Hilary Landfried may or may not be one in a million.

The newly minted Hickory High School graduate knows that a career as an opera singer comes to only a few, and is practical enough to acknowledge that she may not be one of the chosen few.

“I know there’s like a one in a million chance that this is actually going to happen for me,” said Ms. Landfried, 18.

But, she also knows that it won’t happen if she doesn’t take a shot.

“I think that it’s all determination, ambition, focus,” she said. “In my mind, I’m like, if I keep with it for a while, I’ll be able to do it. There are several things I like, but opera is something I love.”

Ms. Landfried said her interest in opera “makes no sense.” Although her voice is “naturally operatic,” her parents are classic rock fans of the ilk of Elton John, and she only started listening to classical music because she could buy classical compact discs cheaply.

“I fell in love with it,” she said.

A lyric soprano with a three-octave range, Ms. Landfried studies with Mary Beth LoScalzo of Hermitage and is a cantor at Notre Dame Church, Hermitage, but most of her singing experience is with choral groups. She calls choral singing “kind of hard” because she is trying to contribute to an ensemble and allows the conductor to decide how the vowels should sound, when to stop singing and what kind of emotion to put into the performance. Those are decisions she wants to make for herself.

“I have control issues,” she said.

She goes into opera with disadvantages in several respects. There is little, if any, opportunity for a young person to sing opera outside of a voice lesson in this area, and she has had limited experience with the languages of opera, most notably Italian, German and French.

She is an honor Spanish student, but acknowledged, “It’s not really going to be a massive help.”

She wants to try to teach herself Italian this summer, and will be required to study German at Gettysburg College, where she has enrolled in a dual major of history and vocal music.

“That’s going to be a real downfall for me,” she said of languages, “because people who come from other countries are more fluent and don’t have an accent.”

Ms. Landfried has acted in school plays and took acting classes when she was younger, which gives her some preparation for the dramatic aspects of opera.

“It’s something I need to put more work into,” she said. “I’ve put my emphasis on singing. I definitely need both.”