Internship Spotlight - Gina Marie Sorensen

	From:	Fallon, NV
	Major:	Musical Arts - Voice
	Company:	Oberlin College - Italian Opera Program
	Location:	Urbania, Italy

Voice, piano, cello and dance lessons exposed Gina Marie to a lot of music while growing up. "As a girl I would crawl underneath the piano and listen to my father, a pianist, play Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms and more," she said. Gina quickly learned how much she loved and even craved music. "I guess I was destined to follow the musical path," she said.

Here at BYU-Idaho, Gina studied voice and took advantage of the opportunity to travel to the small town of Urbania, Italy on an internship. "I have always wanted to travel to Italy," she said, but her time there was not a vacation.

"My schedule was pretty grueling because the opera was such a huge undertaking." Gina Marie undertook the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart's Italian opera Cosi fan tutte. With all the music she had to learn, Gina spent six hours a day rehearsing, always preceded by 3 ½ hours of Italian language lessons. "I did have Sundays off and Saturdays were sometimes a little less stressful," she said, "but I spent a lot of my spare time reviewing music and memorizing text translations."

Gina also had voice lessons and Italian language coaching once a week, and those "less stressful" Saturdays were spent in master classes. "I worked with a very famous Italian language coach named Ferari for about 45 minutes; it was one of the highlights of my vocal training there," Gina Marie said.

Gina loved being in Italy for her internship. "The best thing about Italy," she said, "is its people." She enjoyed experiencing the cultural differences, and said that the people there are extremely friendly.

Walking home one afternoon, not far from Urbania's town center, Gina was so ecstatic about being in Italy that she reached her arm out, took hold of a light post and swung herself around it. "As I completed my turn, I was applauded by a group of young men who had witnessed my bout of joy," she said. Too happy to care about her embarrassment, in true opera-singer style, Gina took a bow and continued home.

Being able to talk to fellow interns and the members of the production about their beliefs was another exciting aspect of her internship. "It gave me an opportunity to share the Gospel whenever I was asked a question, and it was a lot of fun to discuss religion with others," she said.

The importance of family also stood out to Gina Marie during her internship. "I was able to bring my sister with me, and it always makes an experience sweeter to share it with someone you love," she said.

The valuable experience and training in a vital operatic language are benefits of her internship Gina said she won't soon forget. "I was able to sing an Italian opera in Italy!" she exclaimed. "Sometimes, saying it doesn't even sound real to me."

Gina Marie has since graduated from BYU-Idaho, and is currently working on her master's degree at the University of Houston-Moores School of Music. "I am grateful to BYU-Idaho for helping me take this great step in fulfilling my dreams," she said. "It was one of the greatest experiences of my life, and trying to express it verbally is difficult because it was just beyond words."