Since I was a wee child, music had a magical sway over me. I dreamed of being a singer and dancer and of performing on stage.

In 1984, a friend strongly encouraged me to take singing lessons. He often had me and other friends to his home for Friday Sabbat and heard me sing. He raved about my voice. So, I decided to take voice lessons.

Then, after 5 years of vocal study with a teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (I lived in San Francisco then), I moved back to San Jose in 1990. There are many wonderful community theater groups in the South Bay Area.

Soon after moving there, I met one of the founders of the San Jose Gilbert & Sullivan Society and dediced to audition for one of their productions in 1991. It was the first time I had ever auditioned for anything so was very nervous! Surprisingly, I was given a small role in their G&S production of "Iolanthe," one of the three fairies named "Fleta." That was the start of a 13-year long love affair of stage life and performing in various musical productions in the South Bay Area.

In 2000, I peformed a concert in Palo Alto with two other singers, one a tenor and the other a mezzo soprano. You can hear the songs that I sang that day by clicking here.

For photos, click here for the 1st half, click here for the duet from La Traviata, and click here for the 2nd half.

In 2009, I scheduled another concert, to be performed at the Le Petit Trianon theater in San Jose, CA. However, right before the event, I came down with a severe case of laryngitis. It was too late to cancel the concert because many guests were flying in from out of town and had booked hotel rooms. So I canceled the concert for locals, and decided to perform for out-of-town guests by lip-syncing to my rehearsal tapes. We had a fantastic after-concert party. Obviously, there are no voice recordings of that day, but click here for photos.

In 2010, I performed the concert I had planned the year before. This was also at the Le Petit Trianon in San Jose, CA. This was the last time that I performed because age weakens all muscles, including vocal chords. I no longer enjoyed hearing myself sing, so it was time to quit singing.

You can hear audio clips of what I sang that day by clicking here.

For photos, click here for the 1st half, click here for the 2nd half, and click here for the duet of "All I Ask of You" from Phantom of the Opera. The tenor is Matthew Reeves whose day job is an engineer.