Jackson Offers Lyrical Lilt at Woman’s Club

This past Sunday, Linda Jackson performed as soloist with the Southeast Symphony singing Beethoven’s Ninth. Then, with a bit of the day remaining, she came back to Pacific Palisades for a recording session with her daughter, Mimi, singing backup on three songs. This is Jackson’s world”a magical life, buoyed by the sureness and clarity of her voice. She will share the range of her repertoire with members and guests of the Palisades Woman’s Club on Tuesday, October 14 at 11:45 a.m. at the clubhouse, 901 Haverford. As with so many professional singers, Jackson’s talent emerged early, in grammar school. Later, as a young single mom with a 2-year-old son looking for a job that would allow her to spend time with him, she turned to her voice. She was hired by the venerable Santa Monica eatery, the Great American Food and Beverage Company, which was infamous for its singing wait staff, and ‘scored the best schedule”’Wednesday through Saturday evenings. She could spend time with her son, volunteer at his school, and eventually move to the Westside. Jackson has literally sung through her life, expanding her repertoire while deepening her knowledge of music theory and composition. In 2001, she was accepted in the mentoring program at Santa Monica College, by both the voice and composition departments, and, two years later, she moved on to UCLA for her bachelor’s degree in voice, and master’s degree from Cal State Northridge. Her discipline of choice is opera, which she hopes to perform as the recently announced Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera takes shape with its debut staging, William Kraft’s ‘Red Azalea,’ planned for October 2009 on the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Jackson, who is the president of the company, and founder Ella Lee, the renowned soprano whose husband Arturo Romani is the great grandson of the famous librettist (‘Norma,’ ‘La Sonnambula,’ ‘I Puritani’) are in the fundraising stage of the venture. For the Woman’s Club program, Jackson will mix it up, offering opera (‘Un Bel Di’ from ‘Madama Butterfly’), musical theater (‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’ from ‘Sunset Boulevard’), and a jazz medley of the work of baroque composer Henry Purcell. The program is free to the public. For $10 lunch (12:30 p.m.), call 310-454-1659.