| Antonia Mastrocristino Sirena (1929-2006)
A.M. Sirena was born in White
Plains, N.Y., on January 13th 1929. her father died a few months later. In 1931, because of the Depression, Sirena's mother
went to her parents' native Italy, where starvation and then World War II, brought
about the death of her eight children. Only Sirena survived when she was rescued from a burning
train by an opera singer, who later discovered the little girl's four octave vocal range
voice and trained her to sing After the War, in 1947, Sirena returned to New York, where the Lew Walters Agency signed and
booked her on singing engagements throughout the world. Years later, particulary because
of an almost fatal illness, Sirena abandoned her singing career. After five cloistered
years of self-taught painting, in 1965 she started showing her paintings in many
renowned galleries, from the U.S.A. to Italy, France, Holland. Picasso said of Sirena's paintings:
"They should be shown In addition to painting, Sirena has composed music and lyrics, and also wrote poetry. The artist died in 2006. |
