We were lucky to catch up with Courtney Espinoza recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Courtney, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
My purpose in life is entertainment. I grew up an MTV kid, watching music videos all day with my mom, then eventually watching on my own and discovering different genres of music that helped form who I am today. Then there was that one movie, Selena. I remember my parents taking me to the theater to see it for the first time. That’s when I knew I wanted to become a singer. I felt a connection to Selena. I guess I felt like we were the same, me being a little hispanic girl with big dreams of performing on a stage for hundreds of people. Seeing Jennifer Lopez bring Selena’s story to life really made me realize that that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to sing, dance, and bring joy to as many people as possible. I wanted the spotlight. I was always a shy child and didn’t talk much at all, but I desperately wanted to come out of my shell to become a performer.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I like to credit Selena as my first inspiration to become a singer, but there’s so much more to me than just singing. I am an artist. I love to dance and I love to act. My biggest influence to become a great actress came from Marilyn Monroe. Learning about how she was dedicated to her craft and worked hard at improving it by attending classes at the Actors Studio, I was inspired to also practice and work hard to be the best actress I could be. This was no easy task considering that I had grown up a very quiet and shy kid.
My biggest achievement in high school came when we started our school dance team. This led to me becoming the team captain AND choreographer. ME? I was only self taught, I had no formal training, but somehow I was able to work hard and earn this role. It made a major impact on me by showing me that I can literally do anything I put my mind to even if that means teaching myself and performing it later.
In college, I was able to major in Music Performance and minor in Theatre. I’d say these were the most important years of my life because I actually learned to perform. I had always wanted to become a singer, but had never had lessons. I was still that shy girl. I had conquered my goals of acting and dancing, but hadn’t really explored the main thing that I wanted to do; sing. I learned everything at college. Performing there gave me so much confidence to continue being a performer. I was trained classical technique and learned to sing art songs as well as operatic arias.
Right before I graduated college I auditioned for a role in “Guys & Dolls” that was being put on by The San Luis Valley Theatre Company, a community non-profit theatre company. I landed the lead role as Sara, which led to many more roles with the company. Today, I have been with the same company for 12 years, have served on the board, and am currently the secretary for the company. I am also in charge of our annual Children’s Theatre Camp.
This relationship with the theatre company also provided me the opportunity to appear on a local radio show, where I performed a few radio theatre selections as well as sang a few songs acapella. This led me to meet a local drummer who was looking for a singer for a band called Blues Tripper. I auditioned with Mike Atencio, another member of the band, and landed the spot as their lead singer. When the band dissolved, Mike and I continued to rehearse and perform together as a vocal/piano duo. We call ourselves Diamond Life, named after one of Mike’s favorite Sade albums. We are still performing together today. We have performed at various venues including retirement homes and restaurants, as well as street performances. For a few summers, we would set up in front of a variety of businesses downtown and just perform.
Somewhere during this time in my life I was offered to become the drama club sponsor for my old high school. This is where my teaching career began. I directed at least 6 shows for the high school before taking a break from teaching. I didn’t anticipate getting back into teaching until an opportunity presented itself to join the team of an up and coming performing arts program, Ms. Kais Academy of Performing Arts. I took a chance and have now been with the business for about a year and a half teaching children acting and singing. The experience has been amazing being able to give back by sharing my knowledge with the youth. I consider myself young at heart, and that inner child of mine remembers exactly what it was like to be shy and to want to become a performer but not knowing how to. I want to be that person who can encourage and help shape these kids to be their very best.
After many years of performing live I was finally given the opportunity to collaborate with local recording artist G-Stylez. We quickly recorded a couple of singles together, which then led to me recording solo material. This experience has allowed me to explore my talent for singing even more and really started to push me to achieve my ultimate dream, becoming a successful singer in the recording industry.
Currently my focus is on multiple projects. More solo music to be released soon on all major platforms, continuing to teach performing arts to the youth, performing with The San Luis Valley Theatre Company, DJ-ing, performing in Diamond Life, and performing folklorico dance. I guess you could say my life is anything but boring.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three things that have impacted my journey have been overcoming my shyness, learning to be assertive and take risks, and attaining the confidence needed to not only execute a successful performance, but to be able to create various opportunities for myself by networking with other like minded artists.
My advice would be to learn as much about your craft as you can and to never stop pursuing what you want to do. Remaining dedicated is one of the most important things because it’s easy to get distracted or to put your dreams on the back burner. Life happens, but you can never let go of your dreams. Timing is everything and as long as you continue to persevere and work towards what you want, it will happen. Anything you want will happen.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
My parents were the key to exposing me to the arts. My dad was a musician who played guitar in a band way before I was born and he continued to practice at home whenever he could. I was able to watch my dad perform once with a local band that one of his friends was in. My mom always had MTV on while I was growing up or she was listening to music loud on our living room stereo. Both of my parents took me to my first concert when I was 12 years old and later that became one of the things me and my mom continued to do together. Having this exposure to music at such a young age helped develop my interest and led me to realize what my purpose in life was.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamcourtneyespinoza/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/courtney.espinoza.5
- Other: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/6ciVkr1B8R7Xn7SUcourct?si=27wA7uwpSkKtoSS6VeGKFQ
Image Credits
Kim Marquez Photography
