Ashlyn Healey has many, many skills. A talented actress, math whiz and board game master, Healey loves to read, play brain games, crochet and quote books and movies in her day-to-day life. She is also, of course, a fantastic singer.
“I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t singing,” said Healey. “My whole family can and does and loves to sing.” Healey has taken choir classes since elementary school, going on to take private lessons on and off for the past five years. Her mom and sisters taught her how to sing through original songs and trial and error lessons in harmonizing. “I have 9 biological siblings, 3 brothers-in-law, 3 foster siblings, one nephew and a niece and nephew on the way,” she explains, emphasizing the large and musical family she’s a part of.
Healey pursues her passion in four different choirs and one musical. She’s a member of the A Cappella and Madrigal choirs here at Timpview, the Utah Valley Children’s Choir and a choir at her church. She’s even participating in Timpview’s production of The Little Mermaid as one of the women in Prince Eric’s singing contest. “I am always looking for more ways to help and I am a competent singer, so I was corralled into being in my local church’s youth music counsel and am currently the only girl participating,” she adds.
Healey always knew she was going to audition for an Aria; the struggle was picking which song she wanted to sing. After asking her family what she should sing, her dad suggested “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady. This song is full of exhilaration and excitement and the feeling of not wanting a wonderful night to end. Healey knew this is the song she wanted to sing, and she performs it wonderfully, really capturing the joy and wistfulness. She will be performing her Aria this coming Thursday, November 20th, at the orchestra concert, accompanied by the Chamber Orchestra.
Healey has plans to continue performing even after high school. She will graduate high school nearly done with her associate’s degree through UVU, where she will then be attending next fall, planning to get a minor in the dramatic arts and continue singing.
When asked about advice that she’d give a younger musician or singer, she quoted Meet the Robinsons, “Keep Moving Forward!” She then elaborated, saying, “I would like to tell young musicians that you should get prepared for a whole lot of rejection. I have been rejected so many times, and it is heartbreaking almost every time, but I still keep trying. The music/art industry is incredibly competitive and especially if you are a girl, you will not get what you want most of the time. But all of the “no’s make the “yes’s even sweeter and fulfilling.”
Ashlyn Healey is an extremely talented performer. She is multifaceted and doesn’t confine herself to one hobby or another. She’d like to leave everyone reading the article with a reminder to celebrate the small accomplishments in life and to remember the quote from Croods, “I’m still alive!”
