ROCKLAND — When Angela Johnson, Oceanside Middle School’s music teacher, heard eight-year-old Elizabeth Robbins singing, she immediately thought the little girl was ready for voice lessons at Midcoast Music Academy in Rockland.

Elizabeth Robbins began her life as SiHan Wang in Guizhou, a province in South Central China in 2010. Her severely cleft lip and palate were difficult for the superstitious people of her village to accept. She lived covered up and unseen on the back of an assigned caretaker who carried the baby while working. The women of this remote village sang their stories and histories while harvesting rice. Deprived of light, comfort, and human interaction, SiHan Wang learned to sing.

In October of 2011 the Chinese Government freed her for adoption. By October 2012, through an American adoption agency, Linda Robbins, and SiHan Wang found each other.

Sihan, now Elizabeth Robbins, started the first of her surgeries just four months after arriving in Maine. Her surgeons at Shriner’s Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, built a jaw out of bone marrow from her hip, repositioned tissue, rebuilt the roof of her mouth and repositioned teeth. Using pharayngeal flap surgery, Elizabeth learned to make sound, one consonant at a time.

Elizabeth’s mother, Linda Robbins, an English teacher at Oceanside Middle School, had Elizabeth with her one day when Angela Johnson heard Elizabeth singing. Angela, who knew about the nonprofit organization, Raising the Blues, Ltd., got things rolling.

Together, Ruth Atherton, founder of Raising the Blues, Tom Ulichny, creative director of Midcoast Music Academy, and Paul Benjamin, producer of the North Atlantic Blues Festival, collaborated to support Elizabeth. Last August, Elizabeth was awarded the Raising The Blues award on stage at the North Atlantic Blues Festival, and was given a scholarship for voice lessons at Midcoast Music Academy.

Linda is grateful for the generous gift of lessons for Elizabeth. She says, “Music is the great equalizer. No one notices her scars when she is making beautiful music with her voice.”

Now, once a week she works with Abi Nash, one of the Academy’s voice teachers, to practice singing, reading music, and composing at the MCMA studios on Main Street in Rockland.

Abi said, ”Elizabeth has a natural talent for music. She’s full of curiosity and life, and is always eager to try something new or experiment in some new way. She works hard at everything I give her, and she has a natural ear that allows her to quickly pick up the tune of new songs.”

Raising the Blues, Ltd. is a 501©3, nonprofit public charity, founded in 2009. Its mission is to bring music, instruments and lessons to children with unique life challenges – including medical, physical, education, and emotional. Primarily through the use of Blues music, they seek to raise the spirits, abilities, and aspirations of children who can benefit from the music of hope and healing.

Learn more at www.RaisingtheBlues.org.

Midcoast Music Academy, also a 501©3 charity, was founded in 2012 as a community music school. Its mission is to bring quality music instruction to students of all ages and skill levels. MCMA believes students should learn to play what they love and love what they play.

Learn more about Midcoast Music Academy at www.midcoastmusicacademy.org.