Scholarship

Asya Pleskach

Asya was only 18 years old when a tragic car accident took her life and that of another driver in February of 2003. A 2002 Cordova High School graduate and former member of the Sacramento Master Singers, Asya was a talented and promising young vocalist and music student at American River College. After Asya and her family immigrated to the United States in the mid-1990’s, she began singing in the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church and in the Cordova High School choral program. Asya also spent two summers at the prestigious Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley and had recently sung in the opera chorus at Capitol Opera Sacramento. Asya was working towards transferring to San Jose State as a voice major.

SMS member, Tina Harris, had the honor of being Asya’s private voice teacher for a little over a year. She was eager to learn and was a fearless performer. Ms. Harris had just completed a lesson the morning with Asya before she died and they had chatted about how excited she was to be driving down to Southern California that evening to visit her boyfriend. Ms. Harris takes great solace that she was in a very happy place that day. It was only two months later that Sacramento Master Singers created this scholarship in her name to honor her memory and to help support other promising young singers.

Lauren DeGruccio and William Zinn
Scholarship Coordinators
Sacramento Master Singers