Hayley Westenra
Hayley Westenra is a New Zealand-born soprano who has taken the world by storm with her accessible yet challenging delivery of a huge range of repertoire, from classical favourites to folk song and pop. She was no stranger to the stage from early childhood: she began performing when she was just 6 years old and made her first recording in a professional studio at 12.
She was still only 16 when in 2003 she released her double-platinum selling debut international CD, Pure. It rapidly became the fastest-selling debut album from a classical artist, and reached the Top 10 of the pop charts in 11 countries. Her albums have sold more than four million copies worldwide to date. “Pure” was certified by the official UK chart compilers as the best selling classical album of the 21st Century.
Her huge popularity and approachability have brought many opportunities, including offers to perform for royalty and Heads of State, including HM The Queen and former President George Bush. She is also UNICEF’s youngest-ever ambassador, an energetic supporter, both in awareness and financially, and after enormous success with her ‘Bikes For Ghana Appeal’ Hayley revisited Ghana in 2008 where she started work on her second project; building water pumps, for locals who lack a safe supply of clean water. Hayley is extremely proud to be the first-ever official ambassador of Classic FM Music Makers.
But it’s the mesmerising appeal of her music which has provided the platform for her other endeavours. Although she's thoroughly at home in the classical repertoire, that only tells a fraction of her story.
Hayley has performed at a great many prestigious sporting events around the world, which have included football (the FA Cup Final, in The European Champions League) baseball (the NBA in the US), Tennis (The Mercedes Cup in Los Angeles). She still maintains, however, that her proudest duty is singing the New Zealand anthem in support of her beloved All Blacks rugby team.
Hayley is in great demand as a duet partner and has sung with, among others, Jose Carreras, Bryn Terfel and Andrea Bocelli and toured with Il Divo. PBS recorded an hour long “Great Performances” TV Special in New Zealand, so successful that it another was recorded in October 2006 during a tour to Canada.
2008 saw Hayley awarded the Global Kiwis Young Achiever Award. The Award was established to recognise a young Kiwi under the age of 35 who has made an outstanding contribution to their field. In the spring Hayley performed at and was nominated for Best Album at the Classical BRIT Awards. November saw Elaine Paige present Hayley with the Variety Club Showbiz Awards 2008 Classical Performer of the Year. Hayley rounded off 2008 with the release of her River of Dreams Album followed by her River Of Dreams Tour, in between jetting off to Iraq on a Hercules where she was honoured to have launched the British Legion’s Poppy Appeal live from Basra.
Hayley's 2009 started with a sold out UK Valentines tour, where she performed alongside star tenorJonathan Ansell before a trip to Japan to tour her River Of Dreams album release there. Whilst visiting Japan, Hayley's second Japanese album went gold in Taiwan. She then visited later in the year, headlining their prestigious World Games Opening Ceremony.
Hayley's star is still in the ascendant, and the rest of 2009 saw sell-out tours across the UK, Japan and Taiwan as well as the release in November of Winter Magic which featured an exclusive duet with Ronan Keating and toured the UK's beautiful cathedrals in November and December.
2010 has seen Hayley working on a new studio album and she is currently finishing her recording in Rome with master Italian composer and conductor Ennio Morricone. Says Hayley - "Growing up, I unknowingly listened to a great deal of Ennio Morricone's magnificent music, such as the haunting melodies of 'Cinema Paradiso' and 'The Mission'. To one day realise that all these pieces were the work of just one man blew my mind. Ennio Morricone is a musical genius and I still can't quite believe that I'm going to be collaborating with him on a whole album."
Hayley has just finished touring with the RAF on the Battle of Britian 70th Anniversary tour across the UK's theatres. She will be performing at a number of UK dates and to find out more visit www.hayleywestenra.com