Craig Short ’16 grew up a musician.  He plays piano, composes music and sings.  “[There was] always music playing in the house,” said Diane Short, his mother and Academy English faculty member. “He really grew up with [music]. He had great pitch when he was still in a car seat.” But before he sang the part of Winthrop in the Kimo Theater’s production of “The Music Man” in late summer 2009, he had only sung informally at home with his sisters, Mara Short ’14 and Casey Short ’12, who are both in singing groups at the Academy. 

“I’ve basically been singing for my entire life,” Short said, “but I really started with ‘The Music Man.’” Diane Short said he tried out and was cast because “‘The Music Man’ needed a red-haired Winthrop.”  It was in this production that he met Kathleen Clawson, who has directed shows with the Santa Fe Opera Company for six years and teaches musical theatre at UNM.  Then he auditioned for the role of Theo in the Academy’s performance of “Pippin,” when Performing Arts Chair Marilyn Bernard heard him sing for the first time.  He got the part and performed impressively.  As Elliott Hartman, the lead actor in “Pippin,” put it, “we all will do our best, but everyone knows he’ll steal the show.” 

Bernard said “at the beginning of the season, the assistant conductor [of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra (NMSO)] asked me to choose a boy soloist [for the Chichester Psalms]. I selected [two] that I knew were good.” Short, along with fellow Academy student Austin Huong ‘15, who sang a solo with the Treble Ensemble and sings with Mastersingers, the more advanced choral group in 6-7, practiced with Bernard through winter break.  In the end, Short was chosen for the part.  He practiced with Bernard until a week before the concert weekend, when he had his first rehearsal with NMSO.  He said that that was when he was the most nervous.  But Bernard said “everyone heard him sing for the first time a week before the concert, and he got there in front of about eighty choir people and Roger Malone [the director of NMSO], and he just nailed it.”  On the weekend of February 27 he finally performed, first in Popejoy Hall on Friday and Saturday and then at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Sunday. 

While he was preparing for the Chichester Psalms, Clawson asked him to sing with the Santa Fe Opera Company.  Short said “I decided I didn’t really want to have my whole summer taken up, so I wasn’t going to do it, but then [Clawson] called and said that it was a huge opportunity and that she really wanted me to try out.”  He did, and now he will sing the part of a spirit in “The Magic Flute.”  “Even though it is known as the Santa Fe Opera Company, the opera is internationally known, and people all over the world come during the opera season to see it,” Bernard said. “It’s a really amazing opportunity.” He will perform eight times in July and August.

Short sings as a second soprano in Chamber Singers, a 6/7 choral audition-only group.  He sang in the chorus concert in April, singing one of many solos in the piece “Magnificat” by Michael Haydn. Deborah Briggs, director of Chamber Singers, said “he is very quick and responsible to learn his music, works very hard and wants to make the music expressive and meaningful.  He is a strong leader in his section, but works to blend with his fellow singers and support the whole group.”

In addition to singing, Short has taken piano lessons since first or second grade.  He says that he spends most of his free time playing and messing around on the keyboard.  He often composes for the keyboard, especially classical music and music with strange time signatures and cool chords. 

Short plays clarinet in Charger Band and is also a member of the Opera Zingers, a 6/7 club where some students compose and some perform.  He has done both for the club.  They completely wrote and presented an opera called “Revenge of the Operaphone.”

Short equally favors each of his musical activities.  His mother says she is happy for him because “he likes music so much.  It’s just giving him an opportunity to work with professionals.”  He also is really excited about it.  Short had not planned on any of this, but one thing led to another, and he looks forward to what will happen next.