JDP senior Abby

JDP senior Abby has the voice of an angel.  This is what led her to attend Interlochen School of Arts in Michigan.  She’s a local MD girl, but she and her arts driven family made the tough decision for her to attend boarding school to further grow her gift.  Interlochen is known for helping to launch talented vocalists like Josh Groban and Jewel.

At Interlochen, half the school day’s focus is academic and half is dedicated to growing the artist.  Abby’s training her voice classically with an opera emphasis.  While she loves to sing all opera, modern opera has stolen her heart because it allows the story lines to be more reflective and inclusive of the world she knows.  She shared the differences between modern opera being more straight toned and traditional being more vibrato and then gave me a beautiful demonstration.

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(Abby’s dad was very taken with this portrait below and could envision it on the side of a bus promoting her artistic endeavors one day!)

Abby’s favorite composer is modern day composer Jake Heggie who wrote her most loved show, “To Hell and Back.”  He has also composed an opera to tell the story of Dead Man Walking.  She’s drawn to the modern tellings of life because of their realism and commentary on our current times.

Abby’s parents both commented how this portrait below as sooo Abby…love that we are able to capture the soul of who she is in life!

Learning the vocal pieces that Abby performs takes not only vocal training, but also studying IPA, International Phonetic Alphabet.  She’s learned that each syllable has an exact sound which is critical to being able to perform in foreign languages with skill.   The next step is learning the overarching translation.  To do this, Abby began where every classically trained vocal student starts, with “24 Italian Arias.”

Abby shared a quality I have seen countless times in the artists I create for…she got lost in her music singing along with an eclectic play mix that kept surprising us all day long.  It’s a beautiful thing to watch someone do what they love with an excellence when it has the power to bring you to tears.

Abby isn’t sure if she’ll pursue vocal performance for her career, only time will tell.  However, she dreams of one day being able to work for Disney to be one of their singing princesses.  When we began her session in her prom gown, as she was singing I kept envisioning scenes from movies like Snow White.  I could see scenes of her singing to an audience of woodland creatures.  Please Disney–cast this girl as one of your princesses!  She’ll be a huge hit for you!!

Abby’s wintry session date didn’t stop her from wanting to brave the outdoors for portraits.  Fortunately she got a sunny day to help cut the cold!

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Abby had gotten this cape right before her session which made a perfect compliment to our studio floral wreath…I was thinking, here she is as the Disney princess again.  One day I’m pretty sure this girl will have a big stage to share her gift…can’t wait to see when that happens for you Abby!

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