group: Thank you!
Greg: You can learn more about the instrumental music programs at the Maricopa County Community College District at maricopa.edu/events/aop. Our recording engineer is Dario Miranda. I’m Greg Kostraba. You can hear this interview and performance again at our website: performance.kbach.org.