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Thank you.

A singer is an afternoon announcer on a Pittsburgh radio station.

And you're listening to classical WQED FM 89 three, Pittsburgh and WQED.

89 seven Johnstown on HD one and WQED FM dot org In recent years, she has become a prolific, impressionistic painter, and she has also ha an incredible and distinguished caree as an opera singer and actress.

And when asked, she can still be a wonderful vocalist.

Ooh.

Oh.

“opera” “opera” This is Gumbands 010 or number ten Anna Singer I haven't ever done this before, but I just thought, you know, we are recording this on September 1st, 2023 and it is such a beautiful day I am driving in.

I was astounded and I thought, I'm going to start just by saying it's a beautiful day in our neighborhood.

It is a beautiful day.

And I'm so happy to be here with and a singer who works with me here at WQED.

It's Colleagues Day.

Yes.

And it made me also think you've been here long enough to remember when Fred Rogers was here.

I did.

I do remember when Fred Rogers was here.

And he was such a fan of WQED FM Where you work, did you have an encounter or several encounter?

I had several encounters.

I think my first encounter was in the elevator.

So that was, you know, I got to ride up the elevator with Fred and he just was smiling and, you know, so pleasant when they were doing the film here.

And Tom Hanks was in the green room and getting ready.

I remembe when the costume people came out because we have all those wonderful pictures of Fre in the lobby and they came out.

There were three of them, an it was Fred in his red sweater.

And they were going, Well, look at this now.

See how the shoulders are off because his mother makes all of his sweaters for him.

And they there's a pilling effect.

So they wanted to be really true to what Fred wore and the costumes.

And so they were really kind of taking this picture apart.

Excellent.

You know, I love Fre in the elevators stories, too.

I don't know if there was ever an incident.

I actually my elevator story was with Ricky WERTZ from Ricky and Copper.

Gosh.

Wow.

You know because I had been on the Ricki and Copper Show when I was five, and here I was on the elevator with her.

She worked she worked in like communit relations or something like that here back in the late eighties when I started here.

And I said, you know, Ricki, I was on Ricki and Copper.

She goes, Don't tell me when.

I just want you to know how wonderful your mother was because she got yo on that show.

And that was hard.

Wow.

Oh, wow.

Oh, my gosh.

Interesting.

Yeah.

And sometimes if you see Paul Byers, ask him to tell you his story about Fred Rogers on the elevator.

I will do that.

All right.

So but we are here to talk about Anna today.

And I well, first, I have to ask, though, Rick, because look at you.

You have a little bit of a an eye issue here.

And did I. Usually see the other guy?

Did it hurt?

Look at you like.

This is a boxing injury.

Although I really I just fell on to the cement while I was trying to jog.

But it's a fractured fifth metacarpal.

But it's like I boxed.

We boxed together.

I fell on the cement while walking and, you know.

Yeah.

And I've learned that I thin the blood vessels in your face are really close to the surface.

So, you know, I hit here and blood splattered across my shirt and all that.

But, you know, I'm lucky it wasn't a major fall.

And both times I saw I fell twice on the same day.

This was the second fall.

And both times there were nin couples nearby who came in help.

Oh, that's nice.

Yes.

So another good neighborhood.

Oh, I've been very lucky.

Yes.

So anyway, you know, we'll survive.

But since I realized that, like, I can't remember a time when you weren't here, but I think I was probably here when you started.

You were definitely here when I started.

I the story that got me here is kind of fun because my husband plays trumpet.

He's got a real job.

He's a lawyer, but he was asked to play on that wonderful evening where there are.

It's first night, Pittsburgh.

So he was playin one of Lucas Richmond's pieces.

And so we were down at this church and everybody all the instrumentalists were getting ready.

And of course there were vocalists that were a part of it.

Were they're all over in the corner, wrapped up in their scarves and all sorts of things.

And I spoke to the vocalists and the gal the soprano said, Do you give voice lessons?

And I said Of course I give voice lessons.

So we're doing voice lessons at my home.

And she goes, You know, you have a wonderful speaking voice.

Have you ever thought about radio?

I said Of course I thought about radio, but I have no idea how to get started.

And at that time, her husband was a substitute announcer here at QED.

So they arranged an interview and time to speak with Ted Sawyer.

And I started as a substitute announcer in March of 2000.

Wow.

All right.

And in just filling in for Ted or filling in for everybody.

For So any time of day for Judy.

For Ted.

For Jim, for Paul.

Excellent.

Wow.

And now the staff there is tiny.

It is at our radio station.

I mean, are we the smalles radio station in Pittsburgh I'm.

Going to go with?

Yes, We're two and a half people.

Two and a half people know you really?

Three.

Oh, you're the half.

I'm the hal because I'm not here full time.

Amazing.

But you you come and I'm just I've always been interested in, like, the technicalities of what you do.

You selec most of the music for the day.

And that's what happened sort of around 2000, tw or three or something like that.

They said, We need your help.

The person who was pickin the music, the music programmer left and said, you know, this will be about for six weeks, 20 years, 20 years later, we still I still have the opportunity to go into our library.

And I tell you what, I find new pieces every week that I am fascinated by.

