Duelin' Sopranos
Vanessa Jump Nelson and
April Brookins Duvic were both born in April, adore singing in French,
and make a mean apple pie. It was through their activities in a
variety of professional organizations, primarily the National
Association of Teachers of Singing, that they met in 1994. They
were featured artist of the month in May, 2003 by Nettleingham Audio,
and their latest CD, "Under Her Spell: The Viardot Effect" was
nominated in 2004 for Best Album in the category Opera/Classical Vocal
for the 2004 Just Plain Folks Music Awards.
With and without sabres, the duo's concertizing has taken them all
around the Northwest, including private French dinner garden parties
where they have continued singing despite dogs jumping on them and the
automatic sprinklers coming on. One of their favorite
adventures was their trip to France, where, with pianist Mary Dibbern,
of Paris, they presented a concert of music by the composer and opera
star Pauline Viardot, and the composers she influenced. They
returned to the United States where Mary joined them to record a CD of
this material. Being the true divas that they are, their
recording session included an on-site massage specialist.