This season, The Mabel Mercer Foundation and Jazz At Lincoln Center will present the 35th year of The New York Cabaret Convention. Full of pride, history, music and legendary performances, there is something magnetic that draws me and thousands of others to music venues and concert spaces in order to be transported. For me, it has always been to witness and observe “how the magic happens.” Backstage, rehearsals, sound checks, invited dress rehearsals, active dressing rooms and hallways … all of it! Those are the activities that excite me. It probably started when my piano teacher, Dave Roberts, who was a staff musician at CBS & NBC had me, his 13 year old student, tag along to watch some TV musical show rehearsals during the ‘50s.