By JON BAKER

LINCOLN — When Jerilyn Turner received the call from Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond’s office back in December, requesting she sing the national anthem at Inauguration Night, she wasn’t about to say “no.”

“Joe’s assistant, Barbara Russo, asked me, and I just said, ‘Absolutely!’” Turner said with a grin. “Then she wanted to know how much I’d charge, and I just laughed. There was no way! I told Barbara that Joe was a family friend, and had been for years. I just wanted to do it for the community in which I’ve lived almost my whole life.”
That’s just like Turner, a self-professed Lincolnite for life with a voice that would cause the most inspired songbird to blush. Fact is, the engaging 25-year-old daughter of Robert and Robin Turner easily could have become a professional singer, but decided back in 2005 it just wasn’t for her.
She could be belting out operatic ballads for virtually any organization nationwide, perhaps around the world, but now chooses to work as a billing manager for Absolute Respiratory Care, Inc. in Johnston; a voice coach to 35 students between the ages of seven and 52; and a volunteer choir director at her beloved Lime Rock Baptist Church.
“I love this job at Absolute, because I work with my aunt, Jane Matoian, and I adore helping the elderly,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “I explain their Medicare benefits to them, and we provide great customer service, but it’s not just that. I love it because it’s not music-related.
“The way I look at my life now, if it’s music all the time, it loses it’s power, its importance to me,” she added. “It’s not so much of a chore anymore. It’s fun now. I don’t get paid for being the choir director here; I do it because I like it. We have so much fun laughing.”

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Call it a somewhat surprising story, how this woman chose to give up getting paid handsomely for something she loved with every fiber of her being.
On this day, she stood inside her church’s front foyer and offered an African-American spiritual hymn entitled “This Train.” She calls herself a “spinto soprano,” describing it as “dramatic.” That much was obvious as the rafters shook.
“I have a very large voice; I’m not a coloratora soprano, which provides a lighter sound,” she admitted. “I’ve always enjoyed singing in this church, and it’s because my family has been coming here for almost a quarter-century, ever since I was a baby. We have a long history here.
“I started singing when I was five, and that’s when I became obsessed with it,” she added. “Joy Hamilton was the organist here at the time, and she’s the one that introduced me to music. Apparently, she recognized that I had some talent at that very young age. I began singing in the Junior Choir.”
When she asked her parents if she could take singing lessons from Hamilton, they all offered her a proviso.
“They said it would be mandatory, per Joy’s rules and Mom and Dad’s, that I was going to have to take piano lessons, too,” she chuckled. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t that fond of the piano. It was tedious, and, more than anything, it wasn’t singing. What got me through it? I knew Joy would let me to sing for the last 15 minutes of every lesson.”
When Turner reached 12, Hamilton stunned her, saying she couldn’t teach her any longer.
“She told me she had taken me as far as she could; after all, she was a piano instructor,” she said. “She wanted me to seek out someone more advanced.”
At that point, she became a Senior Choir member at Lime Rock Baptist, and also sang for glee clubs at Lincoln middle and high schools. At 14, she hooked up with Susan Rodgers, a Rhode Island College music professor, who helped her become involved with the Rhode Island National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Rogers also introduced her to the New England Conservatory, where she began taking a Master’s Class under the direction of famed Prof. Mark Pearson.
During her tenure at LHS, she spent summers singing with other “prodigies” chasing the same dream at the prestigious Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J. Following her Lincoln High graduation in 2001, she claimed furthering her education at Westminster was a natural choice.
“I started working with Prof. Laura Brooks-Rice, and I sang in the choir there,” Turner stated. “That’s where my love for singing in large ensembles really took flight. One daily requirement was to sing with one or two choirs for two hours every day, and that didn’t include more piano lessons.
“One of the highlights: My sophomore year, 2003, I traveled to Florence, Italy as a soloist,” she added. “I went with a few of my peers and Laura, as well as Prof. Julian Rodescu, and we did so to study the Italian language, perfect our diction. We were there for six weeks that summer, and it was during a heat wave. That doesn’t do wonders for one’s voice.
“I remember Laura telling me that, in order to be a professional singer, you have to be able to love your own voice, that the sound of it should make you yourself cry. I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think that what my voice had to offer others necessarily was better than anyone else.”

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Turner claimed she felt she angered and disappointed Brooks-Rice.
“She said I had one of the strongest voices in my studio,” she said. “I started thinking about it. I knew I couldn’t have a professional career if I didn’t believe what she wanted me to believe. Singing to me is so personal; it’s an intimate instrument. If someone doesn’t like it, I can’t change it because it’s ME.”
After the first semester of her junior year, she left school, but then decided to return, figuring she had made a mistake.
“When I went back, my initial worries were confirmed,” she noted. “It was so depressing to me. I wasn’t getting any happiness from it. At school, I was performing as (an opera) character, and that wasn’t me. I could’ve become a professional, but I chose against it for a variety of reasons. It wasn’t me, and I also was 75 pounds heavier than I am now. I didn’t have the confidence that was necessary. I’m also a family girl, and I wanted to come home.
“A friend of mine in the same studio, Kiera Duffy, was one of my idols; she was so phenomenal,” she continued. “She’s traveling all over the world and loves it. That’s what she was born to do, but that’s not me.”
She never graduated from Westminster, instead returning home in December 2004. About eight months later, she decided to offer half-hour voice lessons to anyone interested.
“I don’t charge very much,” she said. “I just want to give something back.”
Turner, who admits she’s mighty busy with three jobs (she considers working out a fourth), also adores singing at weddings and funerals, and twice a year conducts her own concerts to benefit her church.
“My favorite is performing at funerals, because I know people are listening,” she stated. “I know they’re looking for meaning, and I think I provide that … I’m really happy doing what I am now. Music is supposed to be fun.”