IN MEMORIAM
Agnes Eisenberger
President
Colbert Artists Management, Inc.
Visionary, Agent and Friend
December 26, 2002

HOW WE MET
I did not really know Agnes Eisenberger as well as I would have liked to. I met Agie only 6 years ago. (She told me that everyone during Christa Ludwig's days used to call her that and since I felt a part of Christa's extended musical family she was always "Agie" to me!) She had been Christa's agent after she took over when Ann Colbert retired. Christa recommended to Agnes that she hear me and take me on to help in my career. I had studied with Christa since 1995 and she felt that I needed looking after and needed someone to take a special interest in developing my career. Agie took this task to heart. She told me at the time, "In all the years that Christa was with Colbert she never recommended anyone to us but you!" It also just happened that I had finished singing Brangaene in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with David Stahl, a conductor who is also with Colbert who is the Music Director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He had also talked to Agnes about me just about the same time. So it was absolute Destiny for me to meet Agnes Eisenberger!

CHEERLEADER, CONSCIENCE AND VISIONARY
Unlike anyone who had ever worked for me, she had a real "plan" and we worked together on it. No! More than a plan – it was a "Vision" and through that vision she helped me to discover my strengths and my weaknesses. She built not only the beginning of a career for me but built my concept of myself as an artist – something that I am quite certain I would not have had without her. She taught me to respect my own gift and helped me to recognize not the singer but the artist in myself. She used to say, "Steer your own ship" to me all the time! I remember so clearly the very first audition I ever did that she set up. It was for an orchestra and I got the engagement. We were so thrilled. That led to another invitation to sing with the opera in that town. So the tone was set, and whatever Agnes was determined that I would accomplish, I did. It was not always immediate but she seemed to have an Iron Will and she wouldn't give up no matter what. It was amazing to me actually. She said so often, "Oh, we always have faith in you!" Interestingly enough, she always seemed to say this when MY faith was waning and I needed to hear it. It was not always ideal, of course, and we didn't always see eye to eye on everything. That would be an unfair representation of our relationship; but I always loved Agie in spite of any disagreement. Shortly after 9/11, she and I had had some private talks about where we were headed next. Despite so much, we worked together on more things and her vision strengthened in many ways. Along came a CD recording for me among many other wonderful accomplishments. Around September, about a year later, she and I had one of our greatest accomplishments together yet. This was right before she got sick. It was something that she worked a long, long time on and it was just beginning to take shape. I remember calling her at home excited about what had just happened and I heard the elation in her voice. I remember telling her, "you DID it!- we BOTH did it." She used to always say that "we agents don't get much credit sometimes for the work we do, but that's okay." I wanted to let her know how I appreciated her and knew what she had done! You could hear the laughter and smile in her voice! That was the last time I talked to her as shortly after that she became very ill and wasn't really talking much to anyone. Thank God she had Charlotte and Chris and also Experience who made themselves a part of the process for her and was there for her. She was surely one in a million and there are so many who loved her that we know of and probably many others that she wasn't even aware of out there that cared about her. I hear it from people all the time that I meet – how they love her and admire and think so much of her. I think it's because she lived her life so honestly and with such principles, being always honest in her dealings and her opinions and always true to her word. That's GOLD in this business. Perhaps that is why so many people revered her and loved her and, as she used to always say, "that's something to think about, hmm?"!