As Singer

Singing big songs in small spaces is what I love most to do. I sing jazz, but am not really a jazz singer. I’ve got blues in my veins, but am not a blues artist per se. I sing folk-rock but am neither a folk nor rock singer. I sing show tunes and while Cabaret is a Broadway show, I sing not a single song from it. It’s the Paris-born, Berlin-bred artform called cabaret that has been my artistic focus for 30 years now. As a genre it comes closest to what I channel, and yet it too is not entirely the thing. What’s it all about?

Intimacy. Story. Tapping universal truths. Having my audience close to me. That’s what I’ve done consistently in rooms around the world. I’m a ROOM artist. Yes! I sing ROOM music. ROOM is my genre, as I coined it in the winter of 2018. Read more about that origin story here.

ROOM is universal. It’s a space for jazz and blues and cabaret and folk. For the classical of the salons and the bluegrass of the saloons. Content is key; the message is the vehicle. As a story singer, I bare my soul though a kaleidoscope of feeling and intention ~ from the ugly, hard and dangerous to the soft,  sanguine and sensual. Every on-stage gesture, motion, sound and glance is a kind of gate for me.

ROOM etiquette puts the art first, and the artist and audience as stewards of it. It’s a here-and-now experience. A ROOM audience listens and is in turn heard. I can hear you breathing as I breathe. I hear you gasp, chuckle, moan, laugh, cry.  Into this vessel and alongside my various songs by the world’s great songsmiths, I’ve begun introducing my own words. Drawn directly from my writing life, I sprinkle my own lyrics into my newest Shows and through my music label, Ars Intima. I welcome stage artists of all stripes and types to  my workshops in the art of ROOM.

Remember it: ROOM, the great big art of the small. Are you one of us?

As Guide

In January 2017, I brushed up rather violently against the fragility and impermanence of life in a near-death experience. My urge to impart what I experienced about illness and pain as both guide and healer became especially keen. I longed more than ever to witness and endorse another’s creativity, self-inquiry and what I call innergration.

I’m a resistant learner, sometimes a stubborn sceptic. Lessons have come as rude awakenings as a result.  They’ve taught me about the servant forces of life, like fear itself that fuels the swift and lasting change both personally and communally.

I was once quite shy around strangers and didn’t speak a lot. I lived a lot in my imagination. I was a foreigner, immigrant, outsider. Those of you who have ever been seen as different will especially understand this turning inward into a safe place in the mind. Today, I own my voice. I still stare and I still imagine with abandon.

I’ve been that person working in a job that wasn’t on track for me, that was leading me away from myself. Today I look back on a prosperous and meaningful career doing what I love. The money has always followed and the support, the “team”, has always been there.

I’ve been that woman looking for myself in other people. Today I celebrate 3 decades of marriage and partnership.

You, my students are creative, exploratory, inquisitive and curious, original, self-aware and ready to take it deeper which is why you’re here. I’m dedicated to helping you, the Stage Artist find your path and calling. I’m committed to helping you, the Life Artist reclaim your creativity and Ur-inspiration with a childlike curiosity and joy. To help you tell your story, I have a chest of time-tested tools to share. Tools of self-inquiry, self-ownership, self-embrace and self-reflection through connection.

When you’re ready, reach out to me through the Contact page.