Tiara Abraham took the stage as Miles in “The Turn of the Screw” in March at IU’s Musical Arts Center. Although she might have looked like any other undergraduate on the stage, 19-year-old Tiara is one of IU’s youngest doctoral students.
Tiara’s love of music goes further back than she can remember — starting vocal lessons at 7, feeling envious at her older brother’s rehearsals for the San Francisco Boys Chorus as a toddler and maybe, she likes to say, even earlier than that.
“We always joke because my mom used to listen to classical music on the radio when she was pregnant with us, so I feel like we absorbed some of that,” Tiara said.
She used to sit in on her older brother’s rehearsals and memorize songs, which surprised her parents. Tiara’s mother, Taji Abraham, said she would sing in tune using the same skills as the boy’s chorus, but without any training.
Tiara eventually asked her parents if she could join her brother, but quickly realized that she was not allowed to partake in the all-boys chorus. So, at 5, she decided to start her own music lessons, though it took her a while to begin. Many voice teachers are hesitant to teach young students, but her parents recognized her gift and never stopped pushing.
“Finally, after a lot of searching, maybe almost for two years, we finally found a teacher for her,” Taji said.
After joining the Sacramento Children’s Chorus at 6, Tiara started lessons with her first voice teacher at age 7. That same year, she started taking college classes.
Tiara took her first college-level class at American River College, a community college near her hometown of Sacramento, California. Being homeschooled, she had the flexibility to pursue both academics and music at her own pace — a highly accelerated one.
She started out in a Spanish class alongside her 9-year-old brother, Tanishq, who was also academically advanced.
“He’s two and a half years older, so it was good to have my older brother by my side for my first few classes,” Tiara said.
By 13, she had enough credits to graduate high school and transfer to the University of California, Davis as a junior. She earned her bachelor’s in music at 16 and came to the Jacobs School of Music shortly after, getting her master’s degree in Music of Voice at 18. Not wasting any time, 18-year-old Tiara enrolled at the Jacobs School to tackle her doctorate with the same energy that fueled her at 7, longing for a place on stage with the all-boys chorus.
Michelle DeYoung, Grammy Award-winning recording artist and classical vocalist, is Tiara’s current vocal teacher. She recalled her first day working with Tiara, recognizing her generational abilities.
“I gave Tiara a sample lesson, and she immediately was able to incorporate the ideas I was giving her. She was open to trying the technique, and able to implement it,” DeYoung wrote in an email to the IDS.
At this point in her career, Tiara has already performed internationally on some of the world’s most coveted stages, including the Vatican and Vienna’s Musikverein. Just last year, she represented IU at an international event in Abu Dhabi, where she spoke about modern technology’s role in classical music and sang several arias.
She has sung the National Anthem for the San Francisco Giants twice, which is the moment Taji said she felt most proud of Tiara. Thinking about Tiara’s first performance at the Giants’ stadium still makes her mother teary, she said.
“And you could just see the crowd just going crazy when she hit those high notes,” Taji said. “They're all just like cheering and cheering.”
Walking around after her performance, Taji said 100 people must’ve come up to them and showered Tiara with praise.
“I've performed here in the United States at Carnegie Hall, which is a huge performing arts venue, like every musician wants to perform, and it was a really great experience,” Tiara said.
Her operatic debut came at 17 as Zerlina in “Don Giovanni” in a summer opera program in Florence, Italy. The following year, Tiara played Belinda in “Dido and Aeneas” at the Chicago Summer Opera. Her role as Miles in “Turn of the Screw” was her first mainstage role for IU Opera. DeYoung, who coached Tiara for the role, observed her improvement during the show’s run.
“She grew so much both vocally and acting,” DeYoung said via email. “It was a huge experience for her and she handled it with grace and professionalism.”
Given her age, Tiara’s path hasn’t been without challenges.
“So, in college starting out — obviously no one really wanted a 7-year-old in their class because they thought, you know, that maybe it might be a distraction,” Tiara said.
She has had to prove herself at every step of the way, both in terms of her abilities and her dedication. Once her classmates realized that Tiara was engaged and enjoying class, she felt more welcome by her peers.
Being in the vocal discipline presented its own unique hurdles. Unlike instrumental prodigies, young vocalists can’t rush their training. There are more physiological factors at play, as voices take time to develop and mature. This is especially true in opera.
People were often skeptical of her, as many child opera singers, according to Tiara, tend to imitate the sound of opera rather than use formal training. Tiara said people automatically assumed she was one of these imitators. She had to keep at it, balancing her ambition with patience as she honed her craft to prove her talent was built on a solid foundation of classical training.
Her years of experience make it easy to forget her young age, though DeYoung says she’s still working on her technique.
“As singers, we continue to grow and learn throughout our lives,” DeYoung wrote.
Tiara cites the unwavering support of her family as the backbone of her accomplishments — especially her mother, who gave up her career as a veterinarian and doctoral student to support her children. Her mother Taji even moved to Bloomington with her daughter when Tiara started her master's.
Tiara also said her dad and brother have been huge supporters. Her brother, Tanishq, is a prodigy in his own right who earned his doctorate in biomedical engineering at 19. She also draws inspiration from her late grandmother who was a trailblazer in the field of veterinary sciences. Tiara said her grandma was proud of her and liked to watch her perform, was even able to attend some of her recitals at IU.
“So, yeah, she's a huge icon for me,” she said.
Tiara’s achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. Last year, she was surprised with an award named in her honor — the Tiara Abraham Achievement Award — from Kiwanis South Central Indiana, which recognized Tiara as a role model for young musicians and academics. This year, she’ll have the honor of presenting the award to its next recipient.
After she finishes her doctorate, Tiara plans to continue her performance career, with aspirations to take the stage of major opera houses around the world and eventually teach at a conservatory or university setting.
“As long as you enjoy what you're doing, and you will fight for it, it has to come from within you,” Tiara said. “Following your passion is the main thing."
