When Clare Donohue came to the Chattanooga area a few years ago to help a friend battling some health issues, she had no idea she would end up staying here, or that she would meet an 81-year-old African-American saxophone player who would have a big impact on her life.
Donohue, 52, grew up in Brooklyn and taught school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. mentoring gifted students. She is also a jazz singer specializing in old-school music popularized by singers like Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Doris Day.
Ever since seeing how music could impact severely disabled students in a school where she taught in Connecticut years earlier, Donohue said she’s always used musc and art in her teaching.
Shortly after settling in here, she needed a sax player for a New Year’s Eve gig and heard about R.T. Bolden through a mutual friend. He was facing surgery related to cancer and couldn’t make the gig, but he asked her to drop off a CD of her music.
“He told me, ‘There is no one around here who sings like you do,'” Donohue said.