The tech school was Texas Tech University, which had a good liberal arts program. She majored in voice, choosing it over piano and stayed on after her Bachelor's degree to earn a Master's. In 1985 she moved to New York and attended the Manhattan School of Music.

The world opened up as the "country girl" from the Southwest pounded the pavements of the Big Apple where in 1987 she won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. More rounds of auditions followed (she had set her sights on Santa Fe Opera but failed to land any offers), as well as a stint at San Francisco Opera's Merola Program.

Her first big break came when the Manhattan School cast her in the title role of Massenet's Chérubin - which brought her first press notice. (She would sing the role again in 1997, but this time on the world stage of Covent Garden.) Meanwhile, she sought and got bigger-sized roles in smaller houses around the US even as she was getting ready for her Met debut as the Second Lady in the 1991 production of Mozart's Zauberflöte. This was followed by other small parts in such operas as Les Troyens, Don Carlo, Falstaff, etc. Soon, Europe beckoned; there she had her own series of "trials-by-fire." And steadily but surely, her star began to rise.