Music is a second language to me. My parents are both professional musicians, and I first began to play violin and piano at age 3. In high school and college I accompanied musical theater rehearsals and productions on piano.

Around the year 2000 I switched to primarily singing, starting with jazz classes with Rich Kalman at the Albany Adult School. I performed with the Berkeley Community Chorus and the Berkeley Broadway Singers and sang at open mics at the former Anna's Bistro (now reopened as Anna's Jazz Island).

Later I enrolled in classes at the Blue Bear School of Music, where I got to perform on stage at a club with Bill Spooner from The Tubes. Since then I've also taken jazz, classic rock, and R&B workshops at Blue Bear, with instructors Jim Peterson, Mike Fiorentino, and Steve Kirk, respectively, and private voice lessons with Vicki Burns. Videos of some of my performances are available on YouTube as well as this site and there's also audio from my jazz recital at the Octavia Lounge.

I've also sung at open mics at Savanna Jazz, and I frequently enjoy karaoke at The Mint.

My musical tastes vary; I enjoy jazz, classical, Broadway, classic rock, and some folk music. My current favorites include Nick Drake, Nellie McKay, and Bob Hillman.

If you have Real Player (available free for Mac/Win/Linux) you can watch me singing Witchcraft (jazz standard by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh) and Secret Masterpieces (by Bob Hillman) at my wedding. I was fortunate enough to be accompanied by my father on cello, as well as my friend Al (below) and Joel Fadness from the Mime Troupe. There are also QuickTime clips of me singing Abacab by Genesis (excerpt) and New York State of Mind by Billy Joel (audio only) at The Mint.

I also have some talented musical friends including Al Bedrosian, lead guitar player for Phantom City; Bekka Fink of Bekka's Frogland Orchestra; Jon Hart, bass and guitar player and composer, now performing with SwingJig; and Michael Fortes, also a bass and guitar player, composer, and writer of music reviews. And of course, my wonderfully talented husband Ziggy, who plays piano and performed original compositions Juliopolis and Wedding Vibe at our wedding.

Blue Bear concert, December 2006. Photo by Beth Zuckerman.