Tiara Abrham, an Indian American Musical Prodigy, is the Youngest to Earn M.A. Degree in Vocal Music in USA

The 10-year-old Indian American prodigy who earned accolades for her first stage performance at Carnegie Hall, New York in 2016 has grown into a musical genius with an M.A. degree. Once again, she created history and made Indian Diaspora proud with her master’s degree in music of voice at only 18 years. She is the youngest to have achieved this milestone across the statewide campuses of Indiana University.

She is none other than Tiara Abraham, sister of another Indian American prodigy Tanishq Abraham, the world’s youngest biomedical engineer who earned a PhD at 19. The sibling duo hails from an immigrant family of scientists and engineers in California. Their grandmother, who celebrated her 90^th birthday last year, holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman veterinarian with a PhD. Despite having a strong family background in STEM, Tiara chose music as her career when she was merely 7 and debuted as a singer at 10.

“We were at first skeptical, because being a singer is competitive and there’s no guarantee how far you can go in music,” said Tiara’s mother. “That was always a fear for us. But it’s always good to be in something you enjoy doing. There’s no point in forcing her to do science just because it brings more security,” she was quoted by the magazine of her daughter’s alma mater, the University of California, Davis.

Tiara started classical voice training and community college at a tender age of 7, just like her brother who had enrolled for Stanford University’s Education Program for Gifted Youth at the age of 5 and delivered his first TEDx talk at 9. Within 3 years of having started vocal training, she recorded and released her first music album titled Winter Nightingale, a collection of nine classic carols and holiday songs in 6 languages – English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Latin.

Indian American Tiara Abraham’s first album was a wonderful culmination of her father’s discovery of her latent musical talent when she sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in vibrato style, which is quite difficult for someone at the age of 5. Tiara’s father, a software engineer, appointed a private tutor to train her in vocal music. Owing to her regular practice, hard work and passion, she won a local music competition and got the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Both Tiara and Tanishq are members of Mensa, a high-IQ society in America. Tiara became a member of Mensa when she was only 4. Tiara, along with Indian-origin Viveka Saravanan, won the YoungArts Awards 2024 in the classical voice category. YoungArts Week is the most prestigious national competition for emerging artists across the United States. Inspired by opera vocalist Renée Fleming and soprano lyricist Kathleen Battle, she wishes to become a soprano classical singer.

This story is part of our continued effort to give a shoutout to achievements of Young Indians in America. Travel Beats is a leading diaspora portal and a subsidiary of Indian Eagle, a most trusted air-ticketing partner of Indians abroad. Sign up to our newsletter for latest community stories, US visa and immigration updates, and everything about US-India air travel.