Whatever gift you are given — and everyone has gifts, she said — "you make it better by sharing it." She loves the first time students realize what they can do with their voices. "The day their voice opens up, something wonderful happens. You watch the light come on. It's very, very satisfying." On the other hand, nothing is quite as frustrating as watching someone who has a gift not use it, she said.

Robinson is grateful, too, to the people who have come along to help her. "I've done a lot of singing with Janice Kapp Perry and toured with Michael McLean."

She said her "signature sound," if she has one, is the ethereal quality of her voice. And that sound has been much in demand on a lot of locally produced albums. "But I don't want to be pigeonholed. I don't want people to think that's all I can do." So, there's a lot of variety on her own CD, she said. "I'm happy to be where I am. There's something to learn in every season. I'm still learning. I still make mistakes. I'm still moving on."

But there's a lot of satisfaction, she said, when someone comes up to her and says one of her songs captures "what I feel in my heart." If she can give someone a means of expression, "that makes it real."

Robinson knows she could not write the songs she does without the life experiences of the past 15 years. "There's a season for everything. I'm certainly older than the people on 'American Idol,' " she said with a laugh. "But I feel so much more for music and what's in it, because of my age and my seasoning.

"I'm not trying to be an 'American Idol,' I'm just trying to write what's in my heart."

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E-mail: carma@desnews.com