Who I Am is Who I Am Inspired By – These Are Some of My Teachers

LUCRETIA MOTT

Always good to be zealously involved in a good thing. This is a quote taken from Lucretia Mott, my great, great, great, great grandmother. Lucretia was an internationally recognized abolitionist and women’s right pioneer who changed the course of the world. Her example is one I will never, ever actually be able to live up to but it inspires me none-the-less. She is in my DNA! Lucretia keeps me true, she reminds me to be authentic & honor the light within myself and others.

 

RABBI BRONWEN MULLIN

There will always be more to say about this amazing woman so let me simply start by saying that Bronwen is the one who ushered me into the magnificent phase I am in today. She inspired my words to emerge and then she blew my mind by setting a few of them to music which fundamentally shifted who I knew myself to be. The work ahead for us is awesome in the full sense of the word.

She is my teacher, she is my friend. Thank you, rabbi.

 

SCOTT STURGILL

The art work I occasionally use at the heading of my web log is a riff on a creation by  Carlton Scott Sturgill. He is an artist who “use[s] the vernacular of the American heartland to scratch the surface of suburban pretense, exploring the compulsion to veil ourselves behind the facade of a commoditized version of the American Dream.” He is also a good friend who’s a lot of fun to hang out with.
I never forget my own fragile humanity when I’m around him.
Truth is…he scares me just a little tiny bit. I rather like that.

 

PHILIP GLASS

Philip Glass – who needs no introduction. No, I don’t know him. The closest we’ve come to hanging out was at Ukrainian East Village restaurant when we sat four empty tables away from one another enjoying our respective meal; and then there was that time on Pier i with Glass on Water during Make Music NY 2016; oh, and also at National Sawdust in winter 2017. I happen to really love his piano etudes!  I am re-reading “Words Without Music” at the moment and understanding just how much I have grown since first reading his memoir in 2015. Practically speaking, I am in a very different place in my life now and what he writes about goes directly to the work I am doing developing myself as a librettist. Thank you Maestro.

 

PETER MICHAEL von der NAHMER

Composer, Peter Michael von der Nahmer, is a composer and sound researcher based in New York City. He has written over 25 works for music theater and dance, and over 50 works for concert and film; many have received national/international awards, and been performed around the world.

Mike’s barrier-breaking, eclectic background explains his passion for music both as artistic expression and as a means to connect disparate cultures. His desire to be an agent of radical connection – to literally create harmony out of apparent dissonance – is his defining motivation. It also defines his work in music therapy, where he seeks to connect art and science.

And he’s a very dear friend who is having an enormous impact on my life!

How did I get to be so lucky?!

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YESTERDAY – TODAY – TOMORROW

I’ve been a Thespian, a book binder, a photographer’s representative, a video producer and a rock & roll babe who would not have been caught dead in an opera house when I was a teenager. I was a fool.

Who I am is a New Yorker, a wife, a mom, a friend and a writer who holds a day job in the financial services. I still love rock ‘n roll and I love opera too. I am a perpetual student of life and am learning so much every day that I can hardly stand to go to sleep at night or wait to wake up in the morning!

Incorporating everything I’ve done – to date – I am turning all of it into being a librettist. I plan to be a librettist and a playwright for the remainder of my life. This blog is part of my discipline – my version of “practice, practice, practice” – and while Carnegie Hall may never call out my name, perhaps other performing arts venues will, or better yet, small, up and coming opera production companies.

toi, toi, toi

MMN/2017

 

Post Note: There will be more women showing up here on my list of educators/mentors as they enter my world and I enter theirs – stay tuned! I’m building context for them to show up.