When I was 4 years old my Mother taught me to sew, but it was my Grandmother who taught me to dream.  She told me to go outside the lines, to look  beyond  the simple and see inside my head what I would want something to look like.  My mother’s Father and brother were tailors,  everyone  in their family knew how to sew.  So, why should I be different?   As a child I was exposed to opera on Saturday afternoons and grew to love musical theater, classical music, art and history.  I remember watching an interview on television, the woman was Edith Head.  I was fascinated by the fact that she designed costumes for stage and theater.  Several years ago, I was compared to her in a review.  I still wonder at how joining the two loves of music and sewing has given me my  life’s work. 

 The first opera I did was Madama Butterfly at the Hollybush Festival.  I then went on to teach during that time  and made many contacts.  I went into Philadelphia and worked with  The Philadelphia Area Repertory Theater,  and The  Afro American Theater Festival for several years.  Electric Factory Concerts opened the Theater of Living Arts with a production of Lady Day with Anne Duquesney, in Philadelphia and later moved the show to San Francisco.  I worked with the  Philadelphia Music Awards with Billy Joel, Patti Labelle, Hall and Oats, the Stylistics and Delfonics, Teddy Pendergrass, Phyllis Hyman, Wolfman Jack,  and so many more names based in Philadelphia music. I worked in Summer Stock with the Mount Washington Valley Theater Company for over 10 years.  I fell in love  with those White mountains and have now made my home there, in Fryeburg, Maine.  

 Back on the opera scene, I spent 1994-1999 designing with the Boehme Opera. With  Opera Festival of New Jersey for  I worked 10 summers, from Stitcher to  Shop Manager ;Designer  for  the last 5 years. At Florida Grand Opera I worked with leading opera singers and directors in the opera world today. With FGO I designed Carmen and Eugene Onegin, as well as being Costume Shop Manager for  four years.  The Opera Company of North Carolina was just being discovered and with them I designed Magic Flute, Carmen, Samson and Delilah, Salome, La Traviata, Turandot, and more.  I was in Colorado for Magic flute directed and conducted by Jules Rudel.   With Opera de Montreal  I did la Giaconda and Turandot with Opera de Quebec. In 2006 I began working with Connecticut Grand Opera,for which I have designed Madama Butterfly, Lucia de Lammermoor, Don Pasquale and Turandot.

 In 2005 after Managing the costume shop for Glimmerglass Opera, I returned to New Jersey to design Marriage of Figaro with New Jersey Opera Theater.  This was the first of 13 operas I have designed and built with the now Opera New Jersey, as resident designer:  Falstaff, Figaro, Cosi fan Tutti, Elixir of Love, Turandot, Romeo et Juliette, Pirates of Penzance, Magic Flute, Rigoletto, La Traviata, La Centerentola, Merry Widow, and Die Fledermaus.  In the summer of 2009 I will design The Mikado, Lucia de Lammermoor, and Abduction from the Seraglio, and, in the winter of 2010, a planned Carmen with Denyce Graves.  The home base for Opera New Jersey is the McCarter Theater in Princeton.  The company to other venues in the state, such as The State Theater in New Brunswick, the community theater in Morristown, and the NJ PAC in Newark.

 For the last 2 summers I designed for Opera North in Lebanon, New Hampshire.  Turandot was an enlarged production, adding from the original 39 costumes 90 more.  Opening night, the Cultural Ambassador from China was the Guest of Honor, along with his entire entourage.  After I was introduced to him, he thanked me for “Honoring both me, my country, and the people of my country, by designing and making your beautiful costumes in the Ming tradition.”  .He then bowed to me three times, which I was told was a great honor.   The entire Production was awarded the “Best of Summer” award.  In 2008 I designed both Madama Butterfly and Magic Flute with Opera North. 

 During all these many years, I have done rentals, to other opera companies,  weddings, interior designing, and so much more.