What a year...what a life!

It's been an incredible year for me professionally!

I celebrated 30 years as founder and director of

the Anything Goes Chorus(San Francisco & Oakland)

with a gala concert in March,

which included three women's ensembles I direct:

Girlfriendz, Swingshift Singers and Treblemakers.

At this concert I was presented with commendations

from Senator Barbara Lee

and also from the City of Oakland.

Then to top it off---in June I was given a Jefferson Award!

Watch it here:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/06/01/jefferson-awards-delivering-the-healing-power-of-music/

It is such an honor to be recognized in these significant ways

for doing this work I love.

I started teaching at the Jazzschool in Berkeley last fall:

a Jazz Singing class and also a Chart Talk workshop

for vocalists to learn how to prepare music for their band or pianist.

In the area of performing, I am thrilled to have found

some fine new venues

where I can sing with my quartet:

the Piedmont Piano Company in Oakland

and the brand new Freight and Salvage in Berkeley.

(Now I have performed at all three locations.)

The show at the Freight was recorded live

and I started mixing yesterday.

Very exciting! This is my third project

and will definitely be my best so far.

I plan to release this CD in 2012.

I am looking forward to a well deserved

and much needed vacation in August

to hike in the Eastern Sierras and visit friends back East,

to have some time to relax in nature and be in the quiet,

and also enjoy the space to just chill out on my own.

Ah.....

It has been a jam packed Spring filled with music, music, music!

The Anything Goes Chorus performed the 29th Annual Spring Concert combining SF and Oakland choruses at the First Congregational Church in Oakland.

I returned for the second year to Yoshi's Jazz Club in Oakland with my quartet and sang my heart out for an enthusiastic audience that filled the house once again.

Girlfriendz had two concerts in one weekend in San Leandro Library Theater and the nonet delighted the crowd both nights with their vocals and choreography.

Treble Makers had a triumphant concert at Avonova in Oakland singing for family and friends and the quartet put on a full evening of entertainment.

Coming up next month will be a production of West Side Story by the Stagebridge seniors at the Ashby theater in Berkeley, and later in June a recital by my jazz vocal students at the Jazzschool.

Whew!

Then I will take a well deserved vacation this summer and spend some time in my beloved Eastern Sierra mountains. This will be followed by a trip back east to Cape Cod to visit old college friends, hang out at the Atlantic Ocean, soak up some sun and rest up for the fall and more music, music, music!