“It transports me back into this bedroom that I had as a kid. Sitting in my bay window, overlooking the field, leading up to the forest. There's nothing else out there.”

Opera singer Jamie Barton grew up in an isolated rural community in northwest Georgia. Her first listen to Chopin's Nocturne No. 21 in C Minor — found on a CD titled Chopin and Champagne — began an obsession with classical music that turned her teenage alienation into a powerful sense of belonging to music and connection with its listeners, whoever they are and wherever they come from.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts to receive a new episode every day or delve deeper into our companion playlist.

Jamie Barton is a mezzo-soprano. She is singing the part of Orfeo in the Metropolitan Opera’s fall production of Orfeo & Euridice.

Did you like the track Jamie chose? Listen to the music in full:

Nocturne No. 21 by Frédéric Chopin