From the small city of Santa Cruz, some might think that Tegan is just another one of the lade back hippie's, which Santa Cruz is known for, but this girl is driven and self motivated to achieve success in every aspect of her life. From an early age, Tegan showed great interest for the arts and in particular music. Although her formal training did not start until age seven, her first stage performance was in a children's theatre production of The Wizard of Oz where se played the lovable dog Toto. After this first roll, Tegan's confidence and desire to perform sky rocketed, as seen when she played Rooster, a comedic villain, in a children's production of Annie that same year. Although Tegan was only five years old, she knew that music, dancing, and performing were her passions.
Early involvement in the arts lead to Tegan's desire to train in both voice and dance, for practice makes progress and training was helping build up creative momentum as Tegan began to develop and establish herself as an artist. Tegan started voice lessons at age seven with the local vocal coach Susan Swenson, with whom she studied with for 2 years. Also at age seven Tegan began dancing at Elaine's Dance Studio in her local town, Soquel, located in Santa Cruz, where she studied tap, jazz ballet, and hip hop. At age 9, Tegan changed vocal coaches, and started commuting over the hill to Los Gatos once a week to get instruction from Shelly Franklin, who taught speech level training. That same year, Tegan was in the production of Annie put on by Cabrillo Stage, the local professional theatre company.
As Tegan matured, she intensified her training and involvement in both music and dance. Throughout high school Tegan participated in her school's concert and jazz choir in addition to her weekly vocal lessons. She received a full scholarship to and attended the 2006 Berklee School of Music Summer Program in Los Angeles. There she was exposed to many music professionals, whom inspired her to continue in the arts, and was actually the crucial point in here life when she decided to pursue music as a career. Also, in March 2007, at the 37th annual Monterey Jazz Festival's Next Generation Festival, Tegan received the outstanding soloist award.
Parallel to Tegan's growth in music, she also continued training in dance and attended classes five days a week throughout high school. She was able to compete in dance competitions and eventually at age 16 became one of the staff members at the dance studio where she trained. For two years Tegan taught tap, jazz, and hip hop to children ranging from the ages of 7-18. In fall 2005 Tegan was hired at age 17 to choreograph How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying for the local children's theatre company, All About Theatre, which also hired her to teach a hip hop class at the theatre group's 2006 summer program.
Throughout Tegan's senior year of high school she began to compose beats on her computer using garageband in order to write pop music, for she knew that while she loved pop, it was also the perfect genre for combining her two loves, music and dance. She became her own one-woman band, and began writing as much music as possible. She sat in front of the computer for hours creating beats and recording vocals on her family's Mac, but she knew the quality of her homemade music using the sounds in garageband would not make the cut in the professional world.
As Tegan's senior year came to a close and she prepared an original song to sing in place of the traditional Valedictorian speech, she began working with James Lugo and ended up reproducing three of the songs she had originally made. This was Tegan's first taste of a professional studio, and left her wanting more, for this is what she had been waiting for her entire life. She finally was able to apply her training in a professional environment.
Fall 2007 came and Tegan had begun studying World Arts and Cultures with a dance emphasis at UCLA. Tegan knew that living in LA would be the only way for her to have the resources she needed to pursue her dreams while attending one of the top colleges in the US. Although Tegan had recorded music in a professional studio, she still needed to find a way to make her mark on the world. As school progressed she was unsure on how to continue the momentum she had built towards reaching her goal to become a pop artist. It had been almost a year since Tegan had recorded, when she decided to go back to where she started recording, James Lugo's Vocal Asylum.
Currently Tegan is working with producer/manager James Lugo. Together they are writing new and more mainstream pop music. Tegan is preparing herself for her big debut as an artist, for everyone only gets one first impression and she wants hers to outshine the rest. With a strong background in music, dance, and experience on the stage, she feels ready to face the world as a pop artist. Not everyone has he ability to make it, for it not only takes talent, but it also takes dedication, persistence, determination, self motivation, and most importantly believing that the goal is attainable. Throughout Tegan's life in addition to being talented, she has always put the necessary effort and time in to achieving her goals, and now her main goal and future career is being a pop singer and a global icon, and this goal is attainable.