Meet the Caramoor 2024 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars: Scott Rubén La Marca

Each week we will be sharing some fun stories and facts about our 2024 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars! Starting on March 11th, they will be rehearsing and living at Caramoor up until their performance on March 17th. We hope you will join us!

This week we are introduced to tenor Scott Rubén La Marca!

Before he launched his career as a tenor, Scott Rubén La Marca was a budding architect. His classmates in architecture school might have heard him humming at his desk while he sketched plans for office buildings and homes. “It really opened my mind. It gave me the ability to express myself, my goals, and Ideas. I had great experiences, but music was the first thing that naturally came to me whenever I wanted to truly express myself,” explains the 2024 Manhattan School of Music Master’s degree candidate.

While he is far more focused on song structure than facility structure today, he cares deeply about urban planning and believes that our communities need less highways and more efficient public transit options. (Side note to sympathizers: Caramoor offers free shuttle service from the Katonah train station during our summer season!) 

If you happen to run into Scott a few hours before his next recital and he acts like he doesn’t know you, don’t think he’s being rude. He has a pre-concert no-talking policy in deference to the vocal cords, along with deliberate focus on breathing, calm-inducing light exercise, and positive thinking. His dog, Guiseppe — who hails from Barbados, interestingly! — knows by now not to take his silence personally.

For entertainment, Scott has newly discovered his penchant for 1960s cinematography (think Plein Soleil). When he cooks for himself, his plate holds an abundance of chicken, rice, and Italian bread, and he reportedly makes a head-spinning “Sunday Sauce” on very special occasions. “My friends from Jersey, Queens, and Long Island know what I’m talkin’ about,” he tells us.

Wait ... since Scott is performing at Caramoor on a SUNDAY afternoon ... and maybe some of us on Caramoor’s staff happen to have some empty Tupperware containers lying around and some dry pasta in the dinner queue ... just thinking aloud here ...