The week this story was written, Amelie Rosavelasquez was playing Maria in The Sound of Music at Byron High School — and had a callback that same evening for a production of The Addams Family at Starlight Theater in Rockford. She had also just been accepted into Illinois State University's musical theater program, where she'll study musical theater and dance beginning this fall. It was, in other words, a fairly typical week for a young woman who has managed to fit band, jazz band, chamber choir, the speech team, visual art, musical theater, and community theater into four years of high school without appearing to break a sweat.

Amelie is a senior and a soprano — first soprano, specifically — who has been in Byron's audition-only chamber choir for all four of her high school years. Chamber choir goes well beyond classroom singing. The group performs at Miracle on Second Street, Byron's annual Christmas festival. They carol at nursing homes and in the elementary school. They perform madrigals at Christmas. They compete in solo ensemble and ILMEA events. "It's just a bigger commitment," Amelie says, in the tone of someone who finds bigger commitments appealing.

In band, she plays alto saxophone — her instrument of choice since middle school and one she clearly loves. She's in the symphonic band and also in jazz band, which holds early-morning practices before school. "It kind of sucks," she admits, then immediately reverses herself. "But it's worth it. It's so worth it." Jazz band's showcase is a cabaret night in the spring. Her favorite piece in the current repertoire is "Feeling Good," a classic she doesn't even carry the melody on but loves to be part of. The Byron band, under director Mrs. Haas, travels to Disney World every other year to march and perform — Amelie went as a sophomore and is going again this summer, this time with stops at both Universal and Magic Kingdom.

On the speech team, Amelie gravitates toward comedic events. For two years, she competed in Original Comedy, writing her own eight-minute scripts — including one about theater camp, naturally — and in Humorous Duet Acting with her partner, Maysn Brown. The two went to state together last year. This year, she branched out into Dramatic Interpretation, a genre she describes as "totally out of my range," got to sectionals, and loved every minute of it. She also competed in Original Comedy again and placed 11th at state. "I was sobbing afterwards," she says. "I love it so much, and I'm going to miss it." She credits head coach Dirk Palmer, a construction teacher who is retiring this year after building a speech program she calls one of the best activities in high school, and  coach Angie McHale, who keeps the large, multi-event team organized and on schedule.

Visual art rounds out the portfolio. Amelie describes herself as a 3D artist — sculpture, pottery, clay, found objects, fabric, wire, beads, artificial flowers, and moss. The flat canvas doesn't call to her the way the dimensional world does. She's made things out of nearly anything she could get her hands on. Her sister Bella, two years older and studying law at Northern Illinois University, is the one who draws and paints. "She's the reason I got into art," Amelie says. "She's so talented." The two performed together in Into the Woods at Byron Civic Theater, and Amelie eventually talked her stage-fright-prone sister into making her theatrical debut. It went well.

The family is creative. Her father, Pete, writes songs and sings. Her mother, Kristen, plays piano and is, in Amelie's words, an irreplaceable source of support. "I love my mom," she says near the end of the interview, unprompted. "She does so much for me, and I can't imagine my life without her." Her younger brother, Dom, likes to write. The arts, in this family, are simply how people express themselves.

After ISU, the dream — stated without apology — is Broadway. New York, a stage, and a hairless cat. Possibly a pet blobfish. She acknowledges that the ambition is large. She doesn't seem particularly worried about it. Someone who has been Maria in Sound of Music, placed at state in speech, marched at Disney World, sung at community Christmas festivals, and built sculptures out of found objects — all before graduation — is probably not someone who shrinks from a challenge.

Byron's fine arts programs gave her the room to do all of it. She's made the most of every square inch.