JBSA-Randolph youth performs at regional ceremony

Katryna Marttala, 16-year-old daughter of retired Air Force Col. David Marttala, formerly of JBSA-Randolph, recently sang the National Anthem for the Boys and Girls Club Southwest Region Military Youth of the Year Awards event June 24 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Antonio.

Marttala has performed in various events for the Randolph Youth Programs, including three years in a row at Famaganza and for

two consecutive years singing the national anthem at opening day ceremonies for youth baseball.

Marttala said singing is an activity she has enjoyed doing since she was a child.

“I started singing right before I started talking,” she said.

Marttala said she started taking singing lessons when she was four, when her father was assigned to then-Langley Air Force Base, Va. She said the vocal lessons started when she accompanied her 7-year-old sister to her piano lessons and would sing when her sister was playing the piano.

She started competing in music and talent competitions at the age of 10. In 2012, Marttala won the “U Got Talent” contest in the pre-teen group act category at JBSA-Randolph, performing “Set Fire to the Rain,” by singer Adele.

Her performance video from the competition was sent to the Air Force level and as a result, at the age of 13, she was selected along with her younger brother Logan, a guitarist, to perform in the opening act at the Tops In Blue concert that same year at Trinity University’s Laurie Auditorium in San Antonio.

Marttala, a Cibolo resident, will be a junior at the Northeast School of the Arts at Lee High School in the fall where she will major in musical theater.

After high school, Marttala said she hopes to go to Pace University in New York City to study musical theater and special education. Her future plans include opening a theater for performers with special needs.

“Performing is the best feeling in the world, especially when I can help people through doing what I love,” she said. “It is my dream to open a theater for performers with special needs. I love working with them because they have such great energy. They want to learn.”

Andrea Black, Randolph Youth Programs coordinator, said Marttala is a performer who loves what she does.

“She loves to perform,” Black said. “She has a wonderful voice. She has a very powerful voice. When she starts singing, everybody stops.”

Marttala’s most recent accomplishment was being selected to perform at the American Protégé International Vocal Competition at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall Dec. 19. Marttala, 16, was one of 14 first-place winners in the 15-17 age category selected from around the world who will perform in the vocal competition. The contestants were selected after submitting an online audition video to judges.