I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t singing. It has been my passion for my entire life. I remember begging my folks for a piano and then lessons. I started at the piano when I was nine, voice lessons began at 14 and I got my first guitar at 16. I sang in all the school music groups and musicals in junior high and high school. I grew up in the Church of Christ which, in case you don’t know, doesn’t use instrumental music. But boy do they sing. So I was singing alto in church from about age 7 and was singing in weddings and funerals by 14. After high school I went away to Kansas State for two years as a music ed major, then came back to Wichita State as a vocal performance major. It only took me about 25 years to get my Bachelors of Music Performance from WSU (but to be fair, I did a few things in between). I followed up quickly with a Masters of Music Performance.

I’ve been a soloist with Music Theatre of Wichita’s Encore, Opera Kansas, WSU Opera Theatre and Concert Chorale, Wichita Chamber Chorale, Wichita Choral Society, Reno Choral Society and more. I’ve been a professional church, wedding and funeral soloist for ages, plus choral director and voice teacher. That’s my classical side which I do love, but nothing beats the feeling of singing with Amy & Robin. After all my years of vocal training it wasn’t until I began arranging and writing with Amy that I felt I finally found my voice. Not only that some areas of my voice that had given me technical difficulty no longer do. My Amy & Robin training has carried back over into my professional classical singing which I still do (that’s me, second soloist from the right in the picture of the Reno Choral Society’s performance of G. F. Handel’s “Messiah”).

My brother Tom introduced me to Amy in 1987. She and her husband had just bought a house two blocks from where I lived with my husband and two sons. Amy went to church with my brother and Tom knew that Amy & I both liked to sing and we each had brand new babies. So we met and started walking (and talking) for exercise in our neighborhood. That was the beginning of a great friendship that I’m happy to say continues. We’ve been in lots of enterprises together and had many great adventures, including trips to Russia, England and France. With the exception of when she’s raiding my refrigerator I wouldn’t trade her for anything!

Our prom date

Our wedding day