Dr. Ross thought our patients would like to know more about who I am when I’m not in the office helping them.
So here goes.
What do I do when I’m not in the office doing what I do here for you? I follow a lifelong passion.
After helping people throughout my nursing career (I'm a Registered Nurse) and with Dr. Ross here at our office, my next biggest passion is music. I sang in children and youth choir in Church, was allowed into the adult choir at age thirteen (probably because my voice was too tiny at that time to do any harm and I loved the Alto part), sang in high school choirs and played piano for the high school choir in my Senior year. Then nursing school and my Bachelor's and Master's degrees from University of Pennsylvania. That tough schedule got in the way of my singing but I never lost my connection to music. In 1979, I was watching the Phil Donahue Show and saw the Penna-Fores, an international champion Sweet Adelines quartet, and thought, hey, I wanna do that.
Well, I did end up as a member of both Sweet Adelines International and Harmony, Inc., two women’s barbershop harmony organizations. I have sung in three Sweet Adelines choruses and one Harmony Inc. chorus. One of the Sweet Adelines choruses won the International Championship three times. It's hard to describe the feeling when they hang a gold medal around your neck in front of 12,000 screaming, cheering people. That's a thrill you never forget.
Here I am in full Lion King Costume and makeup for a performance (2nd from right)
And I have been in four quartets (but not at the International Championship level).
My most recent chorus is Harmony Celebration Chorus, which was formerly Ramapo Valley Chorus (the one that won the championships). When our great Director Renee Craig retired, the chorus retired the chorus’s name in her honor and re-invented ourselves with a new name. We have a wonderful Director named Scott Brannon who in less than two years helped us back to the Greater New York Regional Chorus Championship and we are going to compete at the International Chorus Contest in October 2010.
I sing Baritone, which is the Barbershop harmony world’s name for a harmony part that isn’t the highest (Tenor) and isn’t the lowest (Bass) and sometimes is above the melody part (Lead) and sometimes is below the melody part. I love it because it is the smart part
I judged Barbershop Contests for 17 years. That includes my time training to become a Certified Judge plus 15 years of active judging. I coached performance presentations for both women's organizations and also was part of the first group of women judges allowed to judge at contests for the men’s Barbershop Harmony Society. I taught at music schools for all three organizations, and I represented Harmony Inc. as their International Education Services Coordinator for seven years.
So when I wasn’t here in the office where I am a familiar helping face, I have had more than plenty to do. If you hear me around the office humming a tune, you’ll know that the music is in me all the time and sometimes it just has to pop out!
