Jenny on a hike with her dog Bailey
Jenny, by day a marketing manager, has been singing with the Long Beach Chorale sopranos for five-and-a-half years. Her favorite pieces we’ve performed are Randall Thompson’s setting of the Robert Frost poem Choose Something Like a Star, and (of course, being a native of Germany) Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem.
Jenny tells the story of growing up in East Germany and developing her love of music. “I have been singing for all my life. As a child, I sang sitting in fruit trees in my grandparents’ garden, picking and eating fruit (until I got a tummyache) and of course singing. I guess, growing up in East Germany, there wasn’t much else to do, no Mickey Mouse to adore or video games to be played. In hindsight, I’m grateful for growing up that way. I also used to sing on a swing in my grandparents’ garden, supposedly so nicely that the neighbors would bring us cherries!”
“At the age of eight or nine, I joined a children’s choir in my home town of Gotha and it really shaped who I am today, both musically and as a person in general. I am an only child, but with an intense rehearsal schedule and frequent singing camps, the choir became my home away from home, my other family, my siblings that I never had. Eventually I got ‘kicked out’ at the age of 18.”
In college, Jenny started a small singing group with a few friends and they performed at school functions. She moved to Canada and continued her college years in Victoria, British Columbia. After graduating, she moved to Toronto and joined a women’s choir called Cantores Celestes. (You can watch a video of Jenny performing with Cantores Celestes here.) After just a year in Toronto, Jenny moved to California, found the Long Beach Chorale, and the rest is history. “Being so far away from home, the LBCCO once again has filled a void and become my other family. The caliber and people make it even that much better!” she says.
When she’s not at rehearsal, Jenny is walking her “puppy,” a 95-pound pit bull, seeking out hole-in-the-wall restaurants, going wine tasting, or listening to the Beatles, The Who, Bright Eyes, Regina Spektor (her favorite), K.D. Lang, Joni Mitchell, and other singer-songwriters.
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