Ana Paula Farano is a first-generation Brazilian and Guatemalan mezzo-soprano, and a music education major with an emphasis in choral education at Cal State Northridge. Ana Paula has sung with professional choral ensembles such as the Santa Clarita Master Chorale and Don Brinegar Singers. She is a student member of the American Choral Directors’ Association, has participated in CCDA’s Choral Leadership Academy, and has sung at CASMEC and Monterey Jazz Festival. In addition to choral music, her performance experience includes singing jazz, música brasileira, soul, musical theatre, opera, and liturgy. Ana Paula has extensively worked with university and community outreach ensembles as a music teacher, section leader, director, and administrator. She even contracted a 46-member orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall at 19 years old. Her passion, however, lies in teaching and giving back to her community the beauty of singing through choral music.
Ana Paula is humbled and grateful to have been selected among the second cohort of teaching fellows with Elemental Music. This opportunity to learn and practice the art of teaching with an organization that cares deeply about enriching aspiring teachers while serving the community makes this experience a particularly special one that she is looking forward to. Ana Paula believes the key to being an impactful director is to be humble enough to know we don’t know everything, to continue allowing curiosity to fuel our desire to grow, and most importantly, to care about humanity by listening louder than we sing. As she steps into this fellowship, a saying from one of her mentors sounds in her heart: “Music has far more to teach us, than we have to teach it.”