Lights, Camera, Action!

As Marissa Fieland reaches the final bars of the song, tears fill the eyes of everyone around her. Her posture and poise is perfect as she reaches the last notes, her voice never wavering. The room is silent for a few seconds, before bursting into thunderous applause. A tremendously talented individual, Fieland breathes new life into music and awakens the inner child of everyone around her. Not only is she talented, Fieland is a hard worker, and incredibly down to earth.

A senior at West Albany High School, Fieland has been a vital part of the school’s music and performing arts programs for over three years.

Fieland plans to continue with music. Having been accepted into the Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory, and the University of Oregon, Fieland will be attending the New England Conservatory, where she was awarded a $23,000 scholarship.

“What I’m specifically studying is vocal performance; I hate that title, though. I like to tell people I’m studying opera. I feel like opera like the title 'Vocal Performance' is more flashy and implies pop singing or something, which I’m not doing,” said Fieland.

Music is an integral part of Fieland’s life, and always has been.

“It’s (music) one of the only things that can actually satisfy me. It’s also the one thing that can exhilarate me and relax me at the same time, I guess that’s more of the performing music, though,” said Fieland. “One thing I’m particularly fond of is how with music you can hear a recording of a song and hear it one way, but the next day you can listen to the same recording of the same song and it feels like a different recording because you hear it differently based on your mood. I think that’s one of the coolest things because that means there’s always new about it that you didn’t realize existed, you’re constantly living in the moment I guess,”

In the future, Fieland hopes to pursue music professionally.

“I plan to audition for operas in hopes of getting paying roles,” said Fieland. “Eventually, I want to teach at a music conservatory or college.”

In addition, Fieland wants people to understand what opera is -- and isn’t.

“Most people think it’s just a genre of music, but technically an opera is pretty much like a musical, it has a plot and characters, but all the lines that are delivered are sung. And they’re sung specifically in either a belcanto or baroque style, depending on whether or not the opera was written by a romantic composer or a classical composer like Mozart,” said Fieland. “ They’re (opera singers) not just high singing with a symphony behind it; there are characters, a theme and a moral learned.”

At a Glance:

Marissa Fieland is an 18 year old senior at West Albany High School who will begin studying vocal performance at the New England Conservatory in the fall. Fieland recently played the Fairy Godmother in West Albany High School's spring musical, "Cinderella."