Here’s a fun moment from my Junior Voice Recital, which I sang back in the fall of 1980 with classmate Annette Kirkpatrick (now Annette de la Torre.)  Annette was a very assured and expressive singer who was SO much more comfortable in the spotlight than I was, so it was great for me to get to watch her in action.  Our recital ended with the two of us singing a medley from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which I arranged.  (It was the first serious, significant arranging project I ever completed.)   It features “A Lovely Night,” “Loneliness of Evening,”  “Do I love you,” “In my own Little Corner,” and “Ten Minutes.”   Joel Martinson accompanied us on the piano.

Pictured above:  Lesley Ann Warren, who portrayed Cinderella in the CBS network’s telecast of the show from the mid 1960’s.  Of all of the stage and screen productions I’ve seen of this work,  this particular production is my favorite because it makes kindness the driving factor in the story.  It is kindness that causes Cinderella to come out and offer the Prince a cup of cool water from the well as he passes by (she doesn’t know until afterwards that he was the Prince; to her he was just a stranger in need) – – – and later,  once the ball is done and the Prince is desperately seeking for the beautiful woman he met there,  it is as Cinderella once again offers him a cup of water that he finally recognizes her.  It is her kindness that ends up making the difference.