Cindy Mellon:  

Life Between my freshman year at Madonna College and my sophomore year at Michigan State, I met my first husband while racing sailboats in Lake Erie. We dated throughout college and were married in 1983. Our daughter Caitlin was born in August of 1984, just two months after I graduated from MSU. At the time, we were living in Cleveland where my husband was a dental student at Case Western Reserve University and I was finishing up a few credits in German and preparing for my student teaching. In 1988, I came east to work on a Masters of Music in Voice at the University of Connecticut and John went back to Michigan to start his dental practice. I never really came back to Michigan to live, as John and I were separated and eventually divorced. Caitlin came to live with me in Storrs, CT in the summer of 1990. We moved to Wethersfield, CT in 1991 and Caitlin began 1st grade. At the time I was working as an adminstrative assistant at a financial services firm and singing as a paid section leader/soloist at a church not far from where we lived. That same fall, after a rehearsal for Verdi's Aida with Connecticut Opera, I met a man I had only seen and heard (and yet adored!) at an opera competition we had both been in two years earlier. Despite having mutual friends in music (he's a tenor), they all failed to recognize that we were perfect for each other and never introduced us. That night, with my seven-year-old daughter in tow, I got up my nerve and introduced myself. He seemed amazed that I had remembered him and his singing, and didn't seem all that bothered by the fact that I had a child. We talked for a bit and ended up going out that night with our mutual, yet clueless friends. Well, that as they say, was that. Soon, we were dating seriously and were engaged six months later. We were married a year to the day that Aida had opened - October 3rd. Our daughter Montana (named after her maternal great grandmother) was born in September of 1995. So, we are blessed with two beautiful daughters - Caitlin, who will begin her junior year studying human development and family studies at the University of Connecticut, and Montana, who begins fourth grade this September. Montana sings in an area youth choir and has played viola for two years. I'm sure genetics has nothing to do with that!! We live in Farmington, CT with our dog (a pit bull), two birds (dove and parakeet), a beta fish and nine snakes of various and non-venomous species. I am a performing and teaching musician and Rick is Vice President of Creative Services at an advertising agency. In addition to my music, I teach Pilates and play soccer in an over-30 womens' league. I am an avid reader and enjoy spending time working in my yard and hanging out with my family when I am not running around to rehearsals and performances. It's a great (albeit busy) life and I don't think I would trade places with anyone. College After graduation from Stevenson, I studied music for a year at Madonna College before...Expand for more