The American soprano opera singer Barbara Bonney (foto’s YouTube) was born in New Jersey. As a child she studied piano and cello. When Bonney was 13 her family moved to Maine, where she became part of the Portland Youth Orchestra as a cellist. She spent two years at the University of New Hampshire studying German and music and studied abroad her junior year at the University of Salzburg, where she switched from cello to voice. While there she studied at the Mozarteum.