So much can be gained from watching other singers, seeing what they do and what they don't do, seeing how they look when they breathe, how wide they open their mouths for a high note.

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

I want to get out of the major opera houses.

Everybody's a work in progress. I'm a work in progress. I mean, I've never arrived. I'm still learning all the time.

Every singer eventually gets around to a Christmas disc.

Certainly, jazz has become more of a niche, which is surprising, because it's our music. It's the national music of America.

We sing with the entire body. The sounds that we make emanate not just from the head, but from the whole heart and soul, and, most important, the gut.