On my first day of kindergarten, I remember hiding behind my mother’s skirt and crying because I didn’t want to go to school. Then the music teacher, Judith Grove (her name is now Judith Allen), started playing the piano and singing. After that, I loved going to school because I loved being in her class. She was the one who told me about the All-City Chorus, where all the kids from the D.C. metropolitan area would come together and make a big chorus and give performances at Constitution Hall and the Kennedy Center. She would pick me up on Saturdays from my apartment and take me to those rehearsals.