At just 12 years old, Carmel Valley’s Eva Mather has become a National Anthem specialist.
Eva has lost count of the number of “Star Spangled Banners” she has belted before sporting events from Carmel Valley’s Friday Night Lights flag football league to the San Diego Padres, San Diego State Aztecs, San Diego Gulls, Wave, Seals and the Legion rugby team. She has sung the anthem at the Miramar Air Show and the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar, she even did “O Canada” on the ice before one of her two Gulls games.
Checking the NHL off her list, Eva performed the National Anthem at the Los Angeles Kings game at Crypto.com Arena on April 5.
“It was my first time getting a custom jersey with my name on it so that part was also super duper cool,” said Eva, who loved the lights and sound and soaking up the energy and applause from the crowd.
Eva has always loved to sing and broke out of her shyness in 2020 when she entertained her Carmel Valley neighbors when they were on lockdown during the pandemic, channeling her inner Joan Jett. Since then she has built up her vocal skills and stylings, doing musical theater, performing at community events and competing in online music contests—last year she made her Carnegie Hall debut and performed at the historic venue twice, singing opera.
Her big voice matches her bright, sparkly personality.
For National Anthem duties, Eva submits an application with a video and her loaded resume. Last August, she earned the chance to perform before a sell-out crowd at Petco Park for a Padres game.
“Since I was about 7 years old I loved baseball and I wanted to sing for the Padres some day,” Eva said. “I felt like my childhood dream had come true. I think young me would be really proud of myself to see where I am today.”
Currently, the genre Eva is enjoying singing the most is classical music or opera arias. The seventh grader at Carmel Valley Middle School now works with four voice coaches as she perfects her skills, including Milena Kitic, Barbara Valente, Jinxing Zhou and Ziping Yang. She is a coloratura soprano, which means she sings with elaborate ornamentation in a hard scale, able to hit a very high F.
“Opera is particularly my favorite because unlike with pop I can go even higher than my normal vocal chest range,” Eva said. “ I really like being challenged by arias. Opera arias are way more powerful and dramatic than the average pop song.”
She still wants to be like Joan Jett, but maybe the opera version of Joan Jett.
In addition to her focus on singing competitions and National Anthems, Eva takes piano lessons with Sun Yung Cho and swims on the Rancho San Dieguito swim team. Swimming is not only fun and great exercise but Eva said it helps a lot with her breath control in singing.
Eva is grateful for her ive parents who help make things happen and give her so many opportunities to share her voice. She works hard and loves to stay busy— she will be singing Chinese folk songs next at the SoCal Asian Pacific Islander Festival in Oceanside on April 26.
“It’s been really fun so far and I can’t wait to see where it will go,” Eva said.
