Bakermat Quotes

I had classical training but I don't consider myself an opera singer though.

To this day, I adore classical music, and I'm very interested in opera, which I found out later my father was also extremely fond of.

My greatest influence came from my parents' love of classical music. We listened to a lot of arias and operas growing up.

I also have a big love of classical music played on piano because this is the environment I grew up in my brother being one of the great masters in this world.

I love to sing, and I warm up to Maria Callas.

I started performing opera when I was 10 years old. I didn't perform as Zola Jesus until I was probably 18.

I think I've been influenced by everything I've ever heard. The first thing I ever heard was my grandma, who was an opera singer. The first song I ever learned was the 'Nessun Dorma' from Puccini's 'Turandot.' My father was a big band singer, so I used to hear him walking around the house singing standards all the time.

Above all, I am an opera singer. This is how people will remember me.

There was one thing Beethoven didn't do. When one of his string quartets was played, you can believe the second violin wasn't improvising.

I'd love to have the time to learn to sing opera properly rather than bellowing half-formed fragments of melody in exuberant moments.

There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.

When you are up close to an opera singer, hearing this incredible volume of noise coming from a human being - it's beyond belief.

I had no idea what those cords were in the bridge of 'Prisoner In Disguise' when I wrote them. I had to go over to Don Gorman, the piano player, and ask what in the world I was playing.

My parents met in music school and my father was a music professor and conductor. Growing up, we always had classical and contemporary music playing. There was a lot of Mozart and the Beatles.

The real exertion in the case of an opera singer lies not so much in her singing as in her acting of a role, for nearly every modern opera makes great dramatic and physical demands.

I only know two pieces; one is 'Clair de Lune' and the other one isn't.

I was born out of classical music.

It's interesting about classical music that the more you hear something, the more you get to know a piece, the better and better it gets, period, which is just an interesting thing on it.

I am the daughter of the Chairman of the Board and thus, was raised with great music.

Actually, I've had very little classical training, although I love listening to classical music very much.

I played piano, I learned a lot about music.

In the U.K., classical music is composed by individuals and written down. Indian music is based on certain sequences called ragas. When I perform live, 95% of the music is improvised: it never sounds the same twice.

Seriously though, my father was the first African American to sign a contract with the Metropolitan Opera so I grew up with classical music and jazz in the home all the time.

I never learned to read music.

I was more of a light opera singer, not really much of a lounge singer.