Talent. Vision. Determination. Those were the three ingredients which drove Vivian Deyone Douglas to give up a comfortable life in Bermuda, where she had a good job, family and friends, and all the comforts of home, to pursue her dreams as a mature student at Delaware State University.

Today the soprano is a proud graduate who holds four degrees, and is facing a fulfilling future once she decides what her career path will be.

As a child growing up on the North Shore in Pembroke, Miss Douglas was regularly exposed to all kinds of classical music, thanks to an uncle who lived next door.

“On Saturdays my sister and I would have to clean our rooms. Every week my uncle would play classical music, and we would sit at the window and mimic the recording that we heard coming from his house, so that was my unconscious awakening to classical music, although for us it was just fun.”

On Sundays, the Douglas children attended to two different Sunday Schools, where Deyone sang in the Sunbeam Choir of each, and then in the Youth Choir, where both choir directors, recognising something special in her voice, gave her solo roles.

By the time she was 17, Miss Douglas was receiving requests to sing at various functions, and people began to suggest that she should take voice lessons. To the teenager it seemed like “a foolish idea” at the time. Nonetheless, she did turn to the yellow pages and there found Miss Joy Blackett listed. Lessons began immediately, and nine months later Miss Douglas gave her first solo recital at City Hall.

When Miss Blackett left the Island, she was without a teacher for almost a year until she discovered Mr. Daniel Hill. “It was through him that I received numerous opportunities,” the singer says. “I sang with the Bermuda Philharmonic Society, and was in the chorus of many Bermuda Musical & Dramatic Society shows. I was also the featured artist with the Allen Temple church choir touring throughout the US.”

Miss Douglas also gave special performances as fund-raisers for the Matilda Smith Williams Home.

It was Mr. Hill who also encouraged the singer to enter the Pavarotti competition in Philadelphia, where she earned a Special Mention, and was also introduced for the first time to a language and a vocal coach. Describing these experiences as “awesome”, Miss Douglas says: “I travelled to New York from Bermuda every month for five months, and when I finished my lesson with one coach in New York I would catch a train to Philadelphia the same day to study with the other. I studied French, German and Italian.”

She was also a featured artist at the twelfth International Federation of the Business & Professional Women's Association in Japan.

Meanwhile the soprano continued her studies with Mr. Hill and also her job at Cable & Wireless. Today, she laughs when she recalls turning down an offer from Dr. Gary Burgess while he was Professor of Voice and Opera at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Making a special visit to see him, Miss Douglas complied with his request to sing for him, and his instant reaction was to offer her a scholarship to attend the university then and there. Too naive to understand the magnitude of the offer, she turned him down flat.

“Oh no, I'm definitely going back home,” she insisted.

By 1994 she had changed her tune, however. Having saved hard to finance her studies, she sold everything she owned and enrolled in Delaware State University. It wasn't easy leaving behind everything and everyone she loved, but as the Arab proverb says, ‘If you want the honey you have to put up with the stings of the bee', and so it was that the mature student prepared for a new future in typical student circumstances.

Like many overseas ‘Onions' who long to see a face from home occasionally, she sometimes visited the airport's departure lounge to mingle with returning Bermudians.

In addition to her studies at Delaware, Miss Douglas was a soloist in the University chorus, and also undertook private engagements. In her last year she combined intensive studying with singing engagements. By August, 1999 her hard work had paid off and Miss Douglas graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Music (Voice) as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration and a minor in economics. She was 35 years old and had reached her initial goals thanks, in part, to a series of scholarships from the Bermuda Arts Council.

“That was my main support at Delaware University, and it was a significant help,” she says. “I was used to having money, but I knew that I wouldn't have the funds I was used to so it was a major adjustment, but it was a sacrifice that I chose. I had sold everything I had in order to go, and what couldn't fit into my suitcase I left behind.”

Understandably, graduation day, with her proud family looking on, was a very emotional occasion. Although composed both times she walked on stage to receive her degrees, afterwards she admits that tears of joy streamed down her face.

Certainly, with so much already achieved, Miss Douglas has absolutely no regrets about the sacrifices she made to reach her goals. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“The world has opened up a lot of opportunities. You have choices in life and you have to be prepared to accept the conclusions that follow your choices. You have to think the processes through as far as you can.”

With her Delaware graduation behind her, this woman-with-a-mission then packed up her belongings in a U-haul vehicle and drove 13 hours to Atlanta, where she enrolled in the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC).

“It was a calling to ministry,” Miss Douglas says. “My matriculation began once again in the Fall of ‘99 and once again I have received two degrees: a Master of Arts in Church Music, and a Master of Divinity. I was also inducted into the Delta Theta Phi honour sorority, which is for academic excellence and by invitation only. Upon graduation I received honour cords, which means I was on the Dean's List for 3.5 grade average or above.”

With four degrees to her name, the multi-talented singer is now at a crossroads. The future stretches before like a long, open road, and she must decide which of its branches she will take: teaching, or a pastoral assignment.

“During my last semester I had an opportunity to be an unofficial teacher-assistant to Dr. Costen, chair of ITC's music department, so there is a possibility that I can become a full time adjunct professor,” she says.”The other opportunity is that I may receive a pastoral assignment, and I also have some singing engagements in June. I really would like to continue my education and do my Ph.D. in liturgy and worship.”

Faced with these choices, Miss Douglas plans to “be very quiet and listen” for the Divine guidance she knows in her heart will come. “I am going to do what I need to do wherever I am directed. Wherever my purpose draws me I will do all that is necessary, but at the end of the day before I rest my bones I intend to be back in Bermuda.”

Asked what advice she has for Bermudians aspiring to a musical future, she recommends a realistic approach as the first step.

“Be honest to yourself. Recognise the gift you have and look at it for what it's worth.

“Know when you are good and when you are bad, and when you are bad seek help.

“Even when you are good, do better. There is always room for improvement. That's what I mean by being honest. As far as I am concerned, you never arrive but are always in a process of arriving no matter what the field is that you are comfortable with.

Then pursue your goals. It is going to cost you, and cost does not necessarily mean money. You will be without your family, your Bermuda friends, and familiar surroundings and sounds. It is a sacrifice, and you have to be mentally and physically prepared to make it.

“Outside the classroom, when you have to make adjustments to your surroundings there's no blue water and no crickets at night.”