PROFESSIONAL SOLO SOPRANO SINGER

Gounod/Bach, Schubert, Caccini

2 of the most popular classical arias for funerals. Caccini is a beautiful aria but lesser known, than Gounod.

Harold Irlen

Written for the film ‘Wizard of Oz’ in 1939, where it was famously performed by Judy Garland. There have been many different versions performed since, but the original is the best. A classic show tune, with great sentimental meaning.

Frederic Weatherly

“Danny Boy” is a ballad set to an ancient Irish melody. English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly wrote the words to ‘Danny Boy’ in Bath, Somerset in 1910. Various suggestions exist as to the true meaning of ‘Danny Boy’. Some have interpreted the song to be a message from a parent to a son going off to a war or an uprising. This is suggested by the reference to ‘pipes calling glen to glen’, or alternatively leaving, as part of the Irish diaspora. A lovely folk song.

John Newton

John Newton, the author of the lyrics to this famous song began his career in slave trading. The turning point in his life was a violent storm one night at sea. Moments after he left the deck, the crewman who had taken his place was swept overboard. Although he manned the vessel for the rest of the tempest, he realized his helplessness and concluded that only the grace of God could save him. This was the inspiration behind the words of this song that was written many years later.

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Pie Jesu is from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem Mass. It is dedicated to his father who had died a few years earlier (in 1982). Andrew was inspired to write this Requiem after having read an artile in the New York Times. Perhaps surprisingly given the classical nature of the work, the Pie Jesu from Requiem climbed to the top of the popular music charts in Great Britain.