I fell in love with Milhaud’s music early in my singing life, and was privileged to perform these songs with the Montreal Symphony during my first international competition. The Britten setting of Rimbaud poems has also challenged and sustained me for some years now. I came to the world of song literature through my passion for theater and my fascination with folk music. The Tailleferre songs use deceptively simple material the way a master baker makes a baguette: the result appears inevitably natural and tastes irresistible. Satie’s songs are an amazing collection of dramatic wit and warmth that tie the whole program together the way wine and spices unify a meal. We might well have titled this disc "La vie est un repas," except that the project really was a parade across continents, involving a legion of artists: we began performing and recording with the Czech National Symphony in Prague and ended in Chicago, assisted by the extensive vocal/instrumental archives of Editions Salabert in Paris. It was a sweet surprise to receive among the Tailleferre scores from Salabert four songs that were (to my knowledge) previously unrecorded. These, of course, joined the procession along with the newly made Satie arrangements from Easley Blackwood, all of which were a thrill for me to premiere with The Chicago Chamber Musicians. Performing this wealth of literature with so many great musicians has been a wonderful sojourn for me. I hope listening to it will prove equally rewarding for you. Bon appetit, and enjoy the parade!