Renée A. Fladen (born 3 August 1948,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

), also known as Renée Fladen-Kamm, is an American singer and

vocal coach A vocal coach, also known as a voice coach (though this term often applies to those working with speech and communication rather than singing), is a music teacher, usually a piano accompanist, who helps singers prepare for a performance, often al ...

. Among her recordings are those of

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

as vocal director of the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

-based Sherwood Consort. She also worked on the musical direction of theatrical works directed by Mary Devlin, another member of the Sherwood Consort.

Personal life

In the 1960s, Fladen was in a relationship with Tom Finn, bass guitarist for

The Left Banke The Left Banke was an American baroque pop band, formed in New York City in 1965. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina". The band often used what the Music journalism, music press refer ...

. Fladen is said to have been the inspiration of the Left Banke songs " Walk Away Renée" (1966), "

Pretty Ballerina "Pretty Ballerina" is a song written by pianist Michael Brown that was released as a single by his band The Left Banke in December 1966. It peaked at number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and number 4 on the Canadian '' RPM'' chart. Co ...

" (1966)Rhonda Markowitz ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History'' Page 203 - 2006 "One fateful day, so the story goes, Finn brought his blonde girlfriend, an aspiring ballerina named Renee Fladen, to band practice. Brown fell instantly in love and incorporated his fantasy crush into the song "Walk Away Renee", and "She May Call You Up Tonight" (1967). Fladen married Howard I. Kamm (born 1946) in 1967, but the couple divorced in

in 1974.

References

American women singers Living people Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Singers from California Muses (persons) 1948 births 21st-century American women {{US-singer-stub