Alum Wesla Whitfield, Veteran Cabaret Singer, Announces Retirement

KQED (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Born in Santa Maria, Whitfield began her singing career after she graduated from San Francisco Stage College. For four years in the mid ’70s, she sang soprano for the San Francisco Opera’s chorus. But after spending too many nights in the city’s sleazy piano bars, she fell in love with the Great American Songbook and gave up on her opera career. “She always said opera was about the voice, while the songs from the Great American Songbook were about the story,” Greensill says. “She always liked telling the story more than showing off.”