Dawn Upshaw

Posted at 8:24 AM on June 2, 2006 by Rex Levang

Sweet anecdote told by the soprano Dawn Upshaw, on the travails of being on the road:

I hate practicing in hotel rooms, because I always worry about the people next door. I mean, I’d find it irritating if somebody were singing a few feet away on the other side of my wall. But I had no other place to warm up for rehearsal, and so there I was, one day in Ann Arbor, singing away in my room. And this nice lady came to the door and said "I’m awfully sorry, but I’m working with numbers across the hall, and I just can’t think while you’re doing that." And I said, "Oh, I’m terribly sorry, I’ll stop right away – no, really, it’s perfectly fine, please don’t worry." And she thanked me and then said, "But I want you to know that I really think you have something there, and I hope you’ll stick with it."

Yesterday Upshaw was named one of the artistic partners of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Read all about it.