And I play the old chestnuts you know, Bach, Brandenburg or Beethoven, nin or fifth or something like that.

But then there are these great pieces like secondary Russian composers or secondar Czech composers, even secondary American composer that I will get on to the air.

And it's a lot of fun because people will respond if they say, you know, I love that piece by I have never heard it before.

I even Andris Cardin has called at one point said, I've never heard that violin concerto before.

Tell me about it.

So yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Wow.

So, you know, if someone doesn't know Anna is on WQED FM, which is our radio station here, and they're actually adjacent to where we're sitting right now.

And it's all classical all the time, and you're usually on in the afternoons.

But I know sometimes you sub for Jim Cunningham in the morning if he's not here, and apparently that was your original intention to be a substitute.

But literally you then, I mean and isn't it I know, I don't know because I don't know the world classical music that well, I love the fact that you still do old CDs.

Oh, we had that opportunity to get all of our CDs taken to Chicago.

The half they would have split the library up and taken to Chicago and all loaded into the enco where I think every other classical music station, that's how they do it.

But then we would have lost all our information because we don't have the staff enough staff to put in all of the booklet information about why this composer wrote this.

Like Wagner wrote for his wife on Christmas Day, which was her birthday, her beautiful Siegfried ideal, and he brought all of the instrumentalists into the house.

They were up the stairs and around the hallway, and they played this for her on Christmas Day, which happened to be her birthday.

We would lose those stories or we wouldn't have the time to be able to look up that information.

So you guys still do that.

You pull out the liner notes and.

Read the liner notes?

Absolutely, because there' so much information there.

Yeah.

Although, Jim, I think he knows everything by heart.

He just and he will say something.

I learn something new from him all the time.

And we should mention that WQED FM is celebrating his 50 years on the air this year.

Right?

We've already said it's September 1st, 2023, and we're deep into the 50th year celebration.

Is that unusual?

Oh, I think it's very unusual.

As a matter of fact, I just read another classical music station died this past Monday, very up in, I think New England, Vermont or either Vermont or Maine or something.

It's gone all news.

So that's unfortunate.

We're so lucky here in Pittsburgh because we actually have three listener supported stations.

We have the classical music station, we have the folk wipe with sort of triple AA music, and then we have the news.

KNPR With ABC.

Yeah.

WBEZ So now we are luck and I think all three stations are just such beautiful examples of public broadcasting.

Right?

Right.

You know and I think they're appreciated by different peopl and the same people, you know.

We have there's you know, we have the television station here at QED, and it appeals to a different group of people than the radio station.

And I always find that kind of interesting.

And there's crossover.

Oh, of course there's crossover.

But I just love it when I'm, you know, I have a face for radio, I'm in my little dark studio and I talk to 100,000 people or whatever, and it's great.

But when I'm in a restaurant or something and somebody hears my voice, I'm sure, you know, you get sort of sometimes with visually you are recognizable, but people recognize the voice and that's a lot of fun.

No, for a long time, I the only time I could be recognized was when I was doing Pledge, because in my shows I'm usually not there.

It's usually just my voice.

Okay.

Okay.

Until I think I started to d the show called It's Pittsburgh and a lot of other stuff.

And then you start to see me more.

Okay.

But no, that's always fun too.

Oh, I know that voice.

I know that voice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And usually it's not exactl the way I pictured you looking.

Oh, I can't.

I won't even tell you what some people thought.

You don't look anything like your voice.

Well, we all do that.

We imagine what?

Those radio voices.

Yes.

And I'd like to g with some of those imaginations.

Well, cool.

So but you've also mentioned that you have a background in classical music and singing and opera and all of that from an early age.

From an early age, I, I had a wonderful church situatio where I sang in the youth choir.

I was the choir mother to the little kids.

I sang in the adult choir an I was part of the Motet choir.

And we had an amazing choir director and this was all while I was in high school.

So we did shows like Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell.

We even did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which was done as a church show originally.

That's what it was written for.

And then it became this huge thing on Broadway.

And so it was that particular person, Lee Kahlenberg and then also Michael Knob, who steered me toward wanting to sing.

Lee would have me imitate Beverly Sills.

And then I saw Beverly Sills and Carol BURNETT, because I always.

Carol BURNETT.

Oh, my gosh.

Two redheads.

I mean, I can't believe my hair isn't red.

There was a great special called Sills and BURNETT at the Met, and they made me laugh.

So hard.

I had such a great time.

And I also watched Beverly Sills, too, the daughter of the regiment from Wolf Trap.

And there she was stomping all over the stage and making people laugh.

And I was entranced.

So then I had an opportunity to sing them all in the Night Visitors, which is a beautiful Christmas opera by John Carlo Menotti.

And I did it in the church that I grew up in, which was St Stephen's.

And then the following year I got to do it as a tour around the Pittsburgh area.

And I know I'm a girl and the girl are not supposed to do a mall, but I just fell in love with that piece.

And then I thought, Well, I' like to become an opera singer.

I even did tha piece at the World Trade Center as the mother in the lobby one one summer.

And yeah, but I did that piece and I think I came home and announced to my parents, Oh I'm going to be an opera singer.

