When I was very young I was taken by the magic of music. My parents tell me that I was singing melodies at 6 months of age! I began getting involved in singing and acting lessons when I was 4 years old. Our group, the Masque Little Theatre Group, performed shows like Tom Sawyer, Gypsy, Give My Regards to Broadway, and Mary Poppins. I was always in some added part or choral addition, and was perfectly happy to be there. As long as I was involved somehow and was singing, that was enough for me. As I grew older I started trying out other outlets creatively. Dancing, gymnastics, baton twirling were just a few of many. Piano lessons proved to be something that I took to. I was involved with the piano for a couple of years, and continued my acting/singing lessons until I was 12. At that age I began modeling. As 12 was also the age that we began chorus in school, I didn't feel that I was missing anything vocally. I was now able to continue my vocal lessons while I was attending school so it was more convenient. Modeling turned out to be something that I was involved with until my 20's. I did everything from commercials to print ads, promotions to trade shows. But I always felt that something was missing. The fact that you couldn't put a part of your heart and soul, creatively into that medium was frustrating. I turned to writing. I wrote journals of poetry- expressing my emotions, my loves and losses, my philosophies. Writing was an amazingly cleansing experience for me. To be able to turn to a page and write out all your hopes and fears, dreams and disillusions was just what I needed. I still do. I began getting very involved in other people's lyrics, covering every available bit of space that I could find on my books with some brilliant quote from one band or another. Nothing could help me to escape into a better world than music could. At 18, when I need to make a decision about what I wanted to do as a career, I knew I had to be around music. I thought perhaps a record company, a radio station, a recording studio? Just anything where I could hear music all day long. I decided to try an internship for a local rock station in New York. It lasted a year and a half and introduced me to an amazing path. I met Ritchie Blackmore, then of Deep Purple, on a soccer field. He has taught me so much. Since then, I have worked with Deep Purple, Rainbow, done backing vocals and guest spots on other projects and began singing lead vocals and writing lyrics in 1997 for Blackmore's Night. Blackmore's Night music really opened a door into the past. In it I am able to absorb the Renaissance times, the romance and chivalry, the mystery and the fantasy. A couple of years ago I started playing Renaissance instruments and incorporating them on the albums and the shows. I now have quite a collection! The ones that I play include the shawm, cornamuse and rauchpfife, not to mention also playing the pennywhistle, recorder, electric bagpipes and tambourine. The sounds are incredible - a whole new dimension... And the journey goes on... Click here for Page 2