A Williams Lake Grade 11 student — who has been singing since before she could talk — is getting ready for the Cariboo Festival in April.
Eloise Hobi, a talented singer, guitarist, and pianist who attends Williams Lake Secondary School, will perform classical and musical theatre pieces with hopes of being accepted to provincials. Now 16, she’s been attending the Cariboo Festival since she was 10.
Hobi will be accompanied to the festival by her vocal and piano teacher, Angela Sommer, who now teaches music in Vernon. This year, Hobi will be competing in the intermediate group. She will be singing Chanson d’amour by Gabriel Fauré, Lied der Mignon by Franz Schubert and Les Filles de Cadix by Léo Delibes for her classical pieces. The musical theatre pieces are I’d Give My Life for You by Lea Salonga and He Vas My Boyfriend by Andrea Martin and Mel Brooks.
In 2019, she competed in provincials, receiving an honourable mention in the junior vocal variety. Last year at the Cariboo Festival, she played at the honours concert — something she’s done every year since participating and is only given to top performers.
Hobi said attending provincials was an amazing experience.
“You learn a lot and get to hear all these different people come with all these different genres. There’s a lot of talent. It is intense.”
Along with vocal and piano lessons from Sommer, Hobi started taking guitar lessons with Dena Bauman last year. With her instruments, she hopes to be able to accompany herself one day.
Hobi performed the national anthem at the Stampede in 2021 and 2023 and at the Indoor Rodeo in 2019. In last year’s Cinderella production by the Williams Lake Studio Theater, she sang as one of the townspeople. She’s performed at the Medieval Market for three years.
Hobi said she inherited her love and passion for music from her Hispanic grandfather, a tenor opera singer.
“My mom said he was amazing. I never heard him, though. We’re kind of connected in that way.”
Not only is Hobi thriving in music, but the Swiss-born teen speaks French, Spanish and English and knows a bit of German, too. She’s a former competitive gymnast, recently received her greenbelt after only a few months of taekwondo lessons, and hopes to become a pediatrician someday.
She attributed her success to her parents, Mariana and George Hobi.
“I have good parents, and they teach me a lot of important values.”
READ MORE: Three Cariboo youth qualify for Performing Arts BC
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