KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Vanessa Sheldon, who has been called a "child prodigy" by her teachers, will be graduating with a doctorate in harp performance in May at the age of 19, becoming one of the youngest people ever to do so from the UA.

When Vanessa Sheldon was 16 years old, most schoolchildren her age were worried about getting their driver's license or finding a date to the prom.

Sheldon was beginning her doctoral program at the UA.

In May, the 19-year-old Sheldon will receive a doctor of musical arts degree in harp performance, becoming one of the youngest students to ever receive a doctorate from the UA.

A child prodigy

Sheldon says she was drawn to the harp before she could even walk, and as a baby, she would crawl toward her mother's harp, a fixture in the family living room, and try to pluck its strings.

Called a "child prodigy" by her teachers, Sheldon began private harp lessons at age 9 and said the instrument just came naturally to her.

"I just loved the harp the minute I started playing," she said.

School also came naturally to Sheldon.

After completing elementary school in Palos Verdes, Calif., Sheldon finished junior high in two years instead of the standard three. She then entered high school at age 12, but it took a short time for her to realize that was not where she belonged.

"I was just getting so bored and unchallenged," Sheldon said. "I needed more."

Sheldon said she was frequently ill during the one and only year she spent in high school and attributes her fragile health at the time to the stress she felt because she wasn't being challenged.

This is what prompted Sheldon to take the Washington Pre-College Test, an early entrance exam for college.

Scoring in the top 1 percent of exam-takers, Sheldon was accepted into the early entrance program at California State University, Los Angeles.

Adolescent undergraduate

Sheldon was only 13 when she stepped into her first college class.

But despite being a young teenager in a world of 18- to 20-somethings, Sheldon insists a university is where she belonged.

"In high school, I had a lot of problems with some of the teachers thinking I was too young to be in high school, but when I got into college the teachers really respected me, and the students did too," Sheldon said.

Before Sheldon enrolled at CSULA, the school did not have a program for harp performance majors, but to accommodate her talent, the university hired Sheldon a private teacher and tailored a program especially for her.

Sheldon said she had no problems adjusting to life as an undergraduate, and she even took on the task of tutoring older students in music her freshman year.

Sheldon said that even though many of her high school teachers warned her that a 13-year-old would struggle socially in college, she said she adjusted quickly and has no regrets about leaving high school when she did.

"I don't think I missed out on anything," Sheldon said. "The things that I've gained are much better than the things that I missed."

Taking an average of 20 credits a semester, Sheldon graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in harp performance after three years. Just one year later, she received her master's degree in harp performance from the same school, becoming the youngest student in the California State University System to be awarded a master's degree.

KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Vanessa Sheldon performs a Liszt piano piece that she rearranged for the harp Wednesday evening at Holsclaw recital hall.

UA offers renowned harp program

Drawn to the UA by its world-renowned and highly selective harp program, Sheldon moved to Tucson with her mother in 2002.

Since starting at the UA, she has worked as a teaching assistant for Carrol McLaughlin, the music department's sole harp performance teacher, leading harp lessons for non-harp majors in the department. Sheldon also teaches private lessons out of her home.

Almost all of her students are the same age or older than Sheldon.

"It's very impressive that she's achieved so much at such a young age," McLaughlin said.

Sheldon has also played with and composed music for the UA's Harp Fusion, the world's largest touring harp ensemble, traveling as far as China and Korea for performances.

"There are very few schools where you can get a doctorate in harp performance," Sheldon said. "And among those, there isn't another one where you can get opportunities like that - to go perform in other countries and to perform in such a large harp ensemble."

Peter Speziale, one of the 14 members of Harp Fusion, took lessons from Sheldon before becoming a harp major.

"I thought it was really odd that she was a year younger than I was," said Speziale, a harp performance junior. "But even though she's younger, she has a whole lot more experience."

Speziale said that as a teacher, Sheldon was very supportive and helped him perfect his audition for Harp Fusion. As a student, Sheldon "definitely knows what she wants," Speziale said.

Heidi Tims, another Harp Fusion member, said that despite Sheldon's successes, the 19-year-old has managed to remain grounded.

"She's really helpful. She's not some brainchild that lords it over all the rest of us," said Tims, a harp performance master's student.

However, Tims said she wouldn't want to trade places with Sheldon.

"I wouldn't trade my timing with hers for anything," Tims said. "I think it's awesome she's just torn it up like she has, but for me, I'm totally happy being 22 and doing my master's."

A mother-daughter duo

Sheldon attributes much of her success to her mother, Julie Evans.

Sheldon, whose parents are divorced, says she and her mother have always had an especially close relationship in which Evans has been a major advocate for Sheldon's success.

"She's the one that's really supported me and got me through school," Sheldon said. "When the teachers said, 'Well, she can't go up to the next grade,' she said, 'Well, yes she can.' So she's the one that was really responsible for helping me get into college at such a young age."

However, Sheldon said her mother, a former harp player herself, was never pushy and the decision to advance through school at such a rapid pace was entirely her own.

"A lot of people would think that she would be pressuring but it was, in fact, the opposite," Sheldon said.

Nevertheless, Evans has always been involved with her daughter's education, and when Sheldon was an undergraduate, Evans went back to school with Sheldon to get her own bachelor's degree in music.

Evans said she took music classes with her daughter and struggled to keep up with her when the two studied together.

"She really cracked the whip," Evans said.

The mother-daughter pair even played duets together at Sheldon's college recitals.

After sustaining back injuries in a car accident, Evans no longer plays the harp - a large and physically demanding instrument - but she still loves to hear her daughter play.

"I'm very, very, very proud," Evans said.

Life after school

With graduation approaching, Sheldon says she had to start thinking about the reality of "life after school."

And while she says she has considered someday pursuing a doctorate in musicology - the area that is now her minor - she doesn't have any plans to do so right away.

Instead, Sheldon says she wants to return with her mother to California, where she hopes she can start her own harp program at a university that does not have one, while continuing to perform her music.

"I just want to keep teaching and performing, and basically you can do that anywhere in the world, which is exciting," Sheldon said.