7:40am Wednesday 25th November 2009

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By Louise Robertson »

A classical singer about to explode on to the music scene has said she first discovered her talent while at school in Surbiton.

Camilla Kerslake, 21, became the first artist to be signed by Take That songwriting legend Gary Barlow in January, and released her self-titled debut album last week.

The hotly-tipped singer admitted she has been so busy that it had not sunk in yet but, despite her impending success, she has not forgotten her struggle to the top.

It was while in detention at Hollyfield School that she first realised her gift, having until that point had dreams of becoming a doctor.

She said: “A group of us were in detention and began mucking around on the piano, trying to sing higher and higher. Everyone else stopped and I just kept going.

“Then my teacher came in and called me outside. I thought I was in trouble but he said ‘do you realise you’ve just sung four notes higher than the highest note ever written for the human voice?’”

She never looked back and when she broke the news to her parents that she no longer wanted to be a doctor, her father said: “It’s about time you worked that out.”

The former Esher College student’s success did not happen overnight though and securing a contract took perseverance and what some people may call ”stalker behaviour”.

When she heard Gary Barlow had started a record label, she went about her campaign to get signed.

For nearly six weeks she took a demo up to his studios in Ladbroke Grove almost every day, despite studying at Guildford University at the time.

She said: “It’s all about persistence but a lot of it is down to luck too. I’d say to anyone trying to get out there not to listen to those people who tell you that you can’t sing or don’t have the right look because there are a lot of those people out there.”

Since then she has, or is about to, star on the Alan Titchmarsh show, sing with Il Divo, perform for the troops on Christmas Eve and feature on the National Lottery.

But she still lives at home with her parents in Kingston, who are both “embarrassingly proud”, and likes the normality it brings to her life.
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news....t_album

Dec 5 2009 by Our Correspondent, Western Mail
It’s been a long, weird road to success for Camilla Kerslake. She tells Wil Treasure how a Chanel bag, takeaway coffee and Gary Barlow played a role on her journey to musical success

SOME might say the likes of The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent have dulled our sense of surprise at discovering new talent and the apparent fairy tales attached.

But Camilla Kerslake’s story sounds too good to have been made up, yet too unlikely to be true.

Struggling to fund herself through a course at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she managed to sell a Chanel bag on eBay for £1,800, having bought it at an Oxfam store for £40.

“My mum made me sell it,” she says mournfully. “But it paid for a lot of my tuition fees.

“I went back about three weeks later and gave Oxfam £100, which felt like an awful lot at the time.”

Ironically, Kerslake’s good fortune has forced her put aside her studies for the time being. However, she might just be on course to replace that Chanel bag now.

After dropping off demo tracks with Gary Barlow’s Future Records label every day for nearly six weeks the young soprano’s dream of meeting Barlow and being signed came true.

“Stuff like this doesn’t happen,” she says. “I was travelling two hours there and two hours back every day and I didn’t even see him. I had to get to lectures too, so I was getting up really early.”

She even tried taking coffee for the receptionist in an effort ingratiate herself.

After receiving more than 40 of her demo tapes, some recorded in her bedroom, others with the help of friends who owed favours, Barlow listened to her recordings of Ave Maria and Pie Jesu.

He arranged a meeting and asked Kerslake to perform live for him, before signing her on the spot.

The 21 year old had previously attempted to establish herself as a pop singer, saying it was too expensive to turn classical.

But after an unusual rejection from a girl-band she had auditioned for – they claimed she was too old – she decided a career in the pop industry would have too short a shelf life.

Her appearance tonight at the Cardiff International Arena with choir Only Men Aloud, winners of the BBC’s Last Choir Standing, marks her first Welsh performance since singing in her aunt’s house in Swansea as a toddler.

Kerslake only decided to pursue a career as a singer aged 14, although she had fostered a love of classical music from a young age – so much so that her teacher at the school near Auckland, where her family lived at the time, commented on it.

“I just loved singing. It was a hobby and I didn’t realise it could be a career,” she says.

“I had planned to be a doctor, and I was doing triple science at GCSE, but I completely changed my majors in the sixth form.

“My aunt and uncle and my gran were worried, but my parents were really supportive.”

It was in detention in the music room at school when the moment which changed her path in life occurred.

With her teacher out of the room she started playing the piano and singing the title song from The Sound Of Music. “My teacher heard and said, ‘Maybe you should look at doing this as a career.’”

But she had never considered her talent to be unusual. “The thing is in my family, because all of the women are Welsh they can all sing,” says the Guildford-based singer, whose aunt lives in Swansea’s Townhill.

