“I’ve been interested in music my whole life,” says Cape Symphony Conservatory voice student Rima Petrosyan. “I’ve always loved being in theater; that’s where my love of music came from.” 

Rima’s Cape Symphony career began with art classes at age 5. She played the ukelele, studied violin with Richard Balkin, and started singing along with violin lessons.

As she got into musical theater in middle school, Rima’s formal vocal instruction began a bit by surprise. “My Mom signed me up for singing lessons,” she recalls. “She didn’t tell me where we were going, we just got in the car!” At those early lessons with teaching artist Fred Johnson, she remembers he could barely hear her. “Cape Symphony became a place where I could really grow, finding my volume and my voice as a singer.”

“It comes from finding the strength to have a voice,” she continues. She started as a soprano, and says “you fall in love with your ‘head voice.’ I realized that I can sing from my chest, as well… it felt like an entire new world. I became an alto and even a tenor in my choir at school… rejecting the traditional ‘woman’s’ role, and finding my own path,” she reflects. “Fred taught me not to go too far either way, to remain balanced.”

It worked out beautifully. “Rima is more than just a student with a beautiful soprano voice,” says Fred Johnson. “Beyond her natural and exceptional talent, she is incredibly hardworking, but does not show any signs of weariness as it is her passion and she finds joy in learning, especially in music and art.”

Rima also works in visual and fiber arts. She crochets and knits, and wants to learn how to weave and make lace. Her approach to artwork is to “try as much as I can and see what sticks. I’ve seldom had an artistic hobby I didn’t enjoy!”  

Asked what advice she’d give younger students, Rima doesn’t hesitate: “I would just tell them to be as involved as they can. Never say no to an activity without trying it once.”

Next semester, Rima is headed to Tufts University, where she’s planning to major in Mathematics and minor in Art, and to sing in an a cappella ensemble. “Singing is one of the most beautiful skills that there is,” she says. “I’ll always have it with me.”