AnnaMaria Cardinalli

AnnaMaria Cardinalli ( AnnaMaria Cardinalli-Padilla; born 1979) is an American military investigator, classical guitarist, and operatic contralto.

Education Cardinalli graduated from high school at the age of 14 and college at the age of 18. Her M.A. was awarded at age 20, and, at the age of 24, she became the youngest person to complete a doctoral degree at the University of Notre Dame. She received a B.A. in Performing Arts from St. Mary's College of California, her M.A. in the Great Books Program from St. John's College in Santa Fe, Her doctoral research focused upon the music and worship practices of the Penitentes, a secretive Catholic religious society with roots in medieval Spain.

Also at 14, Cardinalli published the nonfiction book Why Wait? Graduate! (Northwest Publishing, 1995), intended to assist other students seeking early graduation from high school.

Musical career Cardinalli, performing as "AnnaMaria", Her performances include a solo recital at the Kennedy Center, appearances for the Prince of Spain and Pope John Paul II, and multiple performances of the Concierto de Aranjuez with various orchestras.

Operatic roles of note have included the First Norn in Wagner's Gotterdammerung at New York's Lincoln Center and La Zia Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica, which Cardinalli has performed frequently in the United States and Europe.

A characteristic of Cardinalli's career is the extent to which she donates proceeds and performs benefit engagements to assist Catholic, humanitarian, and veterans' causes. In 2015, examples included a filmed concert benefiting the preservation of San Miguel Mission, the oldest church in the U.S., which airs frequently on the global cable network EWTN (with a reach of 250 million homes in 140 countries), and a New York performance of Elgar's Sea Pictures, a rarely performed song cycle for contralto with Orchestra Amadeus to benefit the anti-human-trafficking efforts of Covenant House with homeless youth. By 2017, she announced that all proceeds from her future musical endeavors will be donated to the charitable ends of a Catholic organization and works currently in outreach to the homeless.

Cardinalli highly credits Janice Pantazelos as her vocal instructor and Craig Alden Dell as her guitaristic inspiration.

Working as AnnaMaria, Cardinalli has released 12 CD's.

Investigative career Independent of her more public musical career, Cardinalli's previous employers include the FBI and the Joint Special Operations Command, as well as the U.S. Marine Corps, working in Helmand Province, Afghanistan while serving on a Human Terrain Team. She is the owner of D'Angelo Global Solutions, a consulting firm functioning as a Private Military Company (PMC) and security operation. Cardinalli is a licensed private investigator. Cardinalli's report led to the announcement that "NATO officials have been aware of the recruitment problem for some time, and the former military commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, issued an order in 2010 warning troops to be on the lookout for under-age recruits."

By 2011, international pressure, significantly fueled by the attention to Cardinalli’s report, led Afghanistan to enter into a historic agreement with the United Nations to “to stop the recruitment of children into its police forces and ban the common practice of boys being used as sex slaves by military commanders.”

While the sexuality issue was leaked, and is therefore the most publicized aspect of her investigative career, it is not indicative of its extent. Cardinalli has been associated with the inception of the U.S. Marine Corps Female Engagement Team, the first official involvement of women in an operational capacity "outside the wire", and served as a member of, and mentor to, the first team. Her report was covered by Joel Brinkley in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Examiner, CNN, Fox News and other media outlets.

However, some high-ranking military officials continued to support Cardinalli’s original condemnation of the pedophilia issue as both a moral and critical security concern. U.S. Marine General John R. Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, did not endorse the handbook and rejected a proposed forward drafted by Army officials in his name. “He does not approve of its contents,” according to a military spokesman quoted in the Wall Street Journal.

While listing her credentials as a professor of National Security and Intelligence studies, Cardinalli does acknowledge having worked "as a contractor on numerous intelligence, training, defense, and counterintelligence/security projects."

Academic appointments and awards Cardinalli has served on the faculty of the Graduate Program of Intelligence and National Security Studies at American Military University.

Personal life In the 2018 EWTN program Enduring Legacy, which is hosted and features performances by Cardinalli, she refers to herself as a member of an Association of the Faithful seeking to become a Society of Apostolic Life in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe. (This lengthy progression of titles is typical of the Catholic canonical process for the establishment of new religious orders.)

She announced taking vows in the Association, called Familia Victricis, in 2017. According to the Principles of Foundation of the emerging society, the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience will bind her to donate all earnings from future work to the ends of the order, which, among other goals, seeks to establish an orphanage for the rescue and recovery of children exploited through current conflicts and crises as well as American children at risk for exploitation. AnnaMaria Cardinalli, Crossing the Wire: One Woman's Journey into the Hidden Dangers of the Afghan War. Casemate Publishers, 2013. Cardinalli-Padilla, AnnaMaria. El Llanto: A Liturgiological Journey Into the Identity and Theology of the Northern New Mexican Penitentes and Their Spiritual Siblings. Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Notre Dame, 2004. Annamaria Christina Padilla. Why Wait? Graduate. Northwest Publishing, 1995.

Discography Global Guitar: A Prayer for Peace Enduring Legacy (DVD) Saving San Miguel Mission (DVD) Legado y Leyenda (DVD) Flamenco Steel AnnaMaria