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Performing Arts Center |
Princess of Wails
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Charlotte Church has the voice of an angel and the dreams of a teenager
By MARY KUNZ
News Critic
4/6/01
Wales can really wail.
It may count as a tiny corner of the world, overshadowed by neighboring England, but it's the home of big voices. Opera star Bryn Terfel, a brawny baritone if ever there was one, comes from Wales. So do those magnificent men's choruses that travel the world, singing hymns and Welsh folk songs. And who could forget Tom Jones, in his 60s now and still belting "Delilah"?
The latest mighty pipes to put Wales on the musical map belong to Charlotte Church. Only 15, she already has a voice three times her size - and three albums, already, to her credit. Singing everything from Schubert's famous "Ave Maria" to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Pie Jesu," she is known as "The Voice of an Angel." She even has an autobiography, called, with bravado, "Voice of an Angel: My Life So Far."
Tell us, Ms. Church: What is Wales' secret? Does everyone there burst into song in the cradle?
"Not really," Church says, giggling on the phone from her hometown of Cardiff. "It's just been a tradition. It must have come from the miners," she adds in a beguiling, soft accent. "Because Wales is a huge coal export center. The men would be working in the mines, and then coming up, and going to the pubs in the evening. And they'd sing there."
On the concert stage, or on her PBS specials, Church can be counted on to open her mouth, and open it wide. On the transatlantic phone line, though, she is a young woman of few words.
Talking to her, admittedly, is a complicated affair. It's a conference call, with her publicist on another line. Time is limited to 15 minutes.
Furthermore, her pretty but ponderous accent can make her difficult to understand. Sometimes Church's voice - impossibly as this sounds - is actually faint.
Church does say, however, that she is looking forward to visiting Buffalo. Asked what she'll sing when she comes to Shea's Performing Arts Center, she answers happily.
"Well, it's a mix of songs, from my first and second and third albums," she says. "A lot of Gershwin."
She was in Niagara Falls once before, she confides. "But I stayed on the Canadian side."
Meeting the presidents
Church's singing has won her friends in high places. She has met the Pope and Prince William. On one trip to America, she met then-President Bill Clinton.
"He was really nice to me," she says. "I met Bill Clinton twice," she adds, "and I met Bush as well."
In what many might consider a binge of president meeting, Church met both Clinton and his successor at roughly the same time. "I met Bill Clinton in December, and I met President Bush in January. Two presidents in two months! Yay!" she laughs.
Was Bush as nice as Clinton? "He was really kind to me," Church says.
Then she says: "He thought Wales was in America."
Huh? Church, doggedly, repeats her claim.
"He did. He thought Wales was in America," she insists. "I had to set him straight," she adds.
There's no denying Church has a simplicity about her. Even her approach to music is far from scholarly.
Discussing her voice lessons, she blithely shrugs off the notion of singing scales. "I don't have to, really," she says. She admits that she goes through some technical voice exercises, though not as exhaustively as most classical singers. "Most singers who are serious practice three hours a day."
Describing her lessons, she says she's singing "a lot of stuff."
"We're doing stuff ..." She falters. "Really big arias like the Laughing Song." She's probably alluding to the Laughing Aria from Johann Strauss' operetta "Die Fledermaus," but asked who the wrote the piece, she waffles.
"I can't remember," she says. A pause suggests she's looking to someone for help. "It's pretty good," she says. "It's really high." She giggles.
"Oh, and I'm doing the "Habanera,' from "Carmen.' "
Though she takes classical voice lessons, she has no ambitions to sing opera. Her heroes and heroines are pop singers. "Erika Badu, Jill Scott, Lenny Kravitz," she rattles off.
Like all kids, she goes through phases. Musicians she loved a couple of years ago just don't mean as much to her any more.
"I used to like the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears," she says. "Then I went majorly into hip-hop, R&B, and rap. Now I'm going across the board. I love rock. Lenny Kravitz, he's wicked," she says with quaint UK slang. "I love Aerosmith. I think that's really wicked."
She laughs as she talks of how she relished getting her picture taken with the boy band 'N Sync. The picture, which shows the group holding the horizontal Church, appears in her book. In the picture, Church is grinning madly.
Just talking about the picture, Church starts to giggle. "My friends are all really jealous," she gloats.
Correcting the president, posing with 'N Sync ... what could possibly be next? What does Church dream of doing?
Her answer is classic teenager. "I'd like to work with Sting," she says. "I think he's really cool."
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