Born poor in a broken home in the mountains of northeast Pennsylvania, Valencia Vas overcame many obstacles before succeeding in recording her debut crossover classical album, Reflections. With an abusive, alcoholic father who often cooked rabbit for dinner, Valencia learned to deal with the minimum in life. When her father disappeared, like his Native American father before him, Valencia’s mother struggled to maintain the household, keep a job, and raise three children. Valencia was forced to become independent at an early age. Born with a naturally pure voice and an unrelenting interest in acting, Valencia pursued the arts as an escape to the struggles of her childhood. She visited New York City often and took advantage of local opportunities to act and sing. By the time she graduated from high school, she had already developed a healthy performance resume. This early experience, an excellent academic record, and a natural talent with vast potential gained Valencia admission into New Your University’s Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting. It wasn’t long before Valencia realized that her voice was her main passion and decided to leave NYU to attend a university of music. She combined her talent in music with her passion for acting by studying to become an opera singer at Westminster Choir College. After completing her undergraduate studies, she continued to perform to gain a deep understanding of the many forms and beauties of music and its purpose in peoples’ lives. Two years later, Valencia received a full scholarship to the University of Southern California seeking her Masters in Music. While there, she taught voice as adjunct professor and founded the Black Box Opera, an organization to introduce opera and classical music to inter-city children. After completing her Masters degree in voice, Valencia gained professional jobs on the concert stage in Southern California and New England. During this fruitful time, Valencia undertook a plethora of opera roles, oratorio credits, summer music festivals and numerous performances and recordings with tworld class orchestras. While performing though, Valencia saw small crowds and a lack of general interest in this art form. She wanted to bring her music to a more commercial level and thus began her adventure with an independent record label named Providence Records. Its purpose was to make beautiful music in the roots of classical, but in a more popular form. Valencia now celebrates the release of her debut album in the crossover classical music genre, appropriately named ‘Reflections’. It’s a culmination of her work as an artist and is a milestone in her career that was inspired by her journey as an artist. Valencia collaborated with composer Ludek Drizhal to create textural music containing pure, angelic, and diverse vocals set against soundtrack-like symphonic backgrounds. Valencia Vas is a testament to the opportunities of American lives. This latest chapter in her story will enable people to experience music at a new level by enhancing the emotional spark in the listening experience.