Artistic Statement

The following was a requirement in the Dawn U. Carnegie Hall Workshop I'm hoping to land!

The assignment:
Please attach a statement of approximately 1,000 words that answers the following questions:
1. What inspires you as an artist in your professional and personal lives?
2. What do you hope to gain from this experience?

“What can I do to live a better story?” This piercing question serves as the source of my two main inspirations as an artist: story and excellence.

Last summer, a Broadway play (Neil LaBute’s Reasons to Be Pretty) provided the defining balm I needed in a season of much pain. The choice its lead character made in the final scene spoke a healing word into my life that no other amount of counseling or journaling or time could mend. I found, after that play, I was free. Great art, done well, has time and again, brought health and freedom to me. As I grow as an artist and a person that loves art, I am equally inspired by the stories that others tell and compelled to tell a better, more excellent story with my life and gifts.

I started taking voice lessons at the age of 12 so that I could be the best musical theatre performer the San Francisco Bay Area had ever seen. With Les Misérables completely memorized, I was sure I was bound for Broadway. My path was diverted by my first voice teacher who happened to be a tenured chorister with the San Francisco Opera. She cleverly introduced me to opera and claimed me for her genre. I was thrilled by the challenges of singing opera, of learning languages and investigating the history of each composer. Somewhere in my mid-twenties, however, I lost my fuel for pursuing it with the passion I once had. I had concentrated so much on perfect sound projection and “sempre la voce” that I had lost the drama. At this point, my journey twisted back over to my first love, musical theatre, and I proudly called myself a “reformed opera singer!” I dove into acting classes, performing Chekhov scenes and monologues, dusted off my tap and jazz shoes, and built a book of musical theatre songs with which I connected. People often asked me why I left opera for theatre and I would explain that I loved the story-telling that musical theatre demands. In opera I was missing the story. In my time away I learned to love telling stories again, making choices before beautiful sounds and taking risks before rubatos.

Now as I am hitting my stride as a singer, I realize, of course, that stories can be told just as vibrantly in opera or art song as they are in theatre. In the past year I have reclaimed the genres of my original training and have re-ignited my passion for classical singing. Art songs have become the main course for my creative mind’s growing appetite and a favorite vehicle to express myself. I recently prepared and performed my first song recital in four years. I loved working with the masterful material and understanding the original context of the poetry while making the text mine. My own story was heightened because of these texts and songs.

Great story telling draws me to continue to tell stories of my own. I aim to touch others, to inspire them to tell their own stories choosing the risky road of vulnerability and living a life story better than they imagine for themselves. Music has such amazing power to do just that and I love that I can participate in others’ stories!


I never knew how long I would stay in New York when I moved here in 2007. I wasn’t sure if this would be a short-lived experiment, if I would hit the audition scene and rise and fall with its success. Success has come in waves with great opportunities to perform and class but most exciting has been the evolution of a found community of musicians of all shapes and stripes, although quite heavy on the singer-songwriters. Some of my dearest friends create music daily and share it often in the clubs of the Lower East Side. I meet them there to hear how they are working out their often difficult lives through melody and lyrics.

Beyond the Lower East Side, the daily accessibility of truly stunning art in all its forms has fueled my continual growth as a singer. Excellence inspires excellence and has been a great source of motivation to be faithful to the gifts I’ve been given as a singer and an artist. Steeped in artistic excellence immersion for the last three years, I have found my goals have changed. I moved to New York so I would never say “what if” but what I have found is much different than what I expected. I thought I was sending myself on a “make it or break it” adventure but instead I have found a community of friends that inspire me to make music, to take chances, to cultivate my own “voice” as an artist without limits or boundaries on “making it” in one particular field or opera house. Their excellence inspires me to continue to drink deep of the well of music, to create perhaps not my own songs, but my own interpretations in the genres where I am gifted.

Even still, I have often listened to my songwriting friends and been jealous of their vision for writing songs and performing them, of creating new material and finding an audience for it. With this workshop, I would love to experience the thrill of collaborating with composers to create something new. Fascinated by composers and their gifts, I would be delighted to originate a new work and to see the behind the scenes pieces come together.

As a freelance singer, no longer luxuriating in conservatory life, I have missed so much the master class forum where such valuable learning comes from observing other artists as they try on new music and the challenges that come with telling new stories!
I cannot imagine a more fantastic week than a master class with these leaders in our field and among such excellent singers and composers.

Recent opportunities to work with up and coming composers in the fields of musical theatre and opera have whet my appetite for more! I have never taken the time to focus my energy in new music as a soloist. This intense week would stretch me and would be a fantastic opportunity to delve into that realm. I would love to meet and grow with the other selected singers and composers and continue to build community with like-minded artists that are passionate about story and excellence.