MY INSPIRATIONS

The two special people in my life who were my first musical inspirations were my loving mom Virginia D’Ambrosio and my favorite aunt, her sister, Alma.
 

My mother was an accomplished opera singer.  I remember as if it were yesterday great pianists, other opera singers and many fine musicians frequently visiting our home for rehearsals, accompanying my mom and practicing with her for scheduled concert performances.  We would travel to the city to visit noted orchestral arrangers to prepare for her performances in banquet halls, beautiful outdoor concerts in the summertime like the famous Music Pier in Ocean City, and other exciting venues.  I recall rehearsals with well-known and celebrated conductors, phone calls from entertainment agents, and many exciting operatic performances in which my mom performed and beautifully executed major roles.  She was Madame Butterfly in the world-renowned opera of the same name, Carmen in Carmen, Mimi in La Boheme, and Violetta in La Traviata, and many other roles in performances held in many venues throughout the Delaware Valley, New York, and beyond.  All of what I experienced traveling around with my mom during her career painted my backdrop to pursue music, voice, and entertainment in general.  I guess I can say that it all paid off as a little girl being “dragged”, (at the time would rather have stayed at home and played), to many rehearsals at the Academy of Music where my mother was a member of what was then known as The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company established in 1958 and ending in 1974.  The Philadelphia Opera Company changed its name to the newly named Opera Company of Philadelphia, (Opera Philadelphia).  I would watch her perform in minor roles with such operatic luminaries as Anna Moffo, Renata Tebaldi, Licia Albanese, and the like.  I was most proud of Diva D’Ambrosio when she started her own opera company, The Northeast Opera Company.  Her intent was to entertain and educate adults and children in the fine arts, especially opera. For example, she turned out wonderful productions of Hansel and Gretel, Red Riding Hood, and Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Virginia was also an excellent music teacher providing private vocal and piano instruction for many students who visited our home for lessons. Mom always had a song in her heart and on her lips----my first true inspiration!!
 

As I previously mentioned, her sister, my swingin’ Aunt Alma was the first person to introduce me to the vocal style of Swing, great jazz instrumentalists, composers, songwriters, and all the countless prolific masters in all the genres, be it Classical, Jazz, Avant-Garde, you name it….Aunt Alma nailed it all.  Her house was filled with the sounds of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Henry Mancini, Miles Davis, Maynard Ferguson, and singers like Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn, and many many others.  She was literally my first music arranging teacher without having any formal training or music education herself simply by playing extensive recordings of masters like Stan Getz, Nelson Riddle, Peter Matz, and Don Costa, to name a few.  Alma would always tell me to listen carefully to instruments my 9-year-old self never knew existed.  I learned about the English Horn, French Horn, and was instructed to listen to the way a trumpet would attack a certain note or the improvisatory prowess of Miles or Maynard, Ornette Coleman, traveled through the landscape of Be Bop and Charlie Parker, and so much more.  She would play Ella day and night and introduced me to all the great songwriters and composers of the day. My aunt would buy the soundtracks to all of the movies that were current and we would sit still and listen to orchestral renderings of the scenes of famous movies and my job was to identify odd and uncommon sounding instruments.  It was a blast for sure….Diva Virginia and Swingin’ Almarinda were my first and most important mentors in music who will live forever in my heart.  I am very grateful to both of them.