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Wanna fight? I certainly do! Ever since meeting Fight Director Nick Sandys in Milwaukee when I portrayed Brangaene in Tristan und Isolde with Florentine Opera, I was hooked on stage combat. I have been studying with various teachers since last summer, and on August 19, 2005, I took my first Certification Course with a wonderful teacher, Ian Rose, Certified Teacher and Fight Director with the Society of American Fight Directors, and took my first SAFD Skills Proficiency Tests under the watchful eye of Fight Master Brian Byrnes, passing in the Quarterstaff and Unarmed disciplines. I really didn’t think it was legal to have THIS much fun! For any of you out there wanting to know more about stage fighting, you should check out these websites:

http://www.safd.org
http://www.ianrosefights.com/index.htm
http://www.fights4.com
http://www.legends.dm.net/swash/sword.html
http://www.fiocchisword.com

I highly recommend getting your feet wet at the New York Regional Workshop, otherwise known as the Summer Sling hosted by the wonderful folks at Fights4. This past summer held some diversions and surprises, a trip to Hawaii with my husband for his niece’s wedding and family reunion of sorts, and some other very different ones like you read above, but not before having a wonderful time in San Francisco singing seven Beethoven 9ths with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony during the month of June. Every night was completely sold out and MTT was a joy to be on stage with. Dynamic and fearless are two words that come to mind! And what better place to be in early summer than San Fran?!

This fall is very exciting because I will be returning to Toledo Opera to sing Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly - it will be great seeing old friends there. As most of you know,

I do mainly concert work, so working in a staged production again will be great fun! While in Ohio I have been invited to give a Recital and two Masterclasses in Columbus at Ohio State University by a good friend from flute-playing days. The first class will be a singers’ Masterclass in German Lieder in an attempt to pass on what I have learned from my mentor, the great German mezzo soprano, Christa Ludwig, and the second will be singers and flutists together! We decided that since I was an orchestral player who turned singer, it would be interesting to combine the two and see what we have in common and what we could learn from each other. I am the only person that I know of who has professionally worked as both a wind player and a singer to give a class of this nature, and I am very excited to know what we will all discover! You can bet, too, that I will be mentioning a lot of movement and body work, since I have been doing so much work with actors and movement teachers! I have already sent out letters to several people, asking them to contribute some ideas, and the response has been amazing. It has been a very bonding experience to share all these things with teachers, colleagues and friends that I love and respect! So thanks everyone! December will be a return engagement to Avery Fisher Hall but a debut with the wonderful Orchestra of St. Lukes in a performance of Handel’s Judas Maccabeus. Check out the homepage and take note of the full performance schedule which is constantly being updated. I hope to see you in your town soon!