Introducing: The Lullaby Project
The story of how & why I plan on singing to my baby….
I’ll be totally honest. I was never one of those little girls that day dreamed about being a mom. I never cared for playing with baby dolls, and I didn’t even like playing house. I did not have a wedding Pinterest board at 13 like most millennials my age. But I never thought, “well I don’t want to do that.” Instead, I just didn’t think about it much at all. My real desire to be a wife and mother came along much later once I was an adult.
Along the road to becoming an adult, I remember several moments that stopped me in my tracks with that very desire. I was 20 years old, in a college voice lesson, singing Manuel de Falla’s “Nana.” “Nana” is an art song rendition of a Spanish folk song. That folk song is meant to be sung as a lullaby. I was singing. My voice teacher stopped me, “shhhh! This is a lullaby. I used to sing this to my daughter.” All of the sudden, the song entirely changed in my mind. I could only imagine a tired mother with all the passion and love for her child singing this. I related to the piece on a different level, imagining myself as a tired mother.
Since then, I never stopped thinking about how it would be to sing to my child. And now, at 32 weeks pregnant, it’s closer than I could even imagine. The songs I’ve sung professionally are some of the best lullabies in the world. Of all time. I’ve collected quite a few in my repertoire over the years, and now it’s finally time to use them.
I’m sharing their history and melodies in this YouTube series. I don’t know how long the project will be, how many lullabies I will ultimately share, but I do hope you find this inspiring. Whether you’re a musician or not, lullabies are for everyone to share with their children.
Here is the first addition to the project: “An Evening Hymn” by Henry Purcell (from his Harmonia Sacra). Learn more about the song and why I chose it in this video. Plus, hear me sing the piece live at my last public performance before maternity leave.