Anyone who has heard Kerslake’s eponymous album, released last month, will realise what talent she has – not least a four-and-a-half octave vocal range.

But some may be concerned that, as a singer with little previous professional training, Kerslake may be taking her classical career too fast. She lacks the full tones of a trained opera singer such as Katherine Jenkins, instead conveying a light, seemingly effortless and boy-soprano-esque tone.

“I’m almost ridiculously protective of my voice. I don’t drink, I don’t eat dairy and I have to be really fit,” she says.

Kerslake has been picked by Waitrose to front their Christmas campaign – with a rendition of the hymn How Can I Keep From Singing? – and she is in demand elsewhere too.

She has just finished her search for a choir to accompany her at the third annual carol concert for The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts, to be recorded for Classic FM.

“I thought it would be amazing to find a choir of people like me, who didn’t necessarily have a platform to display their talent,” she says.

“If they’re good I’ll take them on tour with me afterwards too. I always have a chorus.”

She is also taking part in BBC1’s Singing For The Troops on Christmas Eve.

“I’ve got friends who are in the forces.

“It’s such a terrible thing for them to be doing and it’s so close to my heart raising money and helping them,” she says.

The singer insists that despite her newfound success she is keeping her feet firmly on the ground.

“I did an 18-hour photo shoot yesterday. It’s hard work, this is the first day off I’ve had in a while.

“I’ll keep going as long as singing fulfils me. Gary wants for me what he has – he wants me to be performing in 20 years’ time, but I think that might be optimistic,” she says with a laugh.

Camilla will be appearing tonight with Only Men Aloud at Cardiff International Arena. Call 029 2022 4488 for tickets

Eventually, her persistence paid off when she was asked to come and sing for Gary Barlow.

"I was instantly captivated by it. Her voice is a unique and powerful instrument. What a beautiful voice," said the Take That singer-songwriter.

After a nerve-wracking weekend, Camilla met Gary. For five years, Camilla, who had grown up listening to Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, had been trying to break into the music industry, auditioning for pop bands advertised in The Stage, only to be told that she was too old.

The meeting with Gary went very well. She sang two songs for him and she was signed to his Future Records label, recently releasing her stunning eponymous debut album.

The LP features Camilla's soaring rendition of Take That's Rule The World; a powerful and delicate take on How Can I Keep From Singing and a haunting version of She Moved Through The Fair, which is her debut single, released last month.

Other noteworthy songs on the outstanding album include an elegant cover of Elvis' I Can't Help Falling In Love and the emotive Largo, that ably showcases Camilla's vocal range.

Camilla, who was born in London, lived in New Zealand until she was eight, and has put her university education on hold while she watches her musical career begin to take off.

Already she has performed in front of large audiences, singing in front of 8,000 people for BBC1's Children In Need, and at Winchester cathedral, and on Christmas Eve she's lined up for BBC1's Singing For The Troops.

And performing is what drives the young singer as she says: "I love connecting with an audience."

Although, she admits that she is "emotionally and physically drained after a performance".

Camilla's voice is gorgeously warm and heartfelt, qualities she effortlessly brings to pop and classical music.

Camilla, whose debut album was produced by Mike Hedges, whose CV includes U2, the Manic Street Preachers and Dido, revealed her musical heroes, saying: "I really like Lesley Garrett and Il Divo, and Natasha Marsh – she's a pioneer of the genre. I also like Whitney Houston and Celine Dion."

Blessed with an awesome coloratura soprano voice, that is being explored and strengthened through the mentoring of the renowned Mary Hammond at the Royal Academy, Camilla is scheduled to sing with Il Divo in early December at the Hammersmith Apollo.

"And I'd be so honoured to sing with Hayley Westernra and Andrea Bocelli," she says with an excited yearning in her voice.

The singer grew up listening to the aforementioned Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, who are favourites of her mum, and classical music thanks to her dad. Although, with a groan, she said she had to listen to John Denver as well.

"If anything, Mum's more of a Celine Dion fan but when she was pregnant with me, all she ever wanted to do was sit with a big bag of oranges on her lap, listening to classical music."

Born in London but brought up in New Zealand until she was eight, Camilla seemed to gravitate toward 'serious' music.

"A teacher at my primary school told mum at a parents' evening 'most kids come in singing nursery rhymes but your daughter sings opera'. I was five at the time," adds Camilla.

Once the family returned to the UK, Camilla continued listening to and enjoying pop and classical music.

Whereas most youngsters feel peer pressure from their friends, Camilla thanks her mum Deborah for enabling her to shake this off.

Says Camilla: "My mother's a psychotherapist, she raised me to be secure and happy in myself, so peer pressure wasn't really a big issue.

"That's not to say I didn't know it was uncool for a kid to listen to opera, of course I knew," she says laughing, "It just didn't bother me because I loved it."

Aged 14, Camilla was made aware of her unique voice. She said: "I was in detention in the music room after school having chucked a pencil at a friend.

"Our teacher was late arriving so I started messing around on the piano, hamming up the title song from The Sound Of Music.

"As I went up the register the other kids were all saying 'wow, that's so high' and just for fun I went higher and higher.

"And it was at that point the teacher walked in. He'd been listening outside and said to me 'do you realise you've just sung half an octave higher than the highest note ever written for the human voice?’"

Before this revelation Camilla had never considered that her voice was special, however, it marked the change in her education.

Semi-reluctantly, she jettisoned her plans to be a doctor and following her A- levels, auditioned for the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford.

Once again, her life took another direction once she had saved up money to buy some studio time.

She recorded her own versions of Ave Maria and Pie Jesu to demonstrate her voice, and when a friend told her where Gary Barlow was working in London she began her quest to be heard by the Take That star.

Her efforts worked and she was contacted by one of Barlow's associates before meeting the singer-songwriter.

She sang the two songs on her demo for him but even though the meeting went well, Camilla said: "I didn't talk to him afterwards. Gary sat there, drinking his tea, like he always does, and he made me feel relaxed."

Camilla, who would love to work on movie soundtracks, recorded her album in Ireland with the assistance of producer Mike Hedges and the acclaimed Sally Herbert provided the sumptuous choral and orchestral arrangements that so complement Camilla's vocals.

"I've put my heart and soul into this – we all have, I believe that when you listen to the album.

"It's very relaxing, very spiritual but also uplifting, and I think, beautiful. I just hope that the emotions I felt while performing the songs will transmit to the listeners and make this a really inclusive experience," adds the young up-and-coming star.

Away from performing and recording, how does she relax? Camilla vehemently answered: "No music! I like to read books and see friends when I do have a rare day off."

Camilla hits the road this month and into next year, playing the Cardiff International Arena on December 5th and in March 2010.
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/intervi....826.htm

The opera babe lifted festive spirits at Sun HQ when she popped in to perform a double-whammy of yuletide favourites, as well as a rousing rendition of TAKE THAT anthem Rule The World.

Gary's talented signing has her stomach set on a champagne and fatty food-fuelled feast this Christmas Day - albeit in a household that shuns the traditional roast turkey lunch.

She told me: "I'm gonna have a free pass day - eat whatever I want, lots of chocolate and a few glasses of champagne. I don't usually drink.

"Dad will cook a side of salmon and mum will try to force feed me Brussels sprouts. She still goes on at me about eating greens."

Meanwhile, the pretty warbler has accused her Take That boss of multiple thieving offences.

Camilla took a pop at the light-fingered manbander for stealing her boiled sweets whenever her back is turned.

"I always buy cherry drops. I'm addicted to them. I always take cherry drops into the studio and he always knows that I have them," she explained.

"He just extends his hand and says, 'Gimme one.' Fine. But then I'll go and record in the booth for an hour and by the time I get back they're all gone.

"It's so irritating."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol....PsfdrLW

Gary Barlow and Camilla Kerslake have been announced as special guests on Popstar To Operastar.

The new ITV1 reality show kicks off this evening and will feature pop singers including McFly's Danny Jones and former Hear'Say star Kym Marsh learning opera tracks.

On the programme's official Twitter page, it was revealed that Barlow will be on stage during tonight's first live show.

"For those asking, Gary Barlow is on stage during the show... amazing!" it said. "He's playing piano, accompanying Camilla Kerslake."

Classical singer Kerslake, 21, was the first signing to Barlow's Future Records label last year.

Popstar To Operastar airs tonight at 9pm on ITV1.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/reality....ar.html

The babe, 21, is planning a dirty tricks campaign to gain the most public votes for Album Of The Year.

With her tongue firmly in her cheek, she told me: “Maybe I should have an incentive like naked Take That pictures to get people to vote for me.

“It’s incredible as I’m such a new artist but I’m the underdog in so many ways.”

Despite being thrilled, Camilla initially thought Gazza, 39, was pulling her leg about her nomination for the May 13 ceremony.

She added: “He teases me all the time so I didn’t believe him.”
http://url4.eu/2b0oZ