And I'd been playing piano since I was four or five and, uh, playing tennis and doing lots of performing things and on the stage in school and all that kind of stuff.

And my mother looked at me and said, Yeah, right, name three operas and I couldn't.

Get, you.

Know, I had no idea.

Even in high.

School, even in high school, I think I was just so take aback because I was like, Well, but I just like to perform so I could I could act, I could dance.

I was great on stage.

The thing where I kind of wasn't the best was singing.

So I thought, well, if I can figure this out, then I can make it happen.

But it took a long time to figure it out.

No, I like the fact that you came to opera, like through sort of a comedic route.

Yes, yes, yes.

You wanted to make people laugh, right?

I think that's not the wa a lot of people think of opera.

But I also before we get too far afield, do you know Fred Rogers connection to Amal in the night visit?

I do not know.

He was the floor manager for the premiere broadcast and that was written for television.

I know it was written for television.

I was working at NBC in New York, and there are pictures of him backstage at the original productio of Amal and The Night Visitors.

And I have worked wit the original a small on stage.

Who was that?

Oh, no.

I'm sorry.

I have that question.

You don't have to.

He goes by one name now.

But I was going to say, I also I interviewed Menotti twice.

Oh, wow.

Once in Australia following the Spoleto Arts Festival.

Right.

He was always in Charleston, South Carolina when I worked in South Carolina.

And then I got to go to the first Spoleto Arts Festival in Melbourne, Australia, and I interviewed him there.

In fact, there's a picture of me, you know, with a microphone outside the Arts center in Melbourne.

It was really wonderful, you know.

But yeah, I I've always loved the fac that Fred has that connection.

Oh yeah.

And I think that's it's probably Manatee's most famous work.

I think so.

You know, it's a little less recognized now, which is kind of sad because I think it's such beautiful work for the holiday, so such beautiful music.

And the story, of course, i wonderful and it's very short.

It's only about maybe 50 minutes long or something like that, right?

An hour of.

Television?

Yeah, an hour of television, Exactly.

Okay.

So that's high school.

You start to have this real passion.

For.

For opera and performing and all of that.

So well performing.

I mentioned quickly tha I played tennis as an amateur, but I did a couple of professional tournaments and things like that.

But I discovered that I played better tennis in front of an audience.

So it's like, yeah.

You feed off the energy Do I really feed off the energy?

Mm hmm.

That's kind of interesting because as a radio person, you don't really get that, do you?

Well, now I'm an introvert.

Yeah.

Yeah.

People say, No, you're not.

And I say, Yes, I am because I, I need to re vitaliz after doing something like this.

I love doing it.

I love being on.

But then you give me a chance to recuperate afterward.

Okay?

So you tell your mother that you want to be an opera singer, right?

And you can't name three operas.

But.

But I learned three songs to audition at conservatory.

So I auditioned at Boston Conservative, three out in Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Cincinnati, and Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and.

As a senior in high school.

As a senior in high school, Yeah.

And I was you know, I was 17 at this point, still 16.

17 because I my birthday is late.

Okay.

So everybody was Boston looks at me and said, oh, you're a soprano.

There' no way you're going to get in.

And I had my acceptance letter within like 45 minutes.

It was like.

Wow, wow.

And it was it was that was very cool.

But I ended up going to Peabody because both Mickey and Marybeth Knob were Marybeth received her graduate degree from there, and Micke got his bachelor's from there.

And then he came to Carnegie Mellon University, and she started as a teacher at Slippery Rock University.

So they came to Pittsburgh, and I met them through the choir that I was singing in.

We we did them all.

He was Mickey was the the Melchior, the the big guy who gets to sing the fabulous, beautiful piece about this boy doesn't need your gold and that sort of thing.

So we became friends and very good friends.

As a matter of fact, we just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and I knew them right when they got married.

And he also became a teacher at Sewickley Academy.

So I think he was a teacher for my final year at the academy.

That' where you went to high school.

And that's wher I went to high school.

Exactly.

I started there at nursery school and just went the whole time through it quickly.

Academy because I grew up in Sewickley.

Excellent.

But I know a little bit about your earliest appearance on Earth, and I remember I had known you for a long time before I found out that you had a connection to the children's home.

I do have a connection to the children's home.

I'm adopted.

And you were adopted as an infant?

I was adopted as an infant.

I think I came home.

I was born in September and I came home in January to for my mom and dad.

That's excellent.

It really was And my brother was adopted also.

And it's kind of interesting because he was three years and five days younger than I was.

So you were adopted together?

We're not we weren't adopted together.

No, he was adopted.

And then he came home.

Mom and dad brought him home three years later.

And I said, That's very nice.

Take him home now.

You can take him back now.

That's okay.

I think every older kid says that That's fine.

You can go away now.

That's enough of that.

Yeah, well, that is I mean, it it adds to this sort of like, fairy tale existence.

You know?

It really is.

And my mother was kind of a miracle because she had rheumatic fever when she was very young and she took to horseback ridin because her heart was injured.

And then she met and worked for my father.

He owned a children's store but she couldn't have children.

But eventually in 1969, she had, I think, her third open heart surgery.

And she went up to, uh, the Rochester, the the Great Institute there and had to steal vows put into her heart steel, steel valves.

