Patricia O'Callaghan
| Patricia O'Callaghan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Patricia Mary O'Callaghan |
| Born |
2 October 1970 Dryden, Ontario, Canada |
| Origin | Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Cabaret, pop, contemporary opera |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 1997–present |
| Associated acts | Gryphon Trio |
| Website | www.patricia-ocallaghan.com |
Patricia Mary O'Callaghan (born 1970) is a classically trained Canadian singer. She is a soprano who has built an international reputation as a performer of contemporary opera, early 20th-century cabaret music and the songs of Leonard Cohen. She trained as an opera singer after being unable as a teenager to decide whether to become a rockstar or a nun and the JazzTimes website has labelled her "the stunning Canadian chanteuse with the chilling soprano voice".[1]
Early life
Of Irish Catholic heritage, O'Callaghan was born in Dryden, Ontario, and spent her childhood in various northern Canadian towns.[2] She says that it was while she was an exchange student in Mexico that she decided that rather than becoming "either a rockstar or a nun" she would combine both these ambitions by becoming an opera singer. She went on to study music at the University of Toronto and The Banff Centre in Alberta.[3]
Career
O’Callaghan’s first recording, Youkali, was released in 1997 and features songs by Kurt Weill, Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc. She followed it with Slow Fox (1999), which contains Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen song), the first of her many interpretations of Cohen's songs; Real Emotional Girl (2001) and Naked Beauty (2004). But it was 2011 before her recording career appeared to hit its full stride. That year O’Callaghan sang on Broken Hearts & Madmen with the Canadian chamber music ensemble the Gryphon Trio and released Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, which one critic pointed out was in several respects a better work than the 1987 Cohen tribute album Famous Blue Raincoat recorded by Jennifer Warnes. Another, Jon O’Brien, wrote in a review for the AllMusic website: “A graceful and respectful homage to a true musical icon, Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen cements O’Callaghan’s position as one of his most accomplished interpreters.”[4] O’Callaghan is currently an artist in residence with Soulpepper Theatre Company in the Distillery District of Toronto and is "working towards her heart's ambition to bring her distinctive brand of cabaret to a broad-based audience".[5]
O'Callaghan was featured as a singing character in the 1999 CBC Television series Foolish Heart and in the 2004 Canadian TV movie Youkali Hotel produced by Enigmatico Films and WestWind Pictures.[6][7]
Discography
- 1997 Youkali (Marquis)
- 1999 Slow Fox (Marquis)
- 2000 A Fine Line: Arias and Lieder (Don Byron) (Blue Note)
- 2001 Real Emotional Girl (Marquis)
- 2004 Naked Beauty (Marquis)
- 2007 Constantinople (Christos Hatzis) (Analekta)
- 2011 Broken Hearts & Madmen (Gryphon Trio) (Analekta)
- 2011 Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (Marquis)
References
- ↑ Christopher Loudon, “Patricia O’Callaghan Real Emotional Girl” http://jazztimes.com/articles/12661-real-emotional-girl-patricia-o-callaghan. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- ↑ White, Timothy (17 April 1999). "Music To My Ears: Patricia O'Callaghan Recasts Cabaret". Billboard. p. 3. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
- ↑ Interview with Patricia O'Callaghan 15 May 2013.
- ↑ Jon O’Brien, “Patricia O'Callaghan – Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen Review” http://www.allmusic.com/album/matador-the-songs-of-leonard-cohen-mw0002290285. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- ↑ http://www.youngcentre.ca/about_us/residentartists.html. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
- ↑ "Youkali Hotel". WestWind Pictures. Archived from the original on 29 June 2008.
- ↑ "Youkali Hotel". Telefilm Canada. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
External links
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