The starting time for Elca Maranzana's Fringe Festival recital at St. Andrew's church tomorrow evening is 7 p.m. and not 8 p.m. as stated in yesterday's edition of Lifestyle .

Elca at Festival Fringe Friday, January 21 at 8 p.m.

St. Andrew's Church With only peripheral vision and an inability to read music, one might assume Elca Maranzana's chances of becoming a professional singer would be pure fantasy. But as The Royal Gazette's Nancy Acton reports, this 19-year-old diva has learned to capitalise on her gifts... and live with the rest Interested in music from her early childhood, Elca has, over the years, taken both piano and voice lessons. She currently attends the Bermuda Academy of Music, where she studies piano with Mr. Graham Garton and voice with his wife, Barbara.

Both teachers are enthusiastic about Elca's talents and do all they can to encourage her.

"I believe when a person has something taken away, usually they are given other gifts to compensate,'' Mrs. Garton says, "and Elca's voice is truly a gift.

"She also has a wonderful ear, which is an added gift. I first sing every new piece to her, and then break it down into phrases, which she learns by rote.

After only a couple of times she can sing it, and has a very good perception if something is off key. '' In fact, during a recent visit by Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music examiner, Colin Atkinson, she asked him to evaluate Elca's voice to ensure that both singer and teacher were "on the right track''.

"He was very impressed with the work she has done, and with her presentation,'' Mrs. Garton relates.'' Mr. Atkinson also told Elca what it would mean to be a professional singer -- that she must remain focussed -- and how the major music schools are now tending to take more mature singers.

With her goal shining like a beacon before her, the aspiring young singer has already adopted a very determined approach to achieving it. She shuts herself away in her bedroom daily to assiduously practice her vocal exercises, and her lessons with Mrs. Garton are intense.

Because Elca learns by rote, but to her visual impairment, the process of mastering new works is slow though thorough, and over the years she and her teacher have built up a fine rapport.

"She has been studying with Mrs. Garton since she was seven,'' Elca's mother, Sandra, notes, "and to see them work together is unbelievable.'' Indeed, in listening to the banter which flows between teacher and student it is obvious that, while their relationship is professional, there is also an underlying friendship.

Stressing that it is not a teacher's role to "make'' a student's voice in his or her image, Mrs. Garton says instead, "You bring out what is in the person to the best of his or her ability''.

"A voice is like a painting... The artist has to show colour. Nothing is on the same level all the time. Interpretation is colour -- light and shades in the voice. All the arts are linked really -- voice, piano, music...'' The work of developing Elca's voice to its present level began in a somewhat unorthodox way, and the duo now laugh at the memories of those early days.

"When I first met Elca she was imitating various bird and animal noises, so my first lesson consisted of communicating via those,'' Mrs. Garton relates."It was one way of getting her to communicate back at that time. It was wonderful, really, and I thought, `What have we here?'.'' With dedication, perseverance and patience, Mrs. Garton has brought her student a long way, ever mindful that the nurturing process is a careful one.

"The voice is a very precious muscle, and it has to be delicately trained,'' she explains. "If it is strained or pushed in any way, you lose it. In addition, singers must be fit in order to sing well.'' There is no doubt that Elca loves to sing, and her tastes are wide-ranging.

"I have been interested in music since I was five years old, and I love all music,'' she says.

While her repertoire is varied, and includes both classical and contemporary music, opera remains her stated favourite for any future career. With that in mind, Mrs. Garton has been encouraging her pupil to broaden her linguistic range with the result that, one by one, Elca has learned to sing pieces in Italian, German, French and Latin.

In fact, she has progressed so well that she has been invited to give a solo recital as part of the newly-formed Fringe Festival, which is playing alongside the Bermuda Festival 2000.

The young singer's varied classical programme, which she will perform at St.

Andrew's Church on Friday, January 21 at 8 p.m., will include Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Wolf and Kelly, excerpts from oratorios by Handel and Vivaldi, and arias from operas by Puccini and Handel.

Appropriately, given her heritage, Elca will conclude her programme by singing Con Te Partito (It's Time to Say Goodbye) in Italian -- the same song, incidentally, which won her a prize and a standing ovation in a shipboard talent contest.

"It is a big challenge, and she has worked very, very hard for this recital,'' Mrs. Garton says of the upcoming event.

But it doesn't stop there. Elca has made a CD, entitled simply Elca and available in local music stores, on which she sings contemporary ballads and love songs, arranged by musical director Mr. Joe Wylie.

"The pieces I chose were my favourites,'' she says of the mix. "Some time in the future I would like to do another CD, possibly featuring opera.'' She has also sung in concerts, at weddings and funerals, and is a member of the Bermuda Academy of Music choir.

In terms of piano, Elca has done well, and Mr. Garton is presently teaching her the keyboard grasp of harmony.

Apart from her music, art is another of the young Bermudian's talents, and she studies pastels with well-known Bermudian artist Ms Sharon Wilson.

"Despite having only peripheral vision, Elca's artwork is extraordinary,'' Mrs. Maranzana says. "In fact, an exhibition of her work will be shown in St.

Andrew's church hall the same night as her recital, for which she has also designed the programme cover.'' Admission to Elca Maranzana's recital and art exhibition is free, and the public is encouraged to come out and support all the artists participating in Festival Fringe.