Not even we weren't at the pig level yet at 69.

And you could hear her clickety clack, clickety clack, clickety clack.

Wow.

And then a bunch of years later, it's the nineties.

I'm down in Sarasota.

So to sing Sarasota, Fort Myers, somewhere in there singing Florida, singing Florida.

And it's a home stay.

And I started talking about my mother.

And the gentleman who owns the house is a doctor who was her anesthesiologist.

Wow.

Yes.

So and because that was I mean, it was a huge thing.

I think she was the longest living person with two steel valves in her heart.

She almost made it 30 years.

That is excellent.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So she was a force to be reckoned with.

I mean, she was Annie Oakley.

She became a champion skeet shooter.

She was a champion horsewoman.

My dad also.

She and my dad would do they would travel around and do all of this shooting, and they were just at the top of their game and won all these trophies.

I mean, there's like a room filled with silver trophies that they they won.

That is excellent.

All right.

So you go off to Johns Hopkins.

To Peabody.

To Peabody.

And that's Baltimore.

Baltimore.

And you're just ther for the four years of college.

No, I. I got engaged and I got engaged to Don, number one.

And then all.

Your husbands are named.

Well, all of the serious, serious boyfriends and then I realized that wasn't going to work.

But because I was I was originally I had wanted to take a year off and then go to jail for my graduate for voice.

But then I realized, okay, I'm going to get married.

So let me just do quickly a master's in a year, which is what I did.

But in that year, I decided.

Also with Peabody at the.

Peabod I that getting married was not the best choice at that time.

So I didn't get married.

I broke the engagement.

Bad idea, Bad where was challenging?

81.

81 was the dat we were supposed to get married.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

And you get a master's, and then you start to perform around the world.

Oh, I get a master's, and then I start doing dinner theater.

So I moved to Washington, D.C.. Okay.

And because you as an opera singer, you sort of need to take a little bit of time for the voice to develop.

And I always loved music theater, and.

That' still your dream at that point.

Oh, yeah.

You're not thinking I want to be a, you know, a DJ in the afternoon at WQED.

No.

Mean.

It's hard to believe.

You're still being opera singer.

Right?

Right.

So and I go to D.C.

and I end up singing for someone in the audience and Phyllis Brynjolfsson and she's a wonderful teacher.

And so I started working with her, and then I came back to Pittsburgh because I wanted to work with Claudia Kinzer, because Claudia had a program in Italy for young American singers.

And so I came back and started working with her and had the opportunity to g to her program Epcot, Picasso, the Ethiopians account of her American singers of opera three summers in a row.

And then the fourth summer I spent.

And that was in Italy, that.

Was in Italy that was in Vittorio Benetton.

And then the fourth, fourth summer I went to Cleveland to sing in a mall.

I went in a gown.

We're in the food court.

Everybody's eating their fries and their things.

And I'm sitting there.

Oh, no.

WOMAN Move!

Oh, and I win the competition and get to spend the summer in Italy in Siena again to.

Wow, Not with the same program.

No, it's a different.

It was a different program.

Yeah.

Wow.

You won a food court competition.

Food court competition.

There are other competitions I also won, but that one was kind of the most odd.

Yeah, No, that's a great story.

And so at this point, yo have a repertoire, you have like favorite things that you do or.

Yeah, so I'm, I'm here I'm in Pittsburgh, I'm learning lots of things and then I make that decisio that I need to move to New York because if I'm going to do this opera thing, it's time to take it seriously buckle down and go to New York.

So I moved to New York.

I lived up on 200 St Dykeman Street.

I lived on a in a I lived on the sixth floor of a sixth floor walkup wall.

Then I moved to 180th Stree and I lived on the fifth floor of a sixth floor walkup.

Then I moved to 96th Stree and I lived on the fourth floor of a sixth floor walkup.

Finally, I moved to 69th and Broadway and I was on the second floor and it had an elevator.

Excellent.

And like And where are you singing then?

I'm singing everywhere.

I'm singing wherever anybody will let me sing.

So whether it was a young, young artist program, I did the Young artist progra down in Florida with Sarasota.

I did.

I was singing in Lake George, I was singing in Cleveland.

I was singing all around the United States.

Then there was a compan that was based out of Bulgaria.

So this is right when the wall came down.

And so I went over and rehearsed in Bulgaria.

But then we toured France an Germany, not Germany, no France.

And I think we might have had one performance in Switzerland.

And I think the first time I went with them, I actually went with my voice teacher who was in New York City, and we were doing Lohengrin.

So he was the Lohengrin and I was the Elsa.

So it was kind of fun to be on stage together with my voice teacher.

And, you know, if he woul breathe for me, just, you know, get ready to breathe here.

And then we.

And you would probably get notes afterwards.

I went a little bit, bu we also did the Beethoven nine.

And so it was amazing because we had 110 Bulgarians in these busses.

We went by from city to city in these amazing busses and we had bus driver who couldn't read the language because all they read was Cyrillic.

It's like, Hmm, But these performance would be greeted with 20 minute ovations and screaming and shouting and just it was so, so amazing.

But also, opera starts late in Europe.

So let's say it the longer and started at 830 or nine, I would be on the stage at midnight going, I am so tired, my feet really hurt.

