THE PRIESTS, Royal Hall, Isle of Man - Thursday 6th May

Camilla Kerslake to accompany The Priests

With her rare and beautiful coloratura soprano voice Camilla Kerslake has captured the hearts of the nation.

Born in London but brought up until the age of eight in New Zealand, Camilla remembers precisely the moment at which she was made aware that she had a gift. In detention in the music room aged 14, she started playing around on the piano, hamming up the title song from ‘The Sound of Music’. As her voice climbed up the register, the other children spurred her on to go higher and higher. Her teacher, who had been listening outside, commented that she had sung half an octave higher than the highest note ever written for the human voice. Suddenly it dawned on Camilla that she might just have something different, something that shouldn’t be wasted.

Camilla’s story is one of fairytales. After two years at Guildford’s Academy of Contemporary Music, Camilla recorded her own versions of ‘Pie Jesu’ and ‘Ave Maria’ which she dropped off almost daily at recording studios where Gary Barlow and his Take That colleagues were working. After four weeks Gary finally relented, listened and signed her to his new record label.

At only 21 Camilla has already worked with renowned producer Mike Hedges, launched her debut album and secured elusive contracts including the Waitrose Christmas advertisement campaign.

Camilla Kerslake has an extraordinary vocal gift and should have a remarkable career.