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Born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, Mikaela Goicoechea is 16 years old and is an enthusiastic Singer.  Next Saturday, she will perform a recital in her hometown to raise monies to attend the New York City for the American Musical and Dramatic Academy’s High School Performing Arts Summer Conservatory. 

Joseba Etxarri.   Yes, Mikaela Goicoechea loves to sing.  She has sung since she was little and has attended singing and piano classes in Rock Springs for years.  Until now, everything seems pretty normal.  What may not be as normal, is a 16-17 year old girl from a small town in the American West who takes such a big step, to take summer courses at a recognized artistic and music school in New York with the idea of delving into this area and face her vocation with the reality that those competing in the Big Apple are doing so to make their way as future artists and musicians.  Mikaela is training, but has yet to decide where this all will take her.  Appearing timid, whatever she decides she has the full support of her parents and brothers, as well as her best friend Joana, from San Francisco, who she started a small business with designing and selling Basque t-shirts that, by the way, has functioned rather well.

Can you introduce yourself?

-My name is Mikaela Goicoechea and I live in Rock Springs, Wyoming.  I am going to high school there and I have a year left before I graduate, and go to college.

You have a beautiful voice.

-Thank you.  What is for sure is that I love and have always loved to sing.  When I was five, I participated in my first talent show, a musical festival at school, and I remember that even if I was nervous at first, I enjoyed it.  I sang acapella, and I remember that it was a song in Basque.  I often sing acapella, and other times accompanied by a piano or by a sound track.  I also have sung in duos and am part of a choir.  A month ago, for example, I traveled with the choir to Seattle, Washington to participate in the All Northwest Honors Choir Concert, with classic and modern songs in English. 

Did you get this from your parents?  Your father, Martin, born in Gorriti (Nafarroa) is a bertsolari who has performed for years on the US Basque festival circuit. Your mother, Veronica, who is American also is also artistic and sings and has directed Basque choirs in Wyoming…

- (laughing) I’m sure of it.  I am very proud of the support that I get from my family, my parents, my brothers and friends and other family members.  My brothers don’t sing but they do play instruments.

The Goicoechea family is a well-known Basque family in Rock Springs.  Do you feel Basque?

-Of course.  I have known and lived the Basque culture forever, at home and in my surroundings.  My father is a bertsolari, one of the few in the United States and what he does has a lot of merit.  Since I was little I have attended Basque festivals and get-togethers, as well as Udaleku, NABO’s summer culture camp for kids.  I have attended at least four, as a participant and one as a helper and an instructor.

Two years ago, when you were just 14 I remember seeing you at the Bakersfield, California picnic selling t-shirts and stickers that you designed yourself.

- (laughs) That was a good experience, with my friend Joana in San Francisco.  We designed some Basque logos, we created a website and sold them: stickers and t-shirts.

What are you hoping to study?

-I would like to be a music teacher and teach singing, to choirs as well as to individuals.  I would also like to go to Boise State University and its Basque Studies Program.  I have been in the Basque Country…I think like six times.  I have family there and I am very comfortable there.  And sometime during my studies, i would like to spend a semester there and study and improve my Basque.  I like Basque music and folk and there are Basque songs that are part of my life, singers like Benito Lertxundi and others, as well as those I’ve been lucky enough to meet like Kalakan or Euzkitze.  “Loretxoa” and “Txoria Txori” are two beloved songs of mine.

Next Saturday you will perform a recital in Rock Springs.

-I have been offered the opportunity to attend a course this July at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy's High School Performing Arts Summer Conservatory in Nueva York.  It is an honor and I couldn’t say no, and so that is why I thought of organizing the concert.  Admission is donations to raise funds for me to be able to go.  The program is almost an hour long where I will sing jazz, classical, musical theater and some Basque songs.  It will be on this Saturday, at 7pm at the Broadway Theater in Rock Springs.