Would you just get on the swan and go away?

Okay, so but it was fun.

Excellent.

And so how long did you do that?

I was doing things throughout the nineties and early, 2000s all over.

So a lot of Europe and then also in the United States.

And Pittsburgh is always your home.

It has always been my home, Yes.

I swore I'd never come back, but then I got set up on a blind date with the same gentleman who encouraged me to go into music making Bob Mackie.

I came home to be with my mother and her final illness, and I went on a blind date and was married a year later.

Wow.

So I didn't intend to come back.

You were you mentioned 2000.

You also mentioned that i the year you started here.

Yes.

So you must have been still singin and everything when you started?

I was still singing and it was great.

And you.

Still sing.

Now?

I still sing now, but and one of the exciting things about performing and meeting Don was the first our third date.

He actually traveled all the way up to the Berkshires to hear me sing a Beethoven Missa Solemnis.

That was our third date The first date was a blind date.

The second date we got together and we thought he said Well, I'd love to hear you sing.

And I said, Well, I'm I' not singing anywhere close by.

This is when I'm singing.

And he thought for a moment and he said, I can do that.

And I said, Cool.

And that's actually what's in our wedding rings, because at that time I didn't know that he had.

Missis Solemis Your No, no, I can do that.

Cool.

The Missa solemnis is not in in our wedding rings, but.

I can do that.

I can do that because I didn't know whether h didn't, you know, he had kids.

So he didn't realize if that weekend was a weekend where he had the kids or not.

And so it worked out that good man.

Yeah.

And it was really amazing because he had a friend who took him out and got him a bit inebriated the night befor But he got there.

He got there.

Excellent.

That is a great story, too because, you know, I know Don.

And then.

You know Don and then there's you know, he sees me do a comedy comic work for the first time.

Cosi fan to tell you where I'm short Alleg and I have to sing my one off.

And but it's also very funny.

And then then he sees me do Zalame and this particular production, I mean, you do the dance of the Seven Veils and you get naked on stage and all that kind of stuff, and then you sing to a bloodied head for 17 minutes.

And he came backstage and he said, Oh, gosh, honey, that was amazing.

I don't think I've ever see anything like that in my life.

You are amazing as an actress.

I'm not going home with you tonight.

I think I scared him.

Probably so at that point he had.

Mm.

Yeah, that and so, I mean, I know I've seen you in a couple of things, right?

I saw you do Julia Child, and that's a pity, I think.

Bon appetit.

And it's a one person opera.

It's a one person opera.

There is an American composer.

His name is Lee Hoiberg, and he actually took an episode of her, She is baking a chocolate cake and he took the whole piece and wrote it actually with her sort of rhythmic voice up and down.

She sings a lot and try tones, which is kind of an odd, odd way to speak or sing.

And so you can't find that episode.

I think he must have bought it.

And but it's Julia Child is out there is Bon Appétit.

And this is the really.

Buttery brown butter of legato.

Chocolate, Libby notes.

Breen Oh, I jus remember this being so much fun.

It is a lot of fun and the reason her voice sounded like that is she had extra long vocal cords, which all the women in her family, her sister, her mother, they all had this these cords that were extra long.

So there was sort of this thing that was going on.

Yeah.

And what an icon of public broadcasting.

Oh, my gosh.

Yes.

I mean, the wonderful stories where.

Oh, I love that whole thing where she's cooking an omelet for the review of her recipe book and, you know, i doesn't even fit on the stage.

And the guys don't know what to do.

It's great.

And I don't know if you've ever seen the great episode where she's on with Fred Rogers here.

Yes.

Yes.

And I think Johnny Costa comes in and makes pasta with her.

Right.

So it's really, you know, totally excellent.

And to think that, you know, here in our building, Mr.

Rogers and Julia.

Child.

Were together in the kitchen with Johnny Costa.

I so bu I also saw you in Sweeney Todd.

Oh, and so that's not an opera, but it's almost an opera.

Well, no, it's not an opera.

It is music.

Theater but it's the best music theater.

If I if somebody walked up to me today and said, Would you do Sweeney Todd, I would absolutely say yes.

And the other one that I love is Desiree in a little night music.

So I did that one with the year before or two years before I did the Sweeney Todd.

I think I saw that too.

And you might have.

Yeah, I think I did.

Yeah.

And I do love that.

I think that was to be my first Broadway show that I saw on Broadway.

Wow.

But when I got to New York on that trip, we found out about the hal price tickets in Times Square.

And so I saw Tommy tune in Seesaw.

Oh, my gosh.

As my first Broadway show.

And then the next night we saw her that night.

Maybe it was we saw a matinee and then a thing.

And that was 1973.

Okay.

And so you continue to have like somewhat of a dual career as a singer and an afternoon deejay and.

But you also have other lives.

Mm hmm.

And I am so impressed with your painting.

Thank you.

I And how does that start and why does it start?

And, you know, we're surrounded by some of your work.

Some of the some of the things are back there.

Yes.

Yeah.

But it it started with my mother painted, and I always admired her paintin and I was always really taken by painting I would go to in the galleries and just look around, not necessarily, you know, Carnegie Museum and look at those galleries.

