Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: ANNMARIE CHACKO/SUBMITTED PHOTO

"Music was something that I used to take away my pain, make me look at the brighter side of life. It healed something inside of me."

Senior English and communication major AnnMarie Chacko's life was changed forever at the end of her senior year of high school.

For as long as she could remember, singing was not only a passion, but part of Chacko's identity.

"My mom says that I was singing before I began to talk," Chacko said.

"When I was younger I would go to shows with my mom and come home singing every song, reciting every line.

Disney movies would always be playing in my house and I knew the songs word for word. There was nothing else I wanted to do."

While growing up in the Bronx, Chacko attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts.

"Singing was a part of me that kept me together. It got me through some real rough times," Chacko said. "I woke up with music on, went through my day with music playing in the background."

Chacko was a member of the Mixed Chorus, Gospel Chorus and Girls Chorus. Over the years as a performer in these choruses, Chacko performed on Broadway for Broadway Cares with Patti LaBelle, in different churches around the New York City area and in a few colleges in New York State and in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall.

Her school work was focused on performance. Chacko said "at school, to pass our midterms and finals, we were asked to perform selections from different operas and classical works."

As her singing talent excelled, her passion for performing increased as she grew up. Chacko's personal hopes, plans and aspirations for the future were cut and dry.

"I had plans to do it big. I wanted to continue my musical education and keep performing," Chacko said. "I had plans to apply to Julliard School of Music as well as NYU's Tisch School for Performing Arts."

Chacko, as an only child, described the relationship between herself and her parents as a plane ride.

"Sometimes the ride was smooth and everything would be going as planned, as expected," Chacko said. "Other times, I would be locked in my room, pissed about something new that happened that day."

"My mother was very supportive of my decision to pursue a career in music. She came with me to auditions, every rehearsal and every performance. My father, however, did not," Chacko said.

Continued...

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