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Adalia Jimenez has a busy schedule, just like any 11-year-old singing sensation.
"It's fun," Adalia said at her Burtonsville home Friday. "I'll call my mom, and it's like, ‘What am I doing today?'"
"It's going to be an experience," Adalia said.
Patty Jimenez, an executive assistant at a credit union, and her husband, Mario, an IT specialist for the Department of Labor, are working hard to provide their children with a life they could only dream of as children. They travel across the area taking Adalia to singing competitions, and Mario Jimenez has used his computer skills to set up the YouTube channel, which includes Adalia singing "A Whole New World," and performing in "Cats" and "The Wizard and I."
"We have family all over, so they check it," said Mario Jimenez, a former Marine whose parents emigrated from El Salvador.
As a child growing up in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, Patty Jimenez wanted to sing and play sports. But her parents, immigrants from Bolivia, worked around the clock to support her family and there wasn't time for much else.
"Their goal was to provide the basics," Patty Jimenez said.
Now, Patty Jimenez pours the time and money she never had as a youngster into her two daughters, Adalia and Natalya, 5. Adalia attends St. Mary of the Mills School in Laurel, and Natalya goes to Burtonsville Elementary School.
In addition to singing, Adalia plays soccer, enjoys reading the "Twilight" series and is learning the piano. She also has donated her hair to Locks of Love, a West Palm Beach, Fla.-based nonprofit that provides hairpieces to lower-income children affected by hair loss conditions, such as chemotherapy for cancer treatment.
"I make sure she is exposed to other things," Patty Jimenez said.
She said Adalia is too young to take singing lessons but that her singing comes naturally.
"Somehow she fined-tuned it," Patty Jimenez said. "Somehow she has managed to teach herself correctly."
Laura Farmer, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, said she was surprised with Adalia's voice when the girl auditioned for the "Star-Spangled Spectacular."
"When Adalia came out, she was just a big voice in a tiny package," Farmer said. "She blew us away with her talent."
While the trips to auditions can become tiresome, Patty Jimenez said it's worth it.
"We just try to fit the auditions locally," Patty Jimenez said. "It can be stressful at times, but we are managing."
-To hear Adalia sing, go to her YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/
cyberadalia
-The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will present the second-annual "Star-Spangled Spectacular" 8 p.m. July 3-4 at Oregon Ridge Park, 13555 Beaver Dam Road in Cockeysville. For more information about the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, go to www.bsomusic.org or call 410-783-8024.
