Originally published on: Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Multiple disabilities have not kept Smith student Arianne Abela from taking Center stage

By KRISTINA TEDESCHI

Fresh from her History of Opera class on a recent afternoon, Smith College senior Arianne Abela rushes home to Duckett House, walking into the dining area in a flurry of energy. Lugging a backpack on her petite frame, she moves swiftly along the salad bar, choosing greens and veggies in between smiles and waves to friends. It was a busy morning of back-to-back classes, she says, and she's happy to grab a moment to eat.

The opera class is studying late 19th-century Italian opera, which happens to be one of her favorite periods in operatic history, says Abela, who's majoring in music with a concentration in conducting. "But I like Mozart, too," she said thoughtfully in between bites of salad. "I don't know, I like all of them," she added with a laugh.

For as long as Abela can remember, music has been a central part of her life. And there are embarrassing home videos to prove it, she says, many of which show a young Arianne singing along to songs by Madonna, Michael Jackson and the Mickey Mouse Club. Although her taste in music has changed over the years - she's currently working on an aria composed by George Frederic Handel for her senior concert - her love of music hasn't. From the age of 6 to when she left her native San Francisco to attend Smith four years ago, Abela studied with the well-known San Francisco Girls Chorus, ultimately graduating from its Chorus School and joining Chorissima, the chorus' elite group of singers that tour internationally and appear each year with the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Symphony.

Everything about music, from singing to studying notes and vocal technique, has been a haven for Abela, she says, a kind of safe place that often took her mind off a painful truth.

A rare condition

Although you cannot tell at first glance, Abela, 22, was born with physical disabilities caused by amniotic banding syndrome, a rare condition caused by the rupture of the amniotic sac during pregnancy. For reasons that are largely unknown, the amnion, a thin, tough, liquid-filled sac in which a fetus is suspended, breaks and then falls away, leaving the developing fetus unprotected from the fibrous tissues of the placenta. The fetus can become tangled within the bands of tissue, which often leads to birth defects, including congenital amputations, missing or fused fingers, and cleft lip or palate. Brain damage can also occur.

Abela was born two months premature, a left-leg amputee with some fingers on both hands either missing or fused together, and toes missing on her right foot. She says she's thankful that was the extent of the defects.

"I was really, really lucky," Abela said.

But it wasn't much of a consolation growing up, she says. Abela would hide her hands - something she still does - because she was afraid of scaring people or making them uncomfortable, she says. She hardly ever wore shorts or skirts because she didn't want anyone seeing the prosthetic limb she uses to walk.

"I'm really hard on myself, not just physically," Abela said, "but with everything."

One difficult memory in particular stands out, she says. After entering kindergarten, Abela began to realize she was different from the other children. One day after school she locked herself in the bathroom at home and looked at her hands in the mirror. She recalls pinching herself, trying to wake herself up from what she thought was a bad dream.

Music and the San Francisco Girls Chorus became her salvation.

"I could just focus on what I loved," Abela said. And she formed close friendships that have lasted beyond her time with the chorus. "That was like my foundation," she said.

Eye-opening experience

A Smith College alumnae tea she attended in San Francisco her senior year in high school is what ultimately brought her across the country to Northampton, she says. The alumnae were warm, friendly and funny, Abela recalls, and had many fond memories from their days at Smith. She was ready for a change, she says, and so she chose Smith as her college. "I wanted to experience something different."

She declared music her major in the fall of 2004, and joined the school's Chamber Singers and the Smith College Chorus, both of which require auditions.

One day, chorus conductor Deanna Joseph, who now serves as the interim director of choral activities at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, unexpectedly couldn't make rehearsal. She asked Abela to conduct in her place.

"I knew she could do it and could be great," Joseph said recently in a telephone interview, noting that she had been impressed by Abela's audition. "She was definitely one of the most talented people. ... I saw that she had a real interest and love, and a ton of talent."

Abela says she had never considered conducting before. She is the eldest daughter of Alex and Barbara Abela, immigrants from the Philippines who both work in real estate, and has one younger sister, Krista, 14. Used to concealing her hands, Abela says, she had always shied away from anything that put them front and center. But when she stepped before the group of singers, she says, the joy of leading them outweighed her self-consciousness.

She began studying conducting with Jonathan Hirsh, the director of orchestral and choral activities in Smith's music department. He became her mentor.

"She has a terrific ear for music and the ability to hear sudden change and colors," Hirsh said recently. "She just really exudes passion for music. When she's feeling good and when she gets up in front of a group and feels prepared and knows the music - someone described it to me recently as, 'she has a real fire.'"

All-out effort

That fire was on display at a recent Smith College Glee Club rehearsal in Earle Recital Hall, when she stepped in for Hirsh. Maybe the fact that Abela had learned earlier in the day that she had been accepted by the selective graduate program at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Conn., accounted in part for her buoyant mood. In 2005, the institute received an anonymous gift of $100 million that allows students to study there for free.

Abela was all smiles as she took Hirsh's place at the music stand. After a few vocal exercises, she energetically began leading the chorus in a version of "Hallelujah."

"Move a little bit!" she urged the women, leaning toward them as their voices soared through the small room. She stood on tip-toe, gesturing with one arm over her head to guide the singers as they hit the song's high notes. Her body was in constant motion throughout the piece -- even her eyebrows moved up and down throughout the undulating song.

"Go crescendo!" she exclaimed, as the women headed toward the end of the piece.

Then: "Yay! Good run-through."

At home at the podium

It's Abela's sunny disposition and her obvious passion for music that cause all who meet her to love her, says her best friend, fellow Smith senior Erica Cormier.

"My favorite thing about her is when she's happy and when she smiles, her loyalty and her happiness really affects everyone," said Cormier, who met Abela their freshman year when they both sang with the Chamber Singers. "That's the beauty about her."

She has seen Abela struggle over the course of their college years with her handicaps, she says, but through it all, Abela has always put the well-being of others before her own.

"She cares about you unrelentingly," said Cormier. "She's probably the most loyal friend I've ever had."

Cormier was one of the singers who performed in "There Always Something Sings...," a program of women's choral music that Abela organized last year. Abela says she wanted to create a musical piece that paralleled her own hardships and triumphs. Hirsh's instruction and advice, she adds, gave her the courage to go for it. She chose the music and found singers and orchestra members who were willing to volunteer.

"It was actually 30 of her closest friends," said Cormier.

After just seven rehearsals, Abela conducted her singers in a program that included the slow, sacred "Ave Maria" as an opener and the upbeat "Ain'a That Good News" by William Dawson and "Magnificat" by Nicola Porpora. Her father flew in from San Francisco to see the concert, and her grandmother came in from Manila. In a brief introduction that appeared in the performance's program, Abela wrote, "This program, although it reflects part of my own personal journey, resonates with the journey of humanity; even in the most dark and dire of times, we always find strength to overcome." The concert drew a standing ovation from the packed house.

"It was the best experience I think I've ever had," Abela said.

"I've never been in a more loving environment while singing," Cormier recalled. "It was such an amazing concert. ... Having her conduct and seeing her in her element really was amazing. That's definitely where she needs to be - at that podium."