Singer and songwriter Laura Bryna, a Mount Airy, MD, native, first got hooked on country music while listening to country radio during long drives to a Washington, D.C., hospital to visit her brother, who was in a six-month coma following a brain aneurysm; Bryna's visits also inspired her later tireless support of the Make a Wish Foundation. She attended Philadelphia's University of the Arts, studying acting, singing, and dancing, and following her senior recital, Bryna was selected to appear in the cast of the Broadway-bound musical Rasputin and appeared on the subsequent cast recording. Following graduation, she moved to Nashville, enrolling in music classes at Belmont College and landing an internship at Sony Tree Publishing, later moving to a similar position at Dreamworks Publishing, jobs that gave a keen insight into the behind-the-scenes business of music