2011
A Snowy January Night:
I was born in San Francisco, California. My mother was the daughter Of a Norwegian artist and an Estonian Consul. My father was an electrical Engineer and worked for the war effort during WWII. He had graduated from Cal. Tech. and also attended Stanford Business School.
The first memory of singing was some songs I learned in Norwegian from my Grandmother. Sadly I don’t remember them very well except possibly the Norwegian national anthem. When I was three I would sit in front of my other grandmother’s Big Victrola in Oakland, California and sing along with Lily Pons, a famous opera singer at the time.
When I was six my family moved to Pittsburgh , Pa. I started singing with the chorus in Junior High School. In High School I sung under the auspices of a wonderful director, Miss Collins, and we competed interscholastically throughout Pennsylvania. We won every contest we entered, due to the skill of our director.
When I graduated I came to New London to Connecticut College to study studio art but in my sophomore year I fell in love with Zoology so my degree was in Zoology. I sang with the chorus there, and also with the chapel choir. We would sing in that lovely Harkness Chapel every Sunday evening for vespers.
How I got into the Eastern Ct. Symphony Chorus was that one year Connecticut College sang the Verdi Requiem with the Yale Glee Club at Woolsey Hall in New Haven. This was one of the most thrilling experiences I have ever had.
After graduation I married a physicist who specialized in submarine sonar. We had two children and I stopped singing for awhile. When they were 14 and 10 I went back to work, updated my skills in my microscope field at Hartford Hospital, and was working for two years at Manchester Memorial Hospital. Then I found a job somewhat closer and at the same time I read in the New London Day that the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus was going to perform the Verdi Requiem, with the Yale Glee Club, at Woolsey Hall in New Haven! I just knew I had to do it again so I called the number in the paper. I was accepted into the chorus and the rest is history! I’ve been with the ECSC now for 28 years and have enjoyed every minute of it. We have had opportunities to sing other venues such as the recent Haitian Relief Concert and at one time, 8 stage performances of a production of “The Sound of Music” (the ladies were singing nuns). I am grateful for all the wonderful experiences I’ve had with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus and the interesting people I’ve met.
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