Dina Soresi Winter has led a life filled with music, art, theater, education, and a love of Dante. At the age of fourteen, she discovered opera and never recovered from it. After seeing her first opera, La Traviata, at the old Metropolitan Opera in New York City, she began studies with Francesca Pasella, an Italian maestra in the Bronx. Under Ms. Pasella's tutelage, she won several singing awards, one of which took her to Italy, where she made her debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. She was the first twentieth-century "Maria Stuarda" and sang leading roles in major theaters in Germany, Italy, and Holland. Theodora Richards studied music for many years with her aunt, Gracia Ricardo, who worked directly with Rudolf Steiner on her approach to music. Theodora was a major supporter of anthroposophic work in the New York City area and has followed the suggestions of Rudolf Steiner to deepen her understanding of the nature of tone.
