Rockford cancer survivor nearly gave up singing. Now she’s back in the swing of things

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our free newsletter

Sophia Walsh taught herself to sing again, now she’s teaching others

ROCKFORD — First, Sophia Walsh lost her voice as she knew it. Then, she lost her love to perform.

Theater had been a constant for Walsh since age 7, but at the start of her senior year in high school she underwent throat surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. She said the voice she had trained her entire life was not the same after surgery. She lost confidence, and after high school she retreated to behind-the-scenes work.

“I didn’t sing for three whole years,” Walsh, now 23, said on social media. “I stopped growing and challenging myself because I knew it would never be the same.”

More news: Live music, nationally touring comedians and more things to do this week in the Rockford area

Nearly six years after her surgery, Walsh will take the stage again this weekend for The Studio’s production of “The Girls of Summer” at Rockford University’s Maddox Theatre. But she and some of her castmates say she was right about her voice.

It isn’t the same — it’s better.

“She definitely became a better vocalist because of that time and dedication that she devoted to teaching herself,” said castmate Bailey Huftalin, who plays the socially awkward and energetic Milie Fritz in the play. “It’s really, really special to see her where she is now. … There was a huge wave of determination that hit her at one point and it just thrust her forward.”

After retraining her voice, Walsh is stepping into one of the lead roles of the musical that tells a fictionalized account of the Rockford Peaches first season in 1943.

The musical, written by her parents Adam and Courtney Walsh, debuted in 2022 and is being put on again to celebrate The Studio’s 10th anniversary season.

“I see her laughing and smiling, and it’s like getting a piece of her back,” said Courtney Walsh, who is also directing the play. “I didn’t think about how much it would affect me emotionally until I started seeing her and realizing, I missed that. I missed seeing her do this.”

More news: Michelle Williams inspires, entertains in return to Rockford for storytelling gala

Walsh was diagnosed on Sept. 5, 2018, with papillary thyroid carcinoma, the most common type of thyroid cancer. It was discovered during a routine checkup before the then 17-year-old started her senior year at Rockford Christian. The tumor, which was so big doctors spotted it from the outside, was removed 20 days later in a seven-and-a-half hour surgery.

“My tumor was actually pushing up against my vocal cards, so over time my vocal range started to shrink,” Walsh said. “When it was removed, I had taught myself to sing around it, then I had to reteach myself how to sing without it.”

Walsh still performed twice more her senior year: First as Mrs. Banks in “Mary Poppins” and then as Jane in “Tarzan.”

“I remember vividly watching Sophia work through what she was working through,” said Huftalin, a 2014 Rockford Christian graduate who was on the directing team for “Tarzan.” “Just watching her fight her brain, because her brain is telling her one thing and we’re telling her another.”

Walsh said she finally stepped away from performing after a theater teacher at North Central College told her during her freshman year that something was wrong with her vocal cords. Walsh said she recognizes now that there wasn’t, and the instructor just wasn’t equipped to coach someone through recovery.

“I was very frustrated that it didn’t feel the same and it didn’t sound the same,” she said. “It was almost like starting from square one.”

Walsh transferred to Northern Illinois University, where she graduated in 2023, and started singing again in her car during the commute between Rockford and DeKalb.

“I really feel like that was the thing that made her go, oh wait, maybe I do like this still,” Courtney Walsh said.

Walsh is now an English teacher set to begin teaching at her alma mater of Rockford Christian this coming school year.

In theater, she remained largely behind the scenes after high school. But meanwhile, she trained and studied various approaches to improving her voice.

Now, she’s passing on those same routines to students she teachers as a vocal coach for The Studio.

“I basically retaught myself using these techniques,” Walsh said. “The techniques that I taught myself I can now give to my students.”

It was through teaching that Walsh said she realized she missed performing. This week she’s doing both, with some of her students as cast members in “The Girls of Summer.”

“A lot of the kids that we have now are too young to have seen me perform back when I was performing,” she said. “I had one student tell me, oh Miss Sophia I didn’t know you can sing.”

For most people in the audience this weekend, Walsh’s road back to the stage will go unnoticed. But it’s a rewarding return to the stage for people who know her story, Huftalin said.

For Walsh, she said wrapping the first set of performances last weekend was a relief.

“Those voices that tell you that you can’t do something, they don’t really go away until you’re actually doing it,” Walsh said. “Once the curtain dropped it was like, take that — I did it.”

If you go | ‘The Girls of Summer’

About: The Studio Rockford puts on this musical “The Girls of Summer,” which tells a fictionalized version of the Rockford Peaches first season in 1943.

When: 7 p.m. Friday, July 26, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, July 27 and 2 p.m. Sunday, July 28

Where: Rockford University Maddox Theatre, 5050 E. State St., Rockford

Cost: $14, $16 at the door; $12 ($14 at the door) for seniors or children 12 and younger

Tickets/info: Go HERE

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas