Kaitlyn Doyle opted to sing an Italian classic as well as Christina Aguilera’s “Bounty” as part of her application to the 2015 High School Honors Performance Series at Carnegie Hall, N.Y.

She made the recordings in a Lewiston studio and sent them to a selection committee.

“Then I waited three or four months,” the Oak Hill High School senior said last week.

Finally, she received confirmation that she had been accepted and will perform as a second alto with other high school finalists in the Honors Performance Series on Feb. 22 at Carnegie Hall.

Some 500 performers are selected from about 10,000 nominations, according to a press release from WorldStrides, an educational travel organization. Julia Given, a spokeswoman for WorldStrides, said five students from Maine were selected, including Abigail Shaw from Presque Isle High School. The names of the other three were not available last week.

Meantime, Doyle, 17, is busy raising about $3,000 — she’s more than halfway there — to fund that five-day experience. She’s also practicing for the role of Polly in “The Boy Friend,” the musical being presented by Oak Hill High School Drama Club in two weeks. That show will be performed at 7 p.m. Jan. 23-24 and 2 p.m. Jan. 25 at the high school in Wales. Tickets are available at the door.

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Doyle said she loves to sing.

“I discovered the talent when I was younger, and I’ve always had a passion for it,” Doyle said Thursday. “I like to sing more pop and country stuff, more modern.”

She performs classical songs with the high school’s select choir Voices of Color, and has been in the District III Honors Festival Choir in 2013 and 2014. This past season, she sang the National Anthem at every one of the Oak Hill’s home football games. The Raiders took the Class D state championship for the second year running.

It’s not the first time Doyle’s talent’s been recognized. Her high school principal, Pat Doyle (no relation), said she heard talent when Kaitlyn Doyle performed with a choral group as a freshman.

“She was in one of the first group of students that we contracted with a Bates (College) professor to help,” Pat Doyle said. “She loves music, she loves vocals and really has put herself in positions to perform with these groups.”

Kaitlyn Doyle said she still works with John Corrie, who teaches musicianship labs, applied voice and directs the Bates College Choir.

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She was nominated to be part of the Carnegie Hall performance by John Neal, director of music at Oak Hill High School.

“She’s tremendous; she’s one of the best of my 35-year career,” said Neal, who has nominated other students for the honor, but Kaitlyn Doyle was the first to be selected. “It’s nice when a wonderful, deserving student gets the recognition.”

An aunt purchased Kaitlyn a plane ticket to New York as a Christmas present, and she said her parents, Kevin and Deanna Doyle, of Litchfield, will drive to Connecticut and take the train to the Big Apple to see the performance.

Kaitlyn Doyle is a dancer as well, taking instructions in ballet, tap and jazz with Mary Jane’s School of Dance in Lewiston and Turner. At school, she gets help from her sister, Kasey, who runs the lights for the music productions. Some 28 students are in the show.

In “The Boy Friend,” Kaitlyn Doyle gets to do a lot of dancing and singing as heiress Polly Brown.

“She sings, she dances, she does just about all of it,” said Lucy Rioux, artistic director for the show and the high school’s drama coach. “She’s a pretty talented little girl.”

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Doyle has a voice that can be either alto or soprano. “Her technique is really good so she knows when to change from a chest voice to a head voice and she does it pretty flawlessly,” Rioux said.

Julie Andrews made her Broadway debut in that role in 1954, and Rioux said Doyle has a similar vocal range.

Kaitlyn Doyle said she plans to continue her education by majoring in either music industry or music and sound recording at the University of New Haven, Conn.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


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