Your brain has a music room, and evolution would not have gone to the trouble of designing that if it didn't have some benefits. So, that suggests to me that we and our ancestors have had music as a central part of our experience for eons. And we're just beginning to understand how that might be. I think that's fascinating.
While it's a fact that a voice begins with natural talent, any talent must be nurtured, cajoled, wrestled with pampered, challenged, and, at every turn, examined.
Being steeped in the process of learning and exploring keeps me from becoming too nervous. Partly it's about not getting bored.
I haven't really been able to transfer into that extraordinarily other worldly creature, other than I hope on stage.
I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.
Very few opera singers in history have been able to cross into popular music.
I don't like to sing loud.
I enjoy the more floaty, exposed, elegant singing.
I would love to do more private concerts.
Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher.
I learned so many roles so quickly as a young singer, I thought it was time to come back to them and make them better - deeper, more nuanced.
My worry is that opera will become an historic art form as opposed to a living, breathing thing.
I was constantly being pushed toward a European ideal of what it means to be a classical or opera singer, let's say in the Renata Tebaldi mode. I reject that.
I want to get out of the major opera houses.
I'm lucky - I can do two things at once.
I've lived in New York all my life, and we went to the Mormon Pageant each year in upstate New York. It still is a wonderful production. I remember going and seeing the performance and listening to the music. My father had Mormon Tabernacle Choir music, and we would listen to it and sing with it.
I'm American. I'm eclectic. I'm going to follow my musical passions. And if people don't like it, and it hurts my legacy, I'm not going to worry about that.
With classical singing you have to put out so much air - you project, you emit force.
I have not changed with the accomplishments. I've remained the same. If I had changed, great. You know, but I haven't.
At this stage in my career, I don't have to take any big risks. You want to take a calculated risk, not one that leads to people saying 'yes, but there was that one time when she made that big mistake.' It's always a shame when that happens, especially if you've gotten by for decades without anything hugely tragic.
Because everything about the voice interests me, I felt it would be fascinating to learn a completely different style of singing.
I was always a very good student.
I've spent hours and hours doing research into Appalachian folk music. My grandfather was a fiddler. There is something very immediate, very simple and emotional, about that music.
Well, any time Im preparing for a performance or even a rehearsal, its as if in a way, like any other athletes, these are muscles that support the vocal cords which are just I believe cartilage. It demands a kind of constant warming up and a constant feeling of where is the voice today.
I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos.
