South Lake Tahoe native to sing anthem at S.F. Giants game on Saturday

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Those attending League to Save Lake Tahoe night at the San Francisco Giants game Saturday will have a special treat, even before the first pitch is thrown.

20-year-old Aurora Gooch from South Lake Tahoe will open the game by singing the national anthem.

Many in town already know of the talented Aurora through her starring roles on the South Tahoe High Theatre stage, by hearing her sing at the school's football and basketball games, and years of Miss Marcia Sarosik Dance Studio recitals.

She just graduated from Santa Barbara City College where she was voted their theater department's Student of the Year. While at the college she performed in six of their productions.

Oracle Park will be the largest venue Aurora has sung in. She's opened the Amgen Tour of California with the national anthem, but the Giants game will be a big, new experience.

In the ballpark with her will be mom Angela Zajic Boldwyn and her husband Charles, dad Dusty Gooch, his fiance and her daughter, a set of grandparents and an uncle. Also in the park will be the thousands of fans there for "Team Up For Tahoe" night.

Mom Angela is no stranger to singing at Giants games. She's made three trips to their ballpark to sing the national anthem, the latest at age 11. Angela has been helping Aurora prepare for this Saturday. When singing in a stadium the performer cannot hear what they are singing, just what they did a few seconds before. To train, Aurora starts the anthem and Angela starts just after to give her the feeling of echoing in the ballpark.

Aurora comes from a very talented family. Besides her singing mother, her great-aunt Dolora Zajick (she added the "k" to the family name for professional reasons) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer who specializes in the Verdian repertoire. Zajick has been described as having "one of the greatest voices in the history of opera". Her grandfather Al Zajic sang in Tahoe area choirs for years.

Aurora, who is a trained alto/mezzo-soprano singer, has studied under her famous great-aunt. She said she respects all of her teachers over the years, especially Dolora and Badiene Magaziner, a vocal coach in New York. On the theater side, she gives a shout-out to David Potter, her theater teacher in Santa Barbara.

Aurora has always loved musical theater and her passion for it is obvious to anyone who has ever watched her on the stage. After this summer she is headed to a masters program at Dell'Arte International, a school of physical theater in Humboldt County.

For two summers as a high schooler, Aurora was selected to participate in the California State Summer School of the Arts. Some of her teachers from that program will be with her at Dell'Arte.

"I am so excited, they are so good and so cool," said Miss Gooch.

This summer the young Tahoe resident is working at Azul Latin Kitchen to save money for the theater school. She is also writing songs for her and her electric guitar.

The multi-talented Gooch directed, performed, and sang while at Santa Barbara and looks forward to more in all of these areas.

In the meantime, we'll be rooting for the hometown girl at the ballpark!