I was very fortunate at such a young age to have a great voice teacher and vocal coach.  Mary MacKenzie and George Trovillo who happened to be Jussi Bjorling's pianist for ten years.  All this on scholarship, never once paying for a lesson and coaching.  They believed in me and what I could do and saw what my potential was at that time.  My voice went through many changes and had at 21 years of age it all came together! All of sudden, it just seemed your voice, technique and skill came all together.  Then 22 hits...oh boy and the big growing up begins.... Chapter 2 to follow.... :)

Renata Tebaldi, "La mamma morta", 1960

I guess I will start posting about my first mentor- my favorite Soprano Renata Tebaldi. She was someone I listened too when I started my path with operatic singing. At 19, my first voice teacher Ms. Mary MacKenzie a Wagnerian Contralto and the sole winner of the Met and the Naumberg in her day, said that I had similar colors to Tebaldi's voice. I had no clue what she meant or who Tebaldi was. All I knewthen, is that after hearing Tebaldi sing in a listening room at the music library at SDSU, following my first voice lesson with Mary, I lost it and felt compelled and honored to even have any remnance of her color and timbre. Mary would know exactly how she sang and what she sounded like since she sang along side her at the Lyric Opera of Chicago back in 1960, and also sang with Maria Callas at the Dallas Opera that same year. Wow... I am honored to just be able to right that, and to have had Mary as a wonderful mentor and teacher.Thank you Mary!