Zaida Rio Polanco, a singer-songwriter who put out a solo album of indie folk-inflected pop-soul songs in high school, stepped away from music-making as a first year at Yale and shifted her artistic talents to an a capella group and a hip-hop dance troupe.
But when Yale’s student-run record label, 1701, invited artists to audition during her sophomore year, Polanco picked up her guitar. She auditioned, the label signed her, and “it was like night and day,” Polanco said.
“I went from doing no gigging to gigging around campus all the time. They assigned me a student producer, a student manager, a student graphic designer,” she said. “We were all learning together what it means to operate in this microcosm of what a real record label would be.”
Over the past three years, Polanco has frequently performed at her residential college, Benjamin Franklin, as well as at other venues around campus and in downtown New Haven, including a performance at Toad’s Place, at which she also danced with three of her hip-hop friends. Her recordings are easily found on YouTube, under the stage name Zaida Rio.
She knew she wanted to eventually pursue a career in the arts when she entered Yale, but she chose to major in environmental studies. Her Filipino mother, who comes from a long line of farmers, is an avid gardener at the family home in White Plains, New York. As a result, Polanco said, “I’ve always felt very connected to the earth.” (Her 93-year-old grandfather, who was a farmer, will attend her graduation.)
One course she took explored environmental themes in theater, which got Polanco thinking about how she might use her songwriting to express the climate change anxieties that she and so many of her peers feel. She has since written a song called “Slow Violence,” inspired by a flash flood warning in the middle of the night.
Balancing her studies with her musical pursuits was a considerable challenge throughout her time at Yale, Polanco said, but she still managed to find time to do musical theater as well, landing roles in “Grease,” “West Side Story,” “Spring Awakening,” and “Once.”
“I like being on stage and taking on new characters, anything that allows me to pour my emotions out in ways I wouldn’t normally do,” she said.
She formed some “really lovely friendships” with people from the musical theater community, she said — “We’ve had these long talks backstage and have truly opened up to each other.” She also formed close bonds with people she met in the a capella group Shades of Yale and the dance group Rhythmic Blue.
Polanco is preparing to pursue singing and acting professionally as she leaves Yale. She has signed on to a label, Defying Gravity, started by Maxx Shearod ’25, who is now her manager and producer. And she’s considering making a move to Los Angeles.
“I don’t have any family out there so it would definitely be a huge adjustment,” she said. “But I feel like if there’s any time to just go out there and do it, it would be now.”
