Liberty music student and cancer survivor returns to hospital to provide healing through opera

Six years after being diagnosed and treated for brain cancer at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., Liberty University student Lydia Sutton walked through the hospital doors to partake, for the first time, in something other than treatment or tests — the opportunity to give back through opera, an art form that provided hope and beauty in some of her most difficult moments.

When Sutton was in the eighth grade, she went to the pediatrician for intense migraines and sickness. After the pediatrician dismissed the issue and referred her to a neurologist, the neurologist discovered that Sutton had no left peripheral vision out of either eye. Sutton was immediately sent to the emergency room at Children’s National Hospital, where an MRI showed a tumor behind the optics nerves on the right side of her brain.

Four years of treatment followed, including brain surgery, chemotherapy, and trial medication. She said the hospital became a second home to her, and the doctors became like family.

“I really grew up with the doctors; they were invested in my life,” she said. “They wanted to really create not just a treatment plan but also a quality-of-life plan and (give me) as normal of a life as (I could) get, where I could still go and enjoy things that any teenager or high schooler or middle schooler would want to enjoy.”

She said her faith played a large role during her treatment, especially through her church, which provided meals, gifts, notes of encouragement, and more.

“The Lord came alongside me and sent me friends and church members, and He prepared me and gave me peace in a situation that would normally be really stressful or scary to someone that young.”

The surgery removed 40 percent of the tumor, and through treatment it experienced minor shrinkage and appeared to stop growing. While the doctors cannot confirm completely that the tumor has stopped growing altogether, Sutton could stop treatment and move forward with just continual surveillance of the tumor instead. Over the past couple years, she has returned to the hospital every few months for check-ups, and the doctors and staff remain an active and involved part of her life.

Sutton, who grew up in a musical family and is now a music education student at Liberty, began studying opera in high school and knew she wanted to pursue it professionally. When she started looking at colleges, she considered Liberty due to only being four hours from the hospital. She also had family members who taught there and friends who were students. But once she attended a College For A Weekend herself, she fell in love with the university.

“We knew (Liberty) was a really unique school with the environment, the professors, and the Christian worldview,” she said. “But when I visited the School of Music, it was just such a gorgeous, gorgeous music school. I got to talk to the professors and sit in classes, and I saw how much they cared for the students.”

“It wasn’t just ‘You need to learn,’ it was ‘We want to help you learn, and we want you to be the best that you can be. We’re here to help you reach your goals.’ That’s something that’s really important to me because I want to grow, and I needed an environment that would help me with that. That solidified Liberty for me.”

Sutton said her courses and the faculty have pushed her to thrive and excel, especially Dr. Samantha Miller, coordinator of vocal studies and professor of voice, who directed “Don Giovanni,” which Sutton performed in last spring. (The School of Music traditionally performs one opera a year. Sutton also performed in “Die Fledermaus” in 2024.)

“I’ve had directors in the past who cast people and then don’t put any investment in the cast,” Sutton said. “(Dr. Miller) invests so much in the cast and gave me so many opportunities. Being able to thrive in an environment where I know it’s OK to mess up and not be perfect, but they’re still going to pour into me and give me opportunities, that’s just helped me grow so much in the way I will teach in the future.”

“I have never worked with a more committed actress and student than Lydia,” Miller said about Sutton.  “She brought a level of excellence that really motivated the entire cast.  Anything I asked her to do, she took it to the next level. Lydia is the type of student who is serious about the tasks in front of her. She’s lived through so much already, that she takes every opportunity the Lord gives her seriously.”

One of those opportunities came closer to home when she was asked to be a part of the Opera Italiana program, run by Italian conductor Alvise Casellati. The program sends opera singers to major cities to perform for the public at parks and also at hospitals, to provide comfort and a special treat for patients. When the doctors who have kept in touch with Sutton over the years heard the program was coming there, they knew she’d be a perfect fit.

On June 13, Sutton performed two songs solo: an upbeat German song titled “Lachen Und Weinen” by Franz Schubert and a Vincenzo Bellini piece titled “Il Fervido Desiderio,” a piece she said inspired her love for opera. The event was featured in a Washington Post article, highlighting the light, hope, and healing Sutton and other singers brought to the hospital.

“It was a surreal experience,” Sutton said. “I’ve been there for years, so it’s not like (going there) was unfamiliar, but the reason I was coming back was different. It combined things that I love, where I’m getting to advocate and reach out to patients and be an example, but I was also getting to sing opera and music. It was a really incredible experience.”

Sutton said she also loved seeing the patients and doctors experience opera, some for the first time.

“(The patients and doctors) got to experience a really unique type of art in such a unique situation,” she said. “That was hopefully healing for them, and it was a little healing for me too, getting to express that and share it with them.”