Manual de Falla:  Nana

Manual de Falla: Nana

When a singer welcomes a child into the family, there are many nights of baby-rocking that put to practical use the collection of lullabies learned for the recital stage. De Falla’s “Nana” was a song I had performed only once as a student at Tanglewood Music Center,...
Stephen Sondheim: Send in the Clowns

Stephen Sondheim: Send in the Clowns

After discovering American popular music later in my childhood, my mind was also blown at the discovery of musical theater, which was sort of like the opera I had grown up with in Germany, but just so deliciously American.  As a twelve-year-old, having lost my German...
Sippie Wallace: Women Be Wise

Sippie Wallace: Women Be Wise

I arrived in the U.S. at nearly nine years old, speaking very little English and having no idea that there was anything to music beyond the classical composers to whom I had been exposed by my parents.  I had cut my teeth on Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Richard...