When Amelia Baisley, a young mother of two, runs through daily errands, such as carpooling or grocery shopping, the humming you may hear is not just a way for her to pass the time. It's work.

Ms. Baisley, 34, of Mt. Lebanon, who moved to Pittsburgh in 2004, is a soprano with an accomplished career in music. She is hoping that her recent success in an audition sponsored by the Pittsburgh Concert Society will be her entree as a soloist in the Pittsburgh cultural scene.

Ms. Baisley, who performs under the stage name Amelia D'Arcy, was one of six winners of the society's majors auditions held April 17-18. Thirty-one local musicians performed for these auditions.

"Amelia's performance was very solid," said Antoinette Tuma, also of Mt. Lebanon and a vice president of the society. "She has a great stage presence and a wonderful voice."

The society was formed 65 years ago, Ms. Tuma said, to give talented local musicians an opportunity to perform in a formal concert. The society holds auditions annually, one for young artists and one, the majors, for adults. Winners are then presented in a formal concert open to the public, usually attended by about 175 people.

To audition in the majors, musicians must live within a 75-mile radius of the city of Pittsburgh, and must create a 30-minute performance that meets specific criteria. Singers like Ms. Baisley must perform in at least two foreign languages and must include at least one American composition in their program.

A respected musician from outside the area judges performers anonymously, Ms. Tuma said. Adjudicating the auditions this year was Jeffrey Sharkey, the director of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Winners of the major auditions are awarded $1,000 in addition to the opportunity to perform in a public concert.

Ms. Baisley's concert will be held Nov. 26. Concerts showcasing the other winners will be held Sept. 21 and Oct. 26. All concerts are held at the Kresge Recital Hall at Carnegie Mellon University.

"I am very excited to enter the Pittsburgh music scene in a new way," Ms. Baisley said. She said that she is hoping the concert at Carnegie Mellon will propel her singing career in the Pittsburgh area.

For her audition, Ms. Baisley sang pieces by Mozart, Verdi, Schubert, Chausson, Poulenc, Barber and Gershwin. The pieces play on themes of youth, love and death, a sort of life cycle in miniature, Ms. Baisley said.

She will perform these same pieces during her concert in November.

Ms. Baisley describes her voice as a "spinto" soprano, which means it is capable of flexibility in range and can transition abruptly from low to high notes.

Born in Pittsburgh -- her father's family is from Swissvale -- Ms. Baisley lived in various locations in her youth. Ms. Baisley had no formal musical training until she was accepted to the Baltimore School for the Arts.

Ms. Baisley continued to study voice privately and worked in administration at Columbia, until 2001. She met her husband, David, 35, at Columbia and they were married in 1995.

Mr. Baisley works at Carnegie Mellon University in computing services. The couple has two children, Thomas, 6, and Matthew, 4.

Ms. Baisley also performed aria and scene recitals in the Weill Recital Hall, an intimate auditorium in Carnegie Hall in New York.

She and her family decided to move to Pittsburgh because of the cost of living, housing stock, and quality public schools, Ms. Baisley said. She said that she wanted to scale back on her career while her boys were young, but now that they are older, she is able to dedicate more time to her singing and perform as a soloist.

Ms. Baisley has not, however, kept totally silent in recent years. For the past two seasons, she has sung with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, and in March of 2007, she sang a selection from Bellini's "Norma" with the River City Brass Band.

Much of her intense work is done silently in her head, Ms. Baisley said. "I think about a piece while I am grocery shopping or doing other things," she said.

Preparation can be very intense, she said. She estimates that she spends between 10 and 35 hours each week working on her music and she spent between seven and eight months preparing for her audition.

When not rehearsing, Ms. Baisley practices yoga--it helps her maintain a strong diaphragm and keep mental focus, she said--and she enjoys being outdoors with her family.

For more, visit www.pittsburghconcertsociety.org