My mother was the worst kind of stage mother. She would make me and my younger sister and brother little duckling costumes and put us in kiddie shows.

Music was language in our house. It was air.....I feel certain that if I absorbed any lessons at all in the first months and years of my life, they must have been about the work that went into making a beautiful sound.

I've lived in New York all my life, and we went to the Mormon Pageant each year in upstate New York. It still is a wonderful production. I remember going and seeing the performance and listening to the music. My father had Mormon Tabernacle Choir music, and we would listen to it and sing with it.

Contrary to the norm, as my technique improved my voice became higher.

I've always been inspired by artists who have shown musical and intellectual curiosity and the courage to take risks.

I don't want to record anything unless it can be great and genuinely interesting.

Because everything about the voice interests me, I felt it would be fascinating to learn a completely different style of singing.