When Gina Perregrino was about 12 years old, Alexis I. du Pont High School music teacher Paul Parets asked her to sing a song for him. She chose Andrea Bocelli’s “Time to Say Goodbye” (in Italian) which left a lasting impression on Parets, an influential music educator in Delaware, and a friend of her family.

“He insisted to my parents that I take singing very seriously and propelled me to take professional voice lessons,” she said. “He became one of the biggest professional influences in my life.” Encouraged by Parets, Perregrino went on to become one of the most celebrated voices on the opera stage.