The Collegian

Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Arts

Like most vocalists, Hillsdale College senior Maria Sciarini won't really know her voice type until about age 30.

For now, and in her senior recital Sunday at 4 p.m. in McNamara Recital Hall, her "big voice" is a soprano one.

"Technically, I don't know what I am yet. Singers don't really get into their prime until their 30s," Sciarini said, then through laughs: "I'm going to be the only chick celebrating when I turn 30."

The joke is characteristic of Sciarini, who punctuates her weekly Puccini and Hayden vocal lessons with jabs at opera, its lyrics and its characters, even comparing one to Ariel in "The Little Mermaid." But the sentiment fits too: her pursuit of a vocal career doesn't come with many guarantees.

Authentic choices
Sciarini has a history of making life-changing decisions in the face of uncertainty. She played basketball at Hillsdale for two years before her long-seeded love of singing pushed her into the music department.

"From an early age, she would stand on the porch and sing," said her father, Mike Sciarini. "Her interest in music was somewhat obvious early on, but she was doing all kinds of things that kids do."

Now Sciarini can list two years of opera workshops and theater performances on her résumé, including a role in the upcoming student-directed one-act plays.

Although Mike doesn't call Maria's route to music "perfect," he said there never was a firm career plan.

"To me, the beauty of it is that these are authentic choices for Maria," he said. "Our intent is to help [our children] see what the menu of life has to offer and then to make choices related to their skills and passions."

Sciarini sang throughout high school, but began singing classical opera at Hillsdale, where she met a new set of challenges. She found singing physically and mentally taxing in a way different than basketball.

Instead of movement, she works at controlling her breathing and logging muscle memory. Then there is massive multi-tasking, in which Sciarini combines language translation, lyric memorization, rhythm, acting, and of course, singing.

"Basically your goal is to get what that feeling is to muscle memory so then you can act and move physically," Sciarini said. "The very next day, even that same day, I go to sing again and it's not there…It seems effortless, but it's not, it's work. It's getting to the point where it's muscle memory and then it's effortless."

'Enormous voice'
Despite coming to classical music late, Sciarini has a chance to make it into graduate schools, said Missy Osmond, teacher of music. And that's something Osmond has only told a "handful" of students in nearly 20 years in Hillsdale. It's also something she could not have told Sciarini a year ago.

"Since last January there were some real light bulbs that went on," Osmond said. "She's got an enormous voice. It was really trying to get that voice out and then rein it back in. Maria could not sing softly for a long time."

Now Osmond has helped Sciarini sculpt a senior recital which also prepares her for graduate school auditions. That means many arias (songs from operas).

At a practice in February, Sciarini is practicing with accompanist Cameron Wilkens, a junior. Sciarini is a mix of determination and sass: first she sings, her lips parted, the top one taut with tension; the next moment she waggles her hand in a so-so motion.

Then she jokes about Hayden and Mozart before apologizing, generally: "Sorry, I don't know what happened, I like went through puberty in a chord - I don't know what it is with 9/8 [time], I just make it drag. How fast is it supposed to go?

"I'm glad this is in French, because in English it's kinda corny…nice and nasally and funny. I'm no French girl…yet."

Then, through laughs, she describes her character Violetta from "La traviata:" "I'm dying, but I'm still singin'…like all great opera heroines, she has tuberculosis."

At a March lesson, Osmond is watching. She nods, mouths the words and motions with her pointer finger and thumb pressed together. She tells her student to "think a little nastier between the eyes," which makes sense to Sciarini. And like flicking a switch, she goes from chatting to singing again.

Days later, they're at it again. Sciarini expresses frustration nearly a dozen times, each time surprisingly wide-eyed and eyebrows fuming. To help, Osmond and Sciarini burst song at one another, somehow understanding better than with spoken words.

Big-time crier
Sciarini continues to work on her consistency and her "ear."

"There are times I'm singing so loud I can't hear the piano," Sciarini said. "There are times I'll get done and be, like, 'was I even on the right note?'"

For pieces like those in her recital, Sciarini begins by "plinking out" the notes on a piano and by listening to a recording.

"It can be intimidating sometimes. I remember looking at the music [for the Merry Wives of Windsor], and I was like, 'I'm never going to be able to hit that.' That was just me being a poor musician and being intimidated."

Then she learns the song "into my voice," and works on muscle memory. She said emotion comes first, then translation, and finally, meaning.

"Sometimes the stuff you're dealing with is sad," she said, and despite her jokes: "I'm a crier. A big-time crier."

Finally, Sciarini finds ways to move her body and act while singing. She remembers senior Aaron Johnson literally providing her support so she could sing during "Amahl."

"In olden days, the way for a singer to show off was you sang and added ornamentations and you made an aria distinctly your own. Nowadays, because everybody can do that, you have to be able to bring something else to the picture," Sciarini said. "The days of just standing there and singing are gone."

Nearly gone, too, are Sciarini's days at Hillsdale. She will take months off from school before auditioning for graduate programs at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Northwestern University in the winter.

"Going after that path with passion will lead to something, if not just knowledge," her father said.

"If you can get it right it's totally worth all the pain and strife that it took to get you there," Sciarini said. "It's also gratifying, not in a selfish way, I'm not going to say that professional productions, are glorifying gods, but I would say in a way, for me doing this, by singing, it makes me feel closer to having a purpose. Why would I be given this gift?"

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