Sheela Ramesh gets off the 28X airport shuttle that she boarded at the Pittsburgh airport. The senior mezzo soprano voice major is back on Carnegie Mellon's campus after a weekend excursion to New York City. She starts walking to her off-campus apartment, hauling her canvas suitcase packed with clothes, including THE dark suit. It was a recent purchase, bought for a life-defining moment—her interview before the Marshall Scholarship committee in New York. The interview ran for only 20 of its allotted minutes—perhaps a bad sign, she worries. She'll know very soon. According to protocol, the verdict for the Marshall—which underwrites graduate study in the United Kingdom—will come sometime today.

The interview had taken place in midtown Manhattan, in the parlor of the British Consulate—grand piano, elegant tea service, plush chairs and couches arranged in a circle. The first question challenged Ramesh's understanding of music history:

What’s so special about Mozart?

Mozart, Ramesh answered, comes after Bach, who dazzled the world "with all these crazy transpositions, which showed that a composition could be played in more than one key." By contrast, she pointed out, Mozart simplified his music—one melody, one harmony—in a way that is so catchy you can sing the music in your head.

So far, so good, she thought.

If Mozart is so simple, why is his "Queen of the Night" aria considered to be the most difficult piece to perform?

The aria, Ramesh explained, takes a very special voice to pull it off. Its high note is out of reach for many sopranos—a high F over high C. Challenging enough, but then the singer has to land especially forcefully on a high B flat, which is not in the most powerful part of a soprano's typical vocal range.

Ramesh eyed the piano nearby; it might have been easier to demonstrate. No, too nervous.

One by one, the committee members continued around the room with their questions. One of the interviewers was a gruff-looking military man. She tried not to stereotype him. Maybe he was an opera lover. Maybe she wouldn’t have to sell him on the idea that opera is worth supporting.

If you were going to sell me on opera, what one opera would you tell me to go see?

(Continued …)

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