April 24th, 2004_
 

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classicfm :: top ten [for Saturday 24th April 2004]
 
The Top Ten
This Week Last Week Album Artist
1 1 PREMIERE KATHERINE JENKINS
2 2 HALL OF FAME - THE GREAT COMPOSERS VARIOUS ARTISTS
3 3 PURE HAYLEY WESTENRA
4 4 LORD OF THE RINGS - RETURN OF THE KING HOWARD SHORE
5 5 THE LORD OF THE RINGS - TRILOGY HOWARD SHORE
6 6 THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST - OST JOHN DEBNEY
7 9 BRYN BRYN TERFEL
8 16 MASTER AND COMMANDER ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
9 7 PEACE - PURE CLASSICAL CALM VARIOUS ARTISTS
10 10 THE ARMED MAN - A MASS FOR PEACE KARL JENKINS
 
 
Amidst all the excitement about US charts, Saturday's Classic FM chart went up yesterday evening (if you know where to look). It seems to get earlier and earlier and is looking more and more out of date by the time it's broadcast. The week Katherine Jenkins was released made me suspicious - supposedly released Monday - but wasn't in the following Saturday's ClassicFM chart.
 

This week's chart certainly can't include any sales after Wednesday - possibly earlier. I'm still trying to work out exactly when is the cut-off date ;

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Chart 'n chat thanks to Dave Ludlow


classicfm :: hayley westenra

It was during the performance of a primary school Christmas play that New Zealanders Jill and Gerald Westenra first witnessed their daughter Hayley's extraordinary talent. Her natural ability to perform - alongside her evident perfect pitch - convinced Hayley's teacher that the young girl should be encouraged to prusue music lessons, beginning on the violin. This was the beginning of a relationship with music that's been the driving force of the teenager's life ever since.

A year later, Hayley was also taking piano and recorder tuition and had learnt to read music. A passion for music theatre soon followed, and by the age of eleven she had appeared in over 40 stage productions, sung on TV shows and performed in major concerts.

"It's a great feeling... when you're on stage in darkness and then you step out into the lights. It is like you've moved into a different world." recalls 16-year-old Hayley,

Although still very young when compared to most other performers Hayley has already sung with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Russell Watson and, most recently, Bryn Terfel at the Faenol Festival in Wales, and has just released her debut international album Pure, to critical acclaim. One reviewer commented, "The variety of tunes and breadth of tone is superb, the two Latin numbers are charming and the tradional Maori piece? Kiri Te Kanawa would love it."

Hayley sees herself as primarily a classical performer, but she does not wish to put herself in a stylistic corner; on Pure she also explores the world of pop and gives a new freshness to well-known classical repertoire. Her new album is sure to propel Hayley to even greater things, having gone straight in at No.1 in the New Zealand and Australian pop charts, turned triple-platinum and made Hayley the fastest-selling local artist in her country's history.

She is now being coached by the opera diva Dame Malvina Major, who was so impressed when hearing Hayley sing that she offered her lessons. On Hayley's voice, Dame Malvina comments, "It's absolutely musically true. A lot of young singers have beautiful voices but they have to be guided into that sort of clarity. She has it naturally." Hayley's unique singing ability and ambition will, it seems, ensure that this angelic voice continues to shine.

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