Russell Garcia (composer) - Personal Life

Personal Life

One of five brothers, he grew up in what he said was an “ordinary” household where music was something that came out of the radio. When his family noticed the five-year-old Russ standing by the radio every Sunday morning waiting for the New York Philharmonic to come on, it was obvious the child had a special interest in music. One of his brothers presented him with an old cornet he bought for $5, which Russ taught himself to play. In school he started a jazz band to play his new horn, and ended up using the band as an outlet for his compositions and arrangements of standards – all self-taught. “I’ve been able to read music since I was little,” he says. “I don’t know how, because I had lessons only when I went to high school. Call it instinct, call it a gift, I’ve never questioned my musical ability. I’m thankful for it. If I take up a sheet of manuscript paper and a pen there’s a whole orchestra playing in my head. At times I can’t write quickly enough to keep up with what’s flowing out of me.”

Garcia and his wife Gina Mauriello Garcia, a published author and singer-lyricist-writer in her own right, became members of the Bahá'í Faith in 1955. In 1966, at the height of his career they sold their home and possessions, bought a boat, and on 1 June set sail. The couple knew nothing about sailing and his wife did not know how to swim and the early arrival of Hurricane Alma forced them to return with damage after only two days at sea. It was December before the boat was finally repaired and they set forth once again. This time they reached Nassau without any further complications and spent several years as "travel-teachers" for the Bahá'ís as they went around the world to places like the Galapagos Islands, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.

When they reached Fiji in 1969, some musicians from Auckland, New Zealand invited Garcia to do some live concerts, radio and television shows and to lecture at the various universities around the country on behalf of the New Zealand Broadcasting Commission and Music Trades Association. Russell, finished with his lectures and concerts and on advice of friends, drove up to the Bay of Islands in the north of North Island. Garcia and his wife fell in love with the location and bought a house on the waters edge of Tangitu Bay in the Te Puna Inlet, east of the Purerua Peninsula near Kerikeri.

They spent many years there but have moved into Kerikeri, and still working regularly, Garcia continues to compose and arrange both in the U.S. and around the world, including one of his most recent projects being his and Gina’s first opera, The Unquenchable Flame. Together, the Garcias also volunteer their services regularly to teach primary school children in New Zealand about virtues through the use of songs, raps, stories, games and creative exercises.