Fourth-year vocal performance major Rachel Castillo recently participated in the Miami Music Festival, playing Papagena in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. MMF is an annual summer festival that brings together musicians from around the world. The program offers a wide variety of performance opportunities, as well as workshops and masterclasses with music industry professionals.

For three weeks, Rachel had the privilege of collaborating and performing with fellow young artists in the heart of Miami Beach. During this time, she also had the opportunity to work with industry professionals such as Manny Perez and Sandra Lopez Neill.

Rachel has learned immensely from this experience and is exceedingly grateful; she hopes to return to MMF again in the future.

Rachel is a student of Dr. Karen Coker-Merritt.