There, she lived with her aunt and served as assistant conductor of her school's chorus.
Her mother, Portia Sonnenfeld, is conductor of the Chamber Symphony of Princeton.
He worked again with Ms. Peters as the writer, arranger and conductor of her nightclub act.
One was the sixpence given to her by Tullio Serafin, conductor of that first extraordinary "Lucia", for hitting a perfect top E flat.
Her father was the conductor of a Philadelphia opera house orchestra; the family home was filled with vaudeville waifs and strays, amid whom Coca was taught piano and singing, and soon she was combining her education with stints on stage.
Her father is a conductor of symphonies and operas; he conducted the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in a recording of George Crumb's "Star-Child,'' which won a Grammy in 2001.
In January 1933 she made her New York debut as guest conductor of the Musicians' Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Ben-David's helping hands include her director, Eric Michael Gillett, who has a particular talent for structuring shows into coherent emotional journeys, and Adam Ben-David, her brother and the associate conductor of "The Book of Mormon".
But once the undulant four-square accompaniment to Verdi's arching melody for the violins began, the entranced toddler broke loose and started edging closer to the stage, skipping to the rhythms, waving her arms not unlike the conductor of the evening, Maurizio Barbacini.
Following her departure, she became assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony for two seasons (2007 2009).
