" She told me , ' What are you doing with your life ? ' " Ms. Flam said . " ' With that face and that voice -- by the time I was your age , I was singing for the czar . ' " She said the same thing to Mr. Baker , a Gentile who came to New York from the Kansas City area in 1993 , saw Ms. Bern onstage and decided to go into the Yiddish theater .