The Journal

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: KHOLOOD EID Julie McGinnity (right), a vocal student, performs as Molly Brazen, one of the townswomen, in Webster University's Opera Studio on Saturday, Jan. 23. Inez de Erausquin sings with McGinnity as a townswoman.

As Julie McGinnity took off her backpack in a Thompson Music Building classroom, Professor Carole Gasper laid out a dog bed for Julie McGinnity's guide dog, Bree, next to the baby grand piano. Gasper, director of vocal studies, bought the bed for the yellow lab. Bree circled the bed a couple of times and then lay down to nap.

"Gasper loves Bree and Bree loves Gasper," said Julie McGinnity. "Bree is spoiled by everyone, not just me."

Julie McGinnity, a freshman vocal music and German major, was born with glaucoma, which left her blind. The disease runs in her family.

Glaucoma is caused by a malfunction in the eye's fluid drainage system and affects two to six percent of the U.S. population, said Gail Doell, an optometrist at Webster Eye Care.

"When there is more fluid being made than drained, high pressure makes the eye like an overinflated balloon," Doell said. "The high pressure damages nerves in the eyes causing blindness."

Because Julie McGinnity is so familiar with her condition, she doesn't see her talent as extraordinary, but as an expression of her love for music.

"I have no advantages or disadvantages," she said. "It just is what it is. I love singing, musicianship and theory. It's just sometimes I have to work a little harder."

Julie McGinnity's mother, Cathy McGinnity, noticed her passion for song at a young age and enrolled her in vocal lessons at the age of 10.

"Julie was just singing all the time," Cathy McGinnity said. "She seemed to have something."

Earlier in her music career, Julie McGinnity sang mostly broadway and pop music and then started classical training at the age of 13. Three years later she participated in the Artist-in-Training program through Opera Theatre of St. Louis until she graduated at age 18.

During this particular session with Gasper, the first soprano practiced her scales, crescendoing each note. Gasper picked out the flaws and praised the perfections after each line. She then rose from her piano bench and approached Julie McGinnity. With her hands, Gasper showed the singer the areas on her face where she was carrying tension. Julie McGinnity relaxed and started singing again.

Continued...

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