I went to a college in New York called New Paltz. I studied theater there for four years. I also studied privately in NYC with a teacher named Robert X. Modica.

In the depth of the near depression that he faced when he came in Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress provided 'recovery funds' that literally kept our classrooms open. Two years ago these funds saved nearly 20 000 teacher and education jobs - just here in North Carolina.

I taught in a small teacher's college for three or four years at which point all the administrators got a pay raise and the teaching faculty didn't.

I had a teacher he was 86 years old and his name was Luigi in New York City and he said 'Never stop moving. You get to reinvent yourself.' So you have to find ways to reinventing yourself. Especially today because it's a whole different market - social media is so important.

But the idea that I should be a teacher and a researcher of some sort did not vary over the years.

I spent most of my high school years on movie sets and I'd have like one teacher which was really bad.

For one thing I teach my students what my teacher for twenty years Paul Gavert told me 'The voice follows... the voice follows everything about you... who you are.'

Well the teacher I studied with for nineteen and a half years was a man named Paul Gavert. He was a great lieder singer so basically I'm a trained lieder singer because of that teacher. The teacher I currently study with - since 1995 - is Joan Lader who also studied with Gavert.

I was 20 years old working as a roofer and a telemarketer and driving a taxi just barely getting by. A friend of a friend suggested I try acting. I was like 'Why? What am I going to do? Community theater?' But I took a class and the teacher thought that I had potential so I moved to Vancouver and started auditioning.

When I had my first voice lesson I was 15 years old. And I had a really good teacher. This is what made all the difference. A good teacher will teach you the technique but also how to listen to your voice.