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BIO |
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A native New Yorker, Caryn Hartglass was born in Bronxville, NY. Her parents, Lois and Hal Hartglass, courted each other singing standards made famous by singers like Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughn. (Listen to Caryn's father Harold Hartglass singing All The Things You Are.) When Caryn was three the growing Hartglass family moved to a home on Long Island. Caryn and her older sister Lori learned to sing from her parents. Caryn was mentored early in activism by her sister. Lori directed musical shows in their backyard that they would perform in together for the neighbors and raise money for cancer research and muscular distrophy. (Lori Hartglass, now a lawyer, has been raising funds for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation since 1989.) A few years later Caryn's brother Barry was born which completes the musical family of five. (Check out Barry Hartglass' work on MySpace.) Caryn went to Half Hollow Hills High School and when she was about 15 years old she announced to her family that she wanted to be a vegetarian. There was little information available about vegetarian nutrition at the time and her parents were very concerned for her health. Caryn's mother took her to the family physician. The physician's arrogant and patronizing demeanor catapulted Caryn further into the world of vegetarianism. The part of the doctor's diagnosis that was the most illogical was when he insisted that eating meat was beneficial for animals, because more were given the chance to live. He also said it was healthy to eat meat. Interestingly, Caryn's persistent stomach ailments, anemia and the premenstrual moodiness she was experiencing at the time all disappeared with the plant-based diet. While attending Bucknell University in Lewisberg Pennsylvania and majoring in chemical engineering, Caryn was the lead singer in two rock bands and played the local club circuit. After graduating from Bucknell with Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in chemical engineering, Caryn pursued a career spanning 20 years in Photomaskmaking, a specialized area of the semiconductor industry, primarily in California. She had her own consulting business with clients around the globe. While employed as an engineer, Caryn continued to actively pursue her passion for singing delving deeper into the performing arts by performing on the legitimate stage. She began her career in amateur theatre while in elementary school and quickly worked her way up to semi-professional theater in early 1980's and finally found herself starring nationally in musical theatre and internationally singing opera in Europe. While living in France she studied with Mady Mesplé, France's most famed lyric coloratura while studying French and German. An incredibly driven multi-tasker, Caryn even found time to continue her chemical engineering consulting while giving concerts and competing in vocal competitions. During this time she won two international vocal competitions, one in France and one in South Africa, and recorded a CD with the French company, Ligia Digital. During her years in France, Caryn never lost her growing desire to continue to spread the word regarding the benefits of a plant based diet. When she returned to New York in 1996, Caryn's brother Barry introduced her to the EarthSave Long Island chapter and she immediately became an EarthSave volunteer. Subsequently Caryn joined the EarthSave International board of directors in 1999, and began her fulltime position as Executive Director of EarthSave International in November 2001. Find out more about EarthSave at www.earthsave.org. She continues to reside in New York City with her partner, Gary De Mattei.
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