I do now all the time.

But I just loved seeing new works.

And there is so much on the Internet.

So I started taking I just started listening and copying and and doing classes on the Internet.

And then I finally took the plunge and did a class in person.

Although right before that, before that happened, we went on a vacation with three other couples up into the cook's forest, and one of the gals was a fabulous painter.

And Don said, You should just work with this woman.

And she just invited me over to her studio and we would paint together and she didn't really say anything.

We just painted together.

So but it gave me the freedom to paint to start.

And this is as an adult, this isn't in high school.

No, no.

This is like in your 2014 or 2013 or 2014.

Oh, so, okay.

You really recently, Right.

Fairly recently.

And then I had an opportunity to take a year off from WQED and I really focused on the painting then.

And then in 2018 I went out to Scottsdale and took my first in-person class with someone I had bee taking lessons with for a while, and man it was like it was so much fun.

And so I've been painting ever since.

I've been doin a little bit of plein air now, which is a little bit more challenging because you go outdoors.

But I went to Maine this summer to Monhegan Island, which is where Edward Hopper painted and also the the Wyeth's are still there.

Jamie Wyeth is still lives there.

And I actually painte the cliffs where his house is.

His house was kind of in fog.

I'll probably tackle it at some point.

And one of the other members of the class saw Jamie at one point, but supposedly he gets into a little like a a box and has a little view outside and paints inside the box so that nobody disturbs him when he's painting.

Now, you know, who knows if that's myth or whatever, but that's what I understand.

And Plein Ai means that you set up an easel and you're actually painting at the location.

At the location outside.

And pretty quickly, you know.

We have some of your painting a little paintings right here.

And that's like a clean air painting.

This is a plein air painting, and it's.

It's a little.

Coast of Maine.

Yeah.

Mm hmm.

And these all and you do a lot of these still lifes.

I love to do still life.

And I just really I enjoy it a lot.

And I know this is just my own.

I mean, I, you know, I know a teeny bit about art, but I think they're sort of impressionistic.

Oh, definitely.

Definitely.

Especially when when my husband says, Well, that line isn't straight.

And I say, I'm an impressionist.

Yeah, no.

And, and the dabs of paint and then.

Drops of paint.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they're beautiful.

They're just.

I love them and thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, here's one with food.

And the.

Food.

Is good.

I've had dinner at Anna's house so I know that she loves food.

Well, this is actually a little section of a painting that I fell in love with.

What's the gallery out?

It's a merritt museum out in Butler.

Oh, I should have checked.

But anyway, it's.

It's an amazing museum that has these paintings.

You can go in and it's just fabulous.

At some point, I'm hoping to do an evening of painting and singing out there and just having a great time.

Ricky Granata, He's going to try to make that all happen so excellent.

Yeah, but yeah, I just keep on.

Painting these off.

I love that you're showing them off.

And lemons.

Lemons with a little cream sugar bowl.

Yeah.

See, look, it's not that impressionistic.

You figured out what it was.

No, I love.

I love the simplicity of them.

I love the colors.

It's.

Yeah, it's a. Lot of fun.

Excellent.

And so you've mentioned courses.

We say you're self-taught.

Well, a little bit, but, I mean, I do follow people and go in their style.

But now, as a matter of fact, it began today.

I'm doing a painting a day.

It's a challenge to do a painting a day, and it's all my style.

I set up the still life or if I go outside, I, you know, find the spot where I want to do it.

It's hard to do that quickly, you know, Plus, because I have a job.

So a painting like this takes how long?

That took me an evening in an art class that I go to, um, up in the North Hills.

Two or 3 hours.

Yeah, it's, you know, it's excellent.

Now, I did some extra work on it later on, but it's like it' all the paint is wet, it's oil, so you can do a lot of stuff with that and then you can let it dr a little bit and finish it up.

And are you always in oil?

Do you do acrylics too?

I have, yes, I do acrylics.

I have done pastels.

I've even done a little bit of watercolor, although that's not my first.

I think watercolors too hard.

You have to have such patience and you, it's just hard.

I know a lot of people love to do it but I find oil painting easier.

Well because I've been to your house and seen some of the paintings there, I thought, Who's that painter?

The Pittsburgh painte of some renown who's a singer.

It's William Henry Singer.

Jr.

Jr, and he was the so of a Pittsburgh steel magnate.

Yes, he was.

And he had four childre and he it was singer Nick Steel.

Actually, I have Singer and nemec.

Yes.

So Singer Nemec Steel.

And he sold it to I want to say Frick before for 29.

So, you know.

Oh, smart.

And Exactly.

And then what he decided to do and it's actually there's an article in the New York Times decided to give all of hi children his proceeds from that.

Instead of waiting for him to die, he allowed he gave that to his children.

And three of the children stayed here.

And then William with Anna and a brew singer from Hagerstown, Maryland, which is where the first singer museum was.

Um, I' actually the third and a singer.

She and her husband William, and I always think it's funny, too, because it's William and Anna, which is my brother and myself, Billy and Annie.

Okay, which is kind of fun.

She went to Peabody to study piano, so she was a pianist and they, um, they were painting here.

And I think he even wen to Monhegan Island at one point.

