Super Girl: Indian American Tiara Abraham of California Graduates From UC Davis at Age 16
- The soprano singer who began her college career at age 7 has won several awards and recognitions for her musical talent.
Soprano singer Tiara Abraham began her college career at age 7 in a community college. Last week, the 16-year-old Indian American from Sacramento, California, graduated from UC Davis with her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance.
“This is just one step of my journey,” Abraham told local television KCRA 3 after she received her diploma. “I’ve been able to overcome all that, just proving myself, that I’ve been able to just perform with great technique and here I am.”
As a parting gift to her now alma mater, she sang the National Anthem and “Hail to California” during graduation ceremonies. With a 4.0 average, she is now headed to Indiana University for graduate studies in music.
Tiara, who graduated high school at 13, has been training in Western classical music since she was 7, and released her first album “Winter Nightingale” at age 10. Last April, she wowed a crowd of more than 25,000 when she sang the national anthem at a San Francisco Giants game. She was recognized for her musical talent at the Global Child Prodigies 2020 in New Delhi in January, in which there were 100 child prodigies from 18 countries. She has won the Premio Internazionale Giuseppe Sciacca Musica Award at the Vatican and her voice has led her to perform twice at Carnegie Hall, Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
But it’s not only singing that Abraham excels in. At age 4, she scored 99 percentile on the test and became a member of Mensa, a prestigious high-IQ society. After her KG, Tiara joined her brother, Tanishq Abraham in the home-schooled tradition when she found school not fun and challenging.
The siblings’ parents — Bijou Abraham, a software engineer and Taji Abraham, a veterinarian and researcher — have encouraged her unusual musical talent, including diction, from an early age.
In 2018, her brother Tanishq became the youngest engineer to graduate from UC Davis at age 15.