In 2009, I was still a student in the Cantor-Educator Program at Hebrew College, and just a year-and-a-half since completing my battle with breast cancer, when I received a call from Ronni Cohen-Boyar, Executive Director for the Massachusetts chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She told me that Major League Baseball promotes their annual breast cancer awareness campaign at every game played around the country on Mother's Day.

She well-knew the College's School of Jewish Music resources as her late husband, Rick Boyar, was studying to become a cantor and received posthumus ordination as an honorary member of the first graduating class in 2007. Seeking a survivor with an excellent voice, she tapped her connections there and sought me out to see if I would be interested in singing the national anthem. She called me on the Monday before Mother's Day, which meant I had one week to prepare.

I told her that I wasn't a performer, but rather an educator. I looked at the national anthem as the ritual people do before they begin the game. She said, "Then we're on the same page!" Thrilled to be asked, I turned to my cantorial voice coach, Cantor Charles Osborne, and performance coach (now Head of Vocal Arts) Lynn Torgove for help.

The Star Spangled Banner is a challenging piece to perform, ranging over an octave-and-a-half. At the request of the Boston Red Sox management, I went to Fenway Park on Friday before the big game to record the anthem in order to ensure that the performance would be solid. I'm proud to say that I did it in one take!

When I stepped out on the field on Sunday, I wasn't nervous. Instead, it was an exhilerating experience to sing along with my recording into a muted microphone. When I got to "the land of the free", everyone began singing along. It felt like a wall of sound coming back at me. Being part of that experience was just fabulous. So fabulous that I was invited to repeat the experience on June 18 in Pawtucket, R.I., for the Pawtucket Red Sox minor league team as they partnered with the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation to bring greater awareness to the fight against breast cancer.