But then he went to Paris and he didn't really like that.

So then he moved to North of Amsterdam, a little town called LA and L.A.

and.

And they bought a house there.

And then they also bought a summer house in Bergen in Norway.

So there was a there's a singer museum still a singer museum in London and a museum outside of Bergen or in Bergen.

What was a lot of fun is that in I think it's 2005 or 2006.

I'm terrible with dates.

The museum, the Lot and Museum contacted me and said, we are doing a show.

We would like you to come.

We're opening.

We have just built we're celebrating 50 years of this museum, which was their house originally.

And we would like you to come and sing in the the beautiful salon hall, the recital hall.

And I said, Well, yes, of course, because Queen Beatrix is going to be there.

So you're going to sing for Queen Beatrix.

So got to sing for Queen Beatrix.

A wonderful piece of music.

And, you know, when she came, she came down the aisle and they had put a little table here for her beautiful little purse and her hat and everything.

And so that was part of the celebration of the opening of the lingerie, which is a part of the museum in Bergen.

And now this one is in Latin and and Anna Singer's piano was there.

So I played Anna Sanger's piano.

Which was Anna plays Anna.

Anna plays Anna.

And then the second Anna singer was my father's mother, Anna Turner.

Singer.

Wow.

Yeah.

And no connection to sewing machines.

None.

None whatsoever.

But people must assume that they do.

Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

But none.

The singer sewing machine is a Jewish family, and everyone assumes that I'm Jewis because Singer is a Jewish name.

But it's also English, so.

But it's also cool that you're a singer.

Well, yeah, what's really cool is I was adopted and became a singer, and the singer family, it's like.

But they weren't expecting that.

No, no, no, not at all.

But I also want to talk a little bit about the fact that I have mentioned a couple of times already that I've been to your house.

Mm hmm.

And anyone who's been to Anna and Dan's house, it's just an amazing location.

She lives on Grandvie Avenue on Mount Washington with an astounding view of Pittsburgh.

It is an amazing view.

It used to be the Kennywood hous I was there when it was an Annie.

And Carl Hughes Yes, they had a they used to have a carousel carousel horse in the front window.

Right where you have a piano now?

Yes, yes, yes and no.

But you've done things.

You put the deck up top.

We did.

We did.

And we also pushed it out a little bit too, because it has a backyard which is unusual for properties up there.

So we have a backyard.

We it's five stories, but it's only 24 feet wide.

So it's it's interesting in that.

And so the first floor is you know, it's the whole room.

So we have the front living area with the piano and then a dining area and the the kitchen and a small kitchen nook there.

And then we go out into the backyard, which is no, it's right.

And in, you know, despite your entire history in New York City, you have an elevator, too.

We do.

But, you know, I grew up with an elevator because my mother was always sick.

She couldn't climb the stairs because of her heart.

So I grew up with elevators.

Okay.

And like, there must be a joy in that to just the house.

Oh, I think the house is such an amazing place.

And the house takes care of us so beautifully.

But the house also loves it when people come.

You can tell.

I mean, I know I spoke with Carl when we first met him.

They didn't want to leav and it didn't have an elevator then, but he just he was having heart problems and he just couldn't get up and down the stairs.

But the house, it we have people there.

We have events there.

We're going to have an event for WQED there in October.

So it the house just opens up.

It's just.

No, I mean.

It's wonderful.

And you know you've been up there on the top.

I've been there for a couple of years for New Year's.

And you've been there for New Year's Eve?

Exactly.

And I met.

David up there.

Right, right, right.

We both had on Red Bow ties.

I remember.

Exactly.

Exactly Mm hmm.

I don't know.

I can't remembe He was playing the cello or not.

He didn't play the cello then.

But he has played his ukulele.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

And so, you know, I. What happens next?

Do you still have dreams?

Is there a role you'd like to play.

Or there's Something you want to paint or.

There's a couple roles I'd love to play, but I don't think that's eve going to happen, unfortunately.

Just because excuse me, it's a younger world now.

Younger opera singers, and I'm pretty much out of the loop.

I if I could do something, I would have to spend a little bit more time in New York City.

And my life is full here.

It really is.

And I still sing.

I sing with a church and quickly I'm their section leader and soloist so I continue to sing there and I do have an opportunity to sing Julia Child again with through the auspices of Pittsburgh Opera.

It's going to be out at the high hold at the end of October.

At the high.

Hall, at the high hold.

So the chef himself will be giving a demo demonstration.

And probably some great food.

And there will be a dinner.

And so that will be a lot of fun.

Actually, I didn't get t tell you the first time I did.

Julia Child was out at Fox Chapel Shady Side Academy and we were getting ready for it.

And Don comes walking back and he sees this person there and he says, and I'm dressed as Julia.

Excuse me, Could you tell m where and a singer is, please?

No, he didn't recognize me.

No, that is one of my gifts as.

An actor, actress, singer.

I can disappear into the character that I become.

That is.

Excellent.

Yeah, it really is.

I directors haven't recognized me.

I've not been able to get into the after party because.

No, you weren't in the show.

It's very interesting.

I was the.

Show.

I was this show, baby.

That.

No, that's pretty amazing.

