If I asked all of her friends for one word describing junior Lydia Gompper, their voices would sing in unison: extraordinary.

“Fearless,” said junior Rachel Skomra.

“Sweet,” said junior Shanley Kirk.

“Lively,” said junior McKayla Bobitski.

There are several things I had heard of Lydia before meeting her; the girl that got an insanely high score on her SAT, the girl that sang with a professional opera, and the girl who’s been published in The Washington Post.

All of the above are true but none of them precisely demonstrate that Lydia’s talents and personality are what have brought her so far. Sitting down with her, I began to realize that she embodies the true spirit of Mason: hard-working and dedicated, humble, and kind.

She wears khaki pants, a button down shirt, and a hat that looks like something my dad would wear. It was dress-up-as-Northrip day for the theater crew, and Lydia is a part of as a celebration of the spring play, The Bombitty of Errors, and its director, Shawn Northrip.

I begin our conversation by attempting to recite my known list of her accomplishments, and although the list I have is both lengthy and astounding, it is not all Lydia has achieved.

Lydia has been musically active since she was young. She took guitar lessons for eight years and has taken up vocal classes within the past few years, as well as participating in chorus since the beginning of middle school.

“I’ve been doing music as long as I can remember,” said Gompper.

In addition, she placed first in a National Association of Teachers Singing (NATS) competition this year, where in the past three years she has been ranked on the state level.

Lydia also sang with the Maryland Lyric Opera the summer of 2015. “It was a pretty awesome experience, most of the people I was working with had master’s degrees in music,” said Gompper.

The list of accomplishments continues. The classical voice and broadway music singer won the Washington Post Student Critic 2015 Award as part of her Cappies review. Lydia is also involved in Mason’s theater department, acting in this year’s spring musical and participating more heavily in fall plays. In total, Gompper has participated in eight Mason plays/musicals, beginning in eighth grade.

Throughout the course of the interview, I began to wonder what made Lydia such a musically oriented person and how she was introduced to music and vocals. She remembers singing along to Broadway soundtracks in the car when she was younger, and as a memory surfaced Lydia’s face, it lit up with a radiant smile.

“The first broadway musical I remember going to was Peter Pan at Wolf Trap and I remember thinking it was the best thing ever,” said Gompper.

For colleges, Lydia is still considering her options but wants to double major (no surprise) and go to a college that offers both theater and academic programs of study. Carnegie Mellon University, Oberlin College, and Northwestern University are just a few of her many choices.
Whether it’s on the stage, in the choir room, or in the classroom, Lydia has proven time and time again that she will stop at nothing to succeed, and brighten the days of everyone around her while doing it. I know everyone will be eager to see Lydia’s brilliant talent shine in her two remaining plays in the coming year at Mason and in the real world beyond.