From Carnegie Hall to Jacobs School: One opera student is working on a master's at 16

Between attending her college graduation, moving halfway across the country, and studying at one of the top music programs in the world, Tiara Abraham simply hasn't had time to reach a milestone typical of her age: getting a driver's license.

This 16-year-old opera prodigy is now in her first semester of a two-year master's program at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, attending classes with peers over a decade older.

While Tiara may be younger than her peers, she certainly doesn't lack experience. She sang in Carnegie Hall twice by the time she was 10, and her voice has carried her to perform at Vienna and a San Francisco Giants game.

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For Tiara, classical music has always felt like a part of her, something she might have had at birth.

"Before I was even born, my mom would always listen to classical music on the radio, so maybe that's where I got my music exposure," Tiara joked. "That music just always felt natural to me."

Bravo to vibrato: How a child prodigy found passion and purpose in opera

For nearly as long as she has been able to speak, Tiara has been singing. Taji Abraham, her mother, described how her then 4-year-old daughter's crisp, rich voice often filled their home in Sacramento, California. Taji and her husband initially didn't think much of the constant singing. Kids go through phases of interest, they thought, and it would eventually peter out.

"Then we realized there's something special about that. Pretty much every song that she sings, it just comes very naturally to her and she doesn't just have that straight tone kind of thing. It's got some kind of, like a vibrato, to it," Taji recalled.

Vibrato is a musical technique where a person's voice subtly and quickly alternates between two pitches that are very close together. It is used to add intensity to the voice and bring emotional expression to one's performance. It's quite rare for a young child to sing with vibrato, so when her parents recognized that, they started looking for a vocal teacher.

Their searched proved difficult, Taji noted. Even though many parents put their young children in music lessons, it's typically to play an instrument.

“For us vocalists, our whole body is the instrument. It’s not just the vocal cords, we're using our diaphragm,” Tiara said. “Everything is involved in producing a beautiful sound.”

Tiara was set on taking classical voice lessons, a training approach where the student learns to sing in the style of classical composers. It includes a vast repertoire with styles including art song and opera.

Many teachers weren't willing to take on a young child, given that people typically don't start classical voice until they're at least in high school. Eventually, when Tiara was around 7, she was paired with a voice teacher who taught her the basics.

"I had that raw talent, but (she taught me) how to fine tune that,” Tiara described.

While Tiara likes to perform various genres, she found her true passion in opera when she was 9. At her hometown theater, she and her mother watched the Metropolitan Opera production of La fille du régiment, or the Daughter of the Regiment. She wasn't in an opera house, but hearing the live boom and bass of the actors' voices on full display, was enough to spark something inside her.

"Just to be able to watch that opera, I was really inspired to see the stage action and the costumes and everything involved on stage," Tiara said.

As she began shaping up a promising classical voice, Tiara also excelled academically. She began taking courses at her local community college when she was 7, with Taji towing along and keeping to the back of the classroom.

"In the first few days (of class), (my classmates) thought my mom was bringing me and she was the student. But when they saw that I was sitting up front in the class and actually taking notes, they realized that I was taking the class," Tiara recalled.

She graduated high school at 13 and transferred her college credits to finish her bachelor's degree at University of California, Davis. There, she received a Regents Scholar and a University Honors Program scholar, becoming one of UC Davis’s youngest graduating students. She graduated with a degree in a music major, focusing on vocal performance.

She had her choice of several top universities to pursue her master's degree, but Tiara chose Indiana University. For those well-versed in IU Jacobs School of Music, it shouldn't be difficult to guess why.

“I just wanted to gain more performance opportunities and be surrounded by other voice majors and performers,” Tiara said.

'Small fish in big pond' at IU Bloomington

Once she decided to go to IU, Tiara and her mother relocated to Bloomington. It's been a huge shift for California-raised Tiara. She misses her home state, but she's also opened herself up to new experiences. She and her mother recently took a day trip to Brown County, where Tiara rode a horse for the first time.

Tiara has spent her first semester studying operatic history, taking part in opera workshops and, of course, auditioning. As for the performance side, it's also been an adjustment. She moved from a small, close-knit music department at UC Davis to a large program at Indiana University.

“It's a huge school, so you can sometimes feel lost, like you're a small fish in a big pond, kind of. But you just have to find your circle," Tiara said. "It can sometimes be overwhelming, especially the first few weeks, but I’m getting the hang of it and slowly adjusting."

Now, rather than sitting in the classroom with her, Taji drops Tiara off on campus. While she looks young enough to be an undergraduate, Tiara doesn't stick out as much as when she was a 7-year-old college student. She believes many of her peers and professors still don't realize her real age — a potential advantage.

Tiara noted it can be challenging as young performer to be taken seriously, especially in opera.

People say, "'They're imitating the sound of opera or vibrato without formal training,'" Tiara said, "whereas, I've been training for, I can say, over half my life. I know how to handle my instrument."

While frustrating, Tiara tries to take it as a challenge to overcome rather than a barrier.

“I think there's an age-old notion that you can only be an opera singer at a certain age," Taji said. "I think sometimes when you have a very talented person, you can break the laws."

Any underestimation doesn't last long.

"Some voice faculty — not IU but in general — initially, they may be skeptical when they hear a young 14- or 15-year-old classical singer, but I think once they hear my voice and hear my technique, they understand that I am able to sing with them,” Tiara said.

Tiara hopes her career will take her to the most prolific opera houses, but for now, she's focused on building her skills and experience. And she's looking forward to adding IU Bloomington to her ever-growing list of hallmark performances.

Rachel Smith covers Indiana University and student life for The Herald-Times. Reach her at rksmith@heraldt.com or on Twitter @RachelSmithNews.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: 16-year-old prodigy is getting her master's at Jacobs School of Music