And you know, how did you find that work originally?

I mean, because it seemed to be such a nice fit.

How did you find the Julia Opera?

Oh, the Julia Opera, I think.

How did I find I think someone knew about it and just said, Would you be interested in doing this?

Might have been under Scarlet Era.

I worked the first time I did.

It was when I did it out there at Shady Side, and they also did fantastic.

Mr.

Fox, Grinch.

And that cast actually won a Grammy for that recording of that opera because they recorded it.

Excellent.

Yeah, Yeah.

But so I think it was part of that.

That's how that came about.

Right?

It's part of Gumbands.

I like to ask people about a place i Pittsburgh that you love to eat, doesn't have to be the favorite.

Or you could be like.

Oh no, I love to eat at Carmela's at La Tabla.

I Yeah, that is just great.

But Latvala is on not Washington.

It's on Mount Washington.

And it started as a pizza place.

It started Joe was a cook there.

And then what happened i I taken up there by Tony Sinatra because I was teaching Tony's stepson voice.

So they had a big party up there and the voice of the pirates.

Former voice of the Pirates.

Bob Prince No, no, no.

Lou Um.

You're asking me about something.

I know.

You know, It's okay.

Anyway, I'll think of it tonight at three, and he was part of the the party that was there.

And he said, you know, I listen to you on the radio before I broadcast and from the Pirates.

So I love your voice.

I love what you do.

And that was a lot of fun.

So I met them there and then we went to the cigar dinner, uh, and I think I was the only female there.

And of course, it was a room filled with smoke.

But I started singing because that's what I do.

I mean, so you can control yourself.

I can.

I can't control myself.

I mean, I've sung on the bridge Omeo, Bobby Caro in Florence, the bridge that where it's supposed to, where she's going to jump off if she doesn't get her daddy to agree to letting him her marry the boy she loves.

So yeah, I sang there.

So that opened up a whole bunch of I've sung for weddings for them and funerals for them.

And I continue to sing there, you know, in an evening and have a good time.

But fig and ash, great restaurant, the Hyeholdelove the Hyeholde Fig and ash on the north side.

How are you going to hold out.

Crafting beyond crafting in her.

Career?

A-plus career.

I was I don't know.

I don't I don't know what it is.

It's on the way to the airport.

It's on the way to the airport.

Vivo in quickly, Love Vivo and quickly.

I take me out to a great restaurant, the Ethiopian restaurant over here in East Liberty.

In East Liberty and.

A long time.

Yeah.

I just yeah, I love going out to eat.

Well, excellent.

And and I just sort of be interested.

A typical day, I think sometimes you come in and select music and then you go home and sometimes you broadcast from your home.

The typical day is I'm here in the morning and I select musi and do what I need to do here.

And then I have a, you know, maybe a two hour break wher I'm running and doing errands or working out or walking or doing something like that.

And then I do enjoy broadcasting from home because it's just it's very comfy cozy there.

I love this studio that we have, but it's it's just convenient.

I get I sign off an I go downstairs and make dinner.

It's great.

Now, I think I came out durin the pandemic and shot you did.

You did.

Because we were doing a little histor of WQED TV and WQED Multimedia.

Right?

Right.

And now we're going to do something more about the radio station because 50 so significant.

It is.

And that'll be totally fun.

And I could talk to you all day, but I've always enjoyed talking to you and I enjoy, you know, just stopping by the studio and doing Pledge with you and stuff like that.

So, yeah, you know, I can't thank you enough for being on gun bans.

Is there anything else we should have talked about?

Well, this this little pictur here, I have a Barbie collection because when I was a little girl.

You know, this was Barbie.

When I was a little girl, my mom mommy would not let me have a Barbie because, you know, she thought her tatas were too big.

Big.

So and then Don plays the trumpet and the song that's in there is, what are you doing New Year's Eve?

So New Year's has been a big gathering for all kinds of people.

We bring everyone together and that's a lot of fun.

This is Desdemona, which is one of my favorite roles in From Verdi's Otello.

This was a wonderful show that I did with Pittsburgh Opera, The Grapes of Wrath by Ricky Ian Gordon, and I played Grandma, and that was an amazing, amazing tour with Pittsburgh Opera.

I also got to do finall The Daughter with the Regiment, the opera that made me go into opera.

I played the Duchess of Crocombe Thor for Pittsburgh Opera a couple of years ago.

I guess it's almost ten years ago or something like that right now.

So.

Yeah, I mean, I' sorry I missed so many of these.

Oh, it was.

It was a lot of fun.

It's been a lot of fun.

I feel so blessed to have the life.

I have to be on the radio to know people like you to be a part of Jim and WQED.

It's just I never, never expected that.

I really didn't.

And I'm very, very happy.

And I feel very lucky to be here in Pittsburgh.

I have the same feelin of gratitude about knowing you.

So that's really wonderful and I thank you so much.

And so I want everybody to know 2-6 2 to 6, Monday through Friday.

Monday through Friday, WQED FM.

And you know, we just got to keep going.

Okay.

Sounds good to me.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This Gumbands podcast is made possible by the Buel Foundation, serving southwestern Pennsylvania since 1927 and by listeners like you.

Thank you.