While on the stage facing an applauding audience, he takes a bow and begins to play his guitar.

On May 5, Cristian Garcia, 19, music major, competed against 15 other guitarists ranging from ages 18-25 and won the Senior Division of the American Guitar Society’s Bickford Scholarship Competition.

“He was competing against students with bachelor degrees and masters degrees,” Dane Teter, music professor, said. “Here he is, 19 years old and he was still able to compete with them.”

During the competition, Garcia performed two musical pieces including “En Los Trigales,” by Joaquin Rodrigo and “Tarantella,” by Johann Kaspar Mertz.

“I was the only guitarist there who wasn’t practicing in a practice room,” Garcia said. “It was intense watching the other performers.”

While Garcia did not spend any time rehearsing in a practice room like some of his competitors, he admitted to spending hours with his guitar before performing in the competition.

“For a long time I have been practicing four to five hours per day,” Garcia said. “I did nothing but practice the month before the competition.”

“He takes being a musician seriously,” Jordan Nelson, 23, music major, said. “He practices day in, day out, always thinking of what to play next.”

While Garcia may be focused on competitions, he is also focused on his short and long-term goals of  being admitted into a good music school and is currently working toward attending the Peabody Conservatory of Music at John Hopkins University in Baltimore.

He also hopes to attend USC for his doctorate and to pursue a career in teaching classical guitar.

“I also plan on coming back to El Camino and teach the Applied Music Program,” Garcia said.

“He has a clear view of where he wants to go,” Esai Saucedo, 23, music library assistant, said. “For him to win the competition, he is very ambitious.”

For Garcia, who currently has an idea of his goals, winning the competition may be considered an accomplishment. However, competing  is not about losing or winning but learning from them as well.

“There are many obstacles in a competition,” John Dearman, classical guitar instructor, said. “The best players don’t always win, but in this case, he did.”