At this stage in my career, I don't have to take any big risks. You want to take a calculated risk, not one that leads to people saying 'yes, but the….

I think opera has gained a kind of glamorous appeal. It's a live performance that aligns all of the arts, and when it is represented in the media, in….

My parents discussed singing every night over the dinner table; I had a tremendous music education..

I'm reserved, so I've always needed to find a way of opening up. Jazz helped me do that..

I listen to archival and historic recordings. I love watching singers. I learned a lot from watching videos..

While it's a fact that a voice begins with natural talent, any talent must be nurtured, cajoled, wrestled with pampered, challenged, and, at every tu….

I'm not exactly an angry young person..

The student's job is to stay open-minded, to quell the knee-jerk defensiveness we all possess in the face of suggestions for improvement, and to main….

Music enabled me as a fragile young person to give voice to emotions I could barely name, and how it enables me to give my voice the unique and myste….

I don't want to be somebody who stands still and sings pretty. Each song is a world. Each song is a story. I don't achieve nearly what I want..

My philosophy is that the people around us are there doing as much work if not more work behind the scenes and they're the last people you would ever….

I am so envious of my colleagues from 100 years ago who only sang new works, they hardly ever sang revivals..

My mother was the worst kind of stage mother. She would make me and my younger sister and brother little duckling costumes and put us in kiddie shows..

We sing with the entire body. The sounds that we make emanate not just from the head, but from the whole heart and soul, and, most important, the gut..

I have not changed with the accomplishments. I've remained the same. If I had changed, great. You know, but I haven't..

Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher..

You finally have to learn to pull all the different kinds of teaching and training and coaching together on you own, so that your voice and body and ….

In a way, being an opera singer is like being a very romantic sixteen-year-old who falls in love with great passion and conviction every month..

I was always a very good student..

I don't like to sing loud..

My worry is that opera will become an historic art form as opposed to a living, breathing thing..