28 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {quickpunch} Where do you sing? I’m a cantor at St. Raymond Catholic Church in Menlo Park and perform with two Bay Area choral ensembles: Peninsula Cantare and the San Francisco Bach Choir. Did you attend the Grammy Awards? For “Best Choral Performance” nominees, the artistic director and the composer attend. While I was watching from home, my phone was blowing up with texts and pictures from my fellow ensemble members and folks at the ceremony sharing pictures and memories of our performance. How do you approach singing solo versus as part of a chorus? You really have to change the way you listen. In an ensemble, you have to make sure that you blend with the singers around you and move as one unit. When you sing as a soloist, you alone are vocally responsible for the emotion and direction of the piece. What do you collect? Vintage sheet music. I treasure the arrangements I have of pop music from the 1940s made famous by Doris Day. Tell us about your first time at Carnegie Hall. It was with The Oratorio Society of New York for the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road. The performance made me feel like I had finally arrived as a New Yorker and my “commute” from my apartment was a short subway ride to one of the grandest concert halls in the world. It all felt very fabulous and surreal. THE Q & A CHARLOTTE REED Is there a piece of music you could listen to again and again? The second movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. The first time I heard the French horn solo, I was on a plane and was so moved that I started sobbing. Can you share a childhood musical memory? When I was a little girl, I sang “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music in front of a live audience for the first time at the local library talent show in my hometown of Darien, Connecticut. What’s the dumbest way you’ve been hurt? I was playing a pick-up soccer game in middle school, barefoot, against someone wearing Doc Marten steel-toe boots. Guess who ended up breaking their toe? What’s your favorite venue for performing? Madison Square Garden. I performed there several times with Andrea Bocelli during his North America tours and the energy of 20,000 people reacting to your music at once is electrifying! What age would you choose to be again? I would be six years old because I loved kindergarten and have so many happy memories. My favorite was going to The Plaza hotel in New York City for tea for my sixth birthday, like Eloise from the Kay Thompson books. What are you looking forward to this summer? I’m singing the National Anthem at games for a couple of Bay Area professional sports teams. I’ll have more info on my website, thecharlottereed.com. The Grammy-nominated ensemble singer from Menlo Park sounds off about her first time at Carnegie Hall, why she doesn’t play soccer with bare feet and the song that made her cry on a plane.
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