By Elizabeth F. McNamara

A year to the day after Bianca Sperduti auditioned to sing the National Anthem for a Boston Bruins game (somehow, she didn’t get it), the Red Sox called to see if she could sing the National Anthem at Fenway. For them.

Uh, yes please.

Sperduti’s birthday is Saturday, Aug. 17. She’s singing the National Anthem for the Red Sox on Sunday, Aug. 18. 

“This is the best birthday gift ever,” she said Thursday. “Thank you, God, for this gift.” 

Sperduti has been wowing crowds ever since she and Ellery Bonham* delivered a jaw-dropping rendition of Wicked’s “For Good” at the Cole Middle School graduation in 2007. To be honest, she was probably wowing people long before that, but that was the first instance this particular reporter caught her act. 

Vocal check at Fenway on Thursday, with Nia Ashleigh (left) and Bianca Sperduti. Ashleigh is singing the anthem Friday night; Sperduti sings Sunday afternoon.

Sperduti finds her passion in singing, although she did earn a physics degree from URI before pursuing music full time in 2015. Singing came easy to her, but her time as a singer for wedding bands showed her she still had much to learn. 

“I didn’t think I would need to work on my voice as much as I did,” Sperduti admitted. ‘I did a lot of shaping and refining. I needed to learn how to pace myself.” 

For the past several months, she’s been working on her own EP, traveling to Los Angeles and Nashville from her home base in East Greenwich (aka her parents’ house). The plan is to move to Nashville this fall.

Sperduti has found a lot of inspiration through her Christian faith. Recently, a song she performed back up vocals for, Natalie Grant’s “Even Louder,” was nominated for Christian Dove Music Award’s Best Rap/Hip Hop Song.

It’s more, Sperduti said, than she could ever have asked for. Still, singing is the vehicle for reaching her primary audience: children and young people who need some support.

“I got bullied a lot,” she said. “I know what it feels like to be invisible. I was going through that when I was little but now there’s social media. Everything is amplified.”

Sperduti has spoken with students at schools in Providence and West Warwick. 

“It shows me it really doesn’t take much to help a kid. We just need more mentors, more people my age,” she said.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. at Fenway Park, Sperduti will get to reach a bigger audience. It’s a dream. After all, Sperduti says, how can you grow up in New England and not be a Red Sox fan? 

*Ellery’s trajectory has taken her to her own Nashville singing career.

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