About Me
I've done a little of just about everything: sung in choirs, conducted them, sung in amateur and professional opera, performed as the ingenue in Chu Chin Chow, played the mother in a long list of operas, sung solos with professional orchestras, sung recitals, taught pop and classical singing, sung professionally in Catholic, Episcopal, Christian Science and Reformed Jewish religious services, worked as a professional music critic, acted in and directed plays, and I'm sure other things I have forgotten.
I hold the Doctor of Music with distinction from Indiana University where I studied voice, choral conducting and music history. I hold the BA and MA from California State University, Sacramento. I performed briefly in a German opera company. Later I became interested in musical performance by a computer-synthesizer. I made my last public appearance as a singer at age 50 in San Francisco when I sang a song cycle called For Sarah and Other Daughters by Gila Rayburg.
My day job was as a systems analyst for the Bechtel Corporation where I designed the Bechtel Procurement System. When I began this blog, I was still working, but now I am retired.
Explanation of Title
I often proposed this as the title of my autobiography. All my German friends would say "no, it's not Kinderkuchen, it's LebkuchenKinder." I couldn't explain why Kinderkuchen was funnier in English.
It was a brief summary of my operatic career. I was a member of the chorus of the Ulmer Theater and made my first appearance--entirely unrehearsed--as one of the children in Hansel and Gretel. You'll recall that the children have all been turned into cookies. "For the FBI" was a feeble attempt at self-aggrandizement. I was not singing in the chorus; I was infiltrating it. In this guise I discovered nothing at all political, but found out a lot about German beer and wine. I learned the beer may contain only 7 possible ingredients, for instance. That a Mosel is heaven.
I also learned that I was not destined to set the operatic world aflame.
Picture is of the ceiling of the Metropolitan Opera House with a little color added.
Blog Status Comments
I am currently vacillating over the inclusion of the Performance Calendar. Against it are the fact that it's hard to maintain and creates the impression that I might actually go to all these things. In its favor is the fact that information about events available from Sacramento are very difficult to find. I'm thinking it over.
