Blame it all on the “Jellicle Ball.”

Amanda Lewis’ roundabout trip to her receptionist’s desk in the foyer of the mayor’s office on Grant Street started when she saw a production of the musical “Cats” at the Lincoln Theater in Washington, D.C., when she was 3 or 4.

“That’s when I declared I wanted to be a dancer. I just wanted to be on the stage from that moment on,” she said.

By day, Ms. Lewis guards the entrance to Mayor Bill Peduto’s offices, routing an endless stream of calls to city departments and shepherding a parade of visitors from all walks of life in and out of talks with the mayor or his staff. Twice a week though, she braves the rush-hour traffic for lessons at the McCandless home of Rosendo “Ross” Dacal, a retired lawyer and former professional opera singer.

Ms. Lewis, 33, moved to Pittsburgh four years ago expressly to study under Mr. Dacal, a native of Cuba whose brief career as a singer was cut short by an illness. She hopes to follow in his footsteps.

“By the time I was 16, I decided I wanted to be an opera singer,” said Ms. Lewis, a graduate of the Baltimore School for the Arts who has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Howard University in Washington, D.C. “What I love about opera is I feel that there are no short cuts. You have to train hard and you have to be disciplined and you have to be extremely intelligent and just consistent.”

There’s also no “auto-tuning in opera,” she added.

“Most opera houses, you’re still not miked. So it’s not fake. There’s no smoke and mirrors,“ Ms. Lewis said. ”There’s an integrity. ... When you hear someone who’s great, you know they’re great and you know they’re great because they had to work really, really hard.”

Ms. Lewis, a former beauty queen who won Miss Black District of Columbia USA in 2008 and Miss District of Columbia International in 2009, was recommended to Mr. Dacal by another one of his students: Sonja McCord, a Duquesne University graduate from Monroeville and former Miss Black West Virginia USA who roomed with Ms. Lewis at the 2008 pageant.

“I could recognize that her voice was really beautiful,” Ms. McCord said. “When we met, we instantly clicked as friends.”

Ms. Lewis gave up her apartment in D.C., where she’d been working as a bartender and singing on the side, to move in with her mother in Baltimore. Once every other week, she dropped her mother off at work in Hagerstown and drove to Mr. Dacal’s home for a lesson before heading back to Maryland.

“I began to test her voice,” said Mr. Dacal, 70, who was sitting at the piano during one of Ms. Lewis’ lessons this month and played a succession of single notes from low to high to illustrate his initial assessment. “There was nothing, nothing, nothing ... and then at the very high notes it was incredibly brilliant. I said ‘If we can get those notes down the range, then that’s what it is.’ ”

That required a bigger commitment, however. Mr. Dacal read in a newspaper that the August Wilson Center was auditioning for fellowships and encouraged Ms. Lewis to apply. The cash award allowed her to move to Pittsburgh, where she also landed “administrative and creative support” from the center.

“Amanda’s great. She’s someone who adds a lot to the landscape,” said Shaunda Miles, then the August Wilson Center’s vice president of programming and cultivation and now director of public relations for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. “It’s very difficult to try to be an artist and work full time. I’m hoping she’ll be able to plant some roots here in the city and be welcomed with open arms in terms of her musicianship. ... I almost feel that she’s a hidden treasure and it’s just a matter of time before people recognize this great talent and gift to the city.”

Since then, Ms. Lewis has worked as a substitute teacher, bartender, clerical specialist and now receptionist to the mayor, though her most cherished labor has taken place in Mr. Dacal’s living room, where an electric candelabra lights the sheet music on his piano and framed photos of his performances in Europe hang on the wall. There, student and teacher have worked to pair Ms. Lewis’ power with a technique to match. Mr. Dacal brooks no “crutches,” like sips of water between arias, either.

“I don’t bring water. When I have long days at work and I’m exhausted, we sing anyway,” said Ms. Lewis, who has sung concerts and for churches but is still angling for her first full part in an opera production. “He wants me to learn that I can sing through being tired if I have proper technique. ... Your body and the voice is just a well-oiled machine and eventually you get to a point where you don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re going to hit that note. It’s there.”

There are even moments of “euphoria.”

“The breath is working and the body is working and everything is working together. It’s just an absolutely glorious feeling,” she said.

Mr. Dacal said his pupil has progressed, filling out her range and developing a “solid voice.” So solid, in fact, that sometimes he asks her to step back from the piano and into the dining room.

“I told her she needs to pay for my eardrum insurance,” Mr. Dacal joked. “She doesn’t compare in power to anyone else. I have beautiful lyric sopranos but Amanda has a very special voice.”

With several big auditions and a wedding planned, 2015 could be a big year for Ms. Lewis, though that’s not to say she’s too eager to ditch her day job.

“The office gets phone calls for everything you can imagine,” she said. “It’s a job that requires a lot of patience. ... Even though it’s challenging, the people I work with are amazing people. They’re nice people. they treat me well. I’m not a manager, I’m not a chief. I’m not a director, but even the mayor has told me he appreciates me.”

Kevin Acklin, Mr. Peduto’s chief of staff, said he was negotiating a development deal this month when he heard Ms. Lewis strumming a ukulele and signing “Feliz Navidad” for a group of visitors.

“She is a very talented and hardworking employee and has one of the hardest jobs in our office. We receive literally hundreds of calls and visits a week, and she handles her interactions with the public with humor and grace. My office is adjacent to her workstation, and I have had important meetings interrupted by her performing solos for visitors, often children, but it’s a welcome break from my daily workload,” Mr. Acklin said. “We love her.”

Robert Zullo: rzullo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909. Twitter: @rczullo.