When Madeline Hogan learned “Stardust,” she wasn’t preparing for a competition or adding another song to her repertoire. She was learning it for her grandfather.

He was sick at the time, and “Stardust” was his favorite song. Madeline began learning the jazz standards he loved so she could sing them for him at home. Somewhere along the way, his music became hers.

Today, the 16-year-old Montverde Academy student performs those songs with a polished voice and thoughtful phrasing, making familiar tunes feel uniquely her own. It’s a confidence that has taken years to develop.

Madeline has loved music almost from the very beginning. Before she was born, her dad would place earbuds on her mom’s stomach and play music for her. By age 6, she was taking singing lessons. But despite her love of singing, some of her earliest rehearsals terrified her, leaving her shaking and in tears.

You’d never know it watching her perform now. She credits her teachers and coaches with gently pushing her to continue, helping her gain confidence in her voice and herself. Her grandfather was part of that cheering section, too, rarely missing a performance and always ready with an opinion afterward. “He would always have a critique for me, but I knew he meant it from a loving place,” Madeline remembers with a smile. Today, there’s little trace of the young singer who once shook through rehearsals in tears.

Madeline’s training has helped her become comfortable performing for crowds, some as large as 1,000 to 2,000 people. Since seventh grade, she has been a member of the Montverde Academy Conservatory, where she receives classical voice training. For the past two years, she has also been among 40 high school students selected from across the country to take part in the Songbook Academy, an intensive eight-day program led by Grammy-nominated singer Michael Feinstein.

The program focuses on standards from the Great American Songbook, making her selection especially fitting. These were the songs she had grown up loving with her grandfather.

“After he passed, I think I started just listening to the music more as a way of connection,” she says. “My grandpa is my biggest connection to jazz, but more than that, I think of it as a part of myself now.”

Compared with her classical training, which emphasizes technique and precision, jazz gives Madeline something entirely different.

“I love how it’s so free,” she explains. “Just the idea of making a song your own, never getting bored. Jazz artists can change it up every time they sing it because that’s the point. It forces you to stay in the moment while you’re performing. You never know what’s going to happen next, and I think that’s special.”

Singing has also offered Madeline a way to connect with older adults in the community. She and her sister, who is an aerial silks performer, put on shows together at senior living communities.

“Whenever I sing for them, they always have this look in their eyes like it’s meaningful to them,” Madeline says. She remembers one audience member telling her, “You know this music isn’t just music to us. It brings us back to our childhood.”

“That’s special to me that I can give them that gift,” Madeline says.