tindall was born in chapel hill, north carolina, to historian george brown tindall and blossom tindall. she started playing the piano at an early age and switched to oboe when joining the junior high school band; because of her surname's place in alphabetical order, she was the last person able to choose an instrument, and the only other one available was the oboe. she attended high school at the north carolina school of the arts, received bachelor's and master's degrees from the manhattan school of music, and a masters in communication from stanford university, which she attended on a full tuition fellowship. she also attended columbia university.