Vocal performance was my hobby during the years I took leave from my financial management career to raise my family. It was my passion second only to my three daughters, who were 3, 7, and 10 when I moved to Pelham, NY, with my family. Within months of moving, I joined a local choral group, the Pelham Larks. More than just people to sing with, the Larks provided me with the abiding friendship and support of like-minded professional women in the suburbs.
The Pelham Larks, Sept 2010. Simone is standing, extreme right.
Within a few years, I realized the dream I'd had since my college years: to sing in an a cappella group of my own. Together with fellow Pelham Lark, soprano Donna Randles, the a capPelhams vocal quintet was conceived. It took six months for the group to accept my suggestion for a name: the a capPelhams.
The a capPelhams, Bartow-Pell mansion, Bronx, NY, Christmas 2012. Pictured from left to right: Donna, Chris, Dawn, and Simone. (Missing: John.)
Just when the a capPelhams were starting to sing, I attended the cabaret performance of an elementary school classmate, Peter Yawitz. One evening spent in the audience of a small midtown Manhattan club, and I was hooked!
It took four years of workshops and group performances before I felt brave enough to perform solo in a cabaret club, as Peter had done. Performing as a cabaret chanteuse was even more thrilling than I could have imagined. My Director, Helen Baldassare, and Music Director, Gregory Torian, were instrumental (pun intended).
