Music, Music, Music!

  Fiorella grew up with music. Her mother taught Fio and her brother, little songs that Fio still hums to herself during quiet times, and as your girl grew older, she sang the more adult "There's a Tree in the Meadow" along with the record player. 

The whole family sang, and sometimes, on nice evenings, they would would go out on the front porch and sing old favorites. Yes, Dad sang too, quite well, but mother was convinced he was off key, just as, later, she critiqued Fiorella. Just as she critiqued the soloist at a relative's funeral--but by then, as an adult and with five years of voice training her, Fio knew the problem was with Mom, not the singer. Why? Probably because Mother been brainwashed since childhood about her own singing, which was really quite nice.

Interestingly enough, Mom, a natural musician, always sang alto, although, as Fiorella realized later, Mother was really, like most women, a soprano. However, as Fio finally figured out, "soprano," to mother, meant an opera singer-- "a loose woman."

As you can guess, when Fio's sixth grade teacher organized a choir, Fio declared herself an alto. However,  she got moved up to second soprano in high school, and then, when she hit college, learned that she was a soprano. That's when the fun began.

By the way, Fio's daughter turned out to be a soprano also, and she always took the high notes. Hoping granddaughter, who comes from musical families on both sides, will do the same.