Ricky Ricardo woos Lucy, who is mad at him, by singing “The Anniversary Waltz” to her
Moving to California ended Esther’s singing with Carmen Caramonica. So a few months in, she enrolled in a jazz class at Modesto Junior College and took part in the college’s spring concert. She wore red leather cowboy boots and a red and white print dress and sang “Don’t Fence Me In.”
In 1993, we traveled to New Haven for Jeremy’s graduation. While we were there, Esther took in a master class in New York offered by Broadway singer Mandy Patimkin. Afterwards, she asked him where he’d studied. He said in New York with a singer turned teacher named Andy Anselmo. Anselmo had co-founded a school for cabaret singers and had been mentor for big name stars Patimkin and Liza Minelli. Way back, Anselmo had made his name on Broadway as the ingenue lead in The Most Happy Fella. Esther corresponded with him. He wrote back.
That fall (1993), she enrolled in the school, studying singing with Anselmo and other teachers. She spent most of that year living in New York with her cousin Ruth. At the end of the year, May or April, she put on a one-woman show, Love’s Situations, just her and her pianist Harry Dworkin. I was there. Jeremy was there. Her sisters Irene and Evelyn were there. Jeremy and cousin Ruth came of course, as did Nancy Wenner and Charles and Peggy Perrotet, friends of Ruth’s and ours. Some of Jeremy’s friends were there and our friends Sadie and Bob Spear and Ted Hanley and Sara Peters came, and I forget who else. People from the school came, including his teachers. The hall was packed.
“Love’s Situations”: Harry Dworkin, Esther, 1994
The best moment for me was when she called me on stage to dance with her to”The Anniversary Waltz.” I had my tux on and Esther was wearing on this gorgeous floppy legged pant outfit and our friends and relatives were there watching as we circled slowly and gently around the small stage in front of them.
Jeremy and Esther before the concert
Afterwards, we returned to Turlock where later that summer, Esther soloed with the Stanislaus Symphony Orchestra at the university’s Labor Day concert, held in the open air amphitheater in front of approximately six thousand people. Tenor Joe Miller (lovely voice!) and she sang selections from West Side Story and The Phantom of the Opera. I sat on the hill part way up with our friends Ed and Dee Aubert and filmed part of it.
afterward with Dee and Ed
ADDITIONAL LISTENING
Sarah Brightman, Michael Crawford: “The Music of the Night”
“Somewhere,” from West Side Story
MUSIC & ME 