Post by richnorri on Nov 11, 2006 8:22:16 GMT
There is a great article about All Angels in The Scotsman today:-
Angels from the left: Charlotte Ritchie, Melanie Nakhla,
Laura Wright and Daisy Chute.
Angelic upstarts
SUSAN MANSFIELD
OCCASIONALLY, one is forcibly reminded of what it's like to be 17. An hour in the company of four teenage girls will do it. It's there in the high-voiced excitement, the smothered giggles, the way everything is, "Yeah, totally, like, really cool".
But these four teenagers are anything but ordinary. Daisy Chute, Melanie Nakhla and Charlotte Ritchie, all 17, and Laura Wright, 16, are All Angels, the "world's first female classical supergroup". