At 6 months old, Holly Connor started playing the piano using her toes. At age 3, her vibrato hit when “Stay (I Missed You)” by Lisa Loeb played during a car ride. One year later, she began piano lessons. At age 7, acting lessons. At age 10, her first musical. Connor has perfect pitch, can play a song after hearing it just once and can make a room shake with the power of her vibrato.
Connor is diagnosed with septo-optic dysplasia, panhypopituitarism and autism. Septo-optic dysplasia causes visual impairment, while panhypopituitarism is a life-threatening condition that causes hormone deficiency. These parts of Connor’s life help make her a musical savant.
Connor’s musical ‘savant-ism’ is a combination of her learning disability and exceptional musical ability. Connor performs in musicals, plays and operas, but she isn’t a typical performer. She has an inability to mess up. Connor has perfect pitch while she sings and impeccable memory while she dances, acts and plays piano. Along with these talents, she excels at math and learning foreign languages.
“A savant is like a spectrum,” Connor’s mother, Katie Sears, explains. “For Holly, it’s patterns. Those are like her superpowers.”
The first-year student at Webster University is described by teachers and friends alike as cheerful, hard-working, inspiring and possessing indescribable talent. Connor knows it, too.
“I’m so impressive,” Connor said, after singing “Everywhere I Look” by Molly Carew.
The song, which she is practicing for a voice class, is printed in a book of Braille sheet music. Sears carries around four of these books about the size of two textbooks sewn together. Connor needs one book for piano, one for voice, and two for choir. The process of printing one book takes about 50 to 60 hours.
In order to play piano, Connor reads music in four measure intervals. With her left hand, she reads the Braille music for the right-hand piano portion. At the same time, she plays the right-hand part she is reading, switching hands after four measures. After playing each part once, she plays them together and now has those measures memorized. Connor knows the full song by heart after one week of practicing.
When Connor was 10 years old, she and her family moved from Seattle to St. Louis. Sears instantly made it her mission to build Connor a community in their new city, which led to voice and piano professors at Webster. Julie Kelsheimer, associate adjunct professor of voice, taught Connor private voice lessons for eight years until her college audition.
“From the first time I met Holly and her family, I knew they were special,” Kelsheimer said. “They dedicate their life to Holly… to her talent and to her potential. Her mom’s ability to get Holly every resource she needs is incredible. Holly has a team of support.”
Paul Pagano taught Connor at Gateway Center for Performing Arts, a school she performed for in middle and high school. When Pagano met her, he was in awe of her work ethic.
“As [Holly’s peers] saw Holly learning music quickly and accurately, they wanted to emulate her work ethic and memorize their music quickly so everyone could take greater steps forward, faster to enhance the storytelling,” Pagano said.
Pagano is one of many directors who noted Connor’s quick ability to learn choreography. To learn dances and movements on stage, Connor is often paired with one of her classmates. She feels the movement or facial expression to replicate that in her body.
Abby Hoelscher is Connor’s self-proclaimed best friend from middle and high school. Connor is Hoelscher’s biggest inspiration. Hoelscher first-handedly witnessed Connor’s mobility improve on stage, going from always having a partner to being alone. She also recounts a time when Connor had grown off the stage.
“There was a tornado on the night of our senior prom, which included not only a dramatic shift of scheduling plans but also running through the pouring rain and climbing eleven flights of stairs all while dolled up in our fancy dresses,” Hoelscher said. “Holly was able to take a deep breath and let others take control, whereas in years past this could have been a huge point of overwhelming stress and anxiety for her.”
Hoelscher credits Connor with helping find her passion as she now studies at Vanderbilt University to become an inclusive classroom teacher.
Connor has made tremendous achievements in her career, singing the national anthem at St. Louis Blues and St. Louis City SC games and being told by Kristin Chenoweth that she has the voice that needs to be heard. Connor has even more to accomplish as her wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation to be an animated character in a musical movie is being granted by Disney.
“All we know is Disney did pick it up and it is in the process, so now I’m just waiting for them to call us,” Sears said.
Despite all of her success, Connor is aiming for more. She eventually wants to be a singer for the St. Louis Symphony, and, of course, to be famous.
“She doesn’t think she’s famous enough yet,” Sears said with a laugh.
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