Jonathan ansell hayley westenra biography

Her first internationally released album, Pure , reached number one on the UK classical charts in and has sold more than two million copies worldwide, making it one of the fastest selling albums in her country's history. Sophie is an academic and teaches law at Oxford. She began performing at age six in the Christmas play [ 8 ] at her school, Fendalton Open Air School.

She then began voice lessons and discovered a passion for musical theatre. By age 11, she had performed more than 40 times on stage, [ 8 ] and was often given male parts. At the age of 12, Westenra entered a professional recording studio to record Walking in the Air , a demo album originally created for friends and family, with 70 copies made; they soon made more copies, and attracted attention from a journalist with Canterbury Television , who asked Westenra to appear on air.

Following the success of her albums, she was offered and later received lessons from Malvina Major.

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In New Zealand, Pure has been certified 12 times platinum, making her the best-selling artist, regardless of genre, in the country's history. Later that year, she was featured in the song "Bridal Ballad" recorded for the movie The Merchant of Venice. Westenra met the cast of the series during a promotional tour of Japan in October James Theatre.

David Horn, the producer of her live TV special, which aired on the PBS program Great Performances , said, "Her singing is so gorgeous, it's reminiscent of the great boy-soprano sound of Anglican church choirs.