About
Erica Vanessa Menasco is a Venezuelan-American Soprano from Cypress, Texas and is in her third year of school at the University of North Texas (UNT) studying Vocal Performance. She graduated with honors from Cy-Fair Senior High School in 2021 with plans to pursue music in college but started her musical journey many years before then. She was born into a family of musicians and has been pursuing music since before she was a year old, humming while eating at the dinner table and then enrolling in dance school at the age of three. With the support of her parents and musical family members including her mother, and two of her uncles that pursued music professionally, her love for music continued to flourish until she joined her first choir at the age of 11. Since then, choir has been an abundant part of her life and pushed her to continue exploring the world of singing whether independently or in a team environment. Throughout her years in grade school, she continued to receive awards and honors for her musical accomplishments and made her first Texas All State Choir in 2020; which ultimately led to the decision to pursue voice performance at the University of North Texas.
While enrolled at UNT, Erica has performed in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast by Linda Woolverton, organized by Theater Denton in December of 2022. She performed in Cendrillon by Jules Massenet, organized by UNT in November of 2023 and performed in the chorus and as “A voice” in La Rondine by Giacomo Puccini in February of 2024. She was the stage manager for Hänsel und Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck in April of 2024.
Outside of music, she loves animals and loves to be outdoors. She grew up with several cats and dogs and currently lives with her wonderfully sweet, black cat, Mango. She has also achieved the rank of Quartermaster in Sea Scouts: BSA, the highest rank in the program. This is the equivalent to the rank of Eagle Scout in Scouts: BSA (previously known as the Boy Scouts of America). Sea Scouts is a subset of Scouts with an emphasis in water-based activities on the sea, rivers, and lakes and includes opportunities for leadership, friendship, and community service. With her time in Sea Scouts, she developed a love for sailing and kayaking. She also held a donation drive for a non-profit animal shelter for her Quartermaster Project, and served as a national officer for the youth of Sea Scouts in her last two years as a youth in the program. Many of her summers are spent working at Scout camps such as Camp Strake in Coldspring, Texas, teaching merit badges, training lifeguards, and giving back to a program that made many of her teenage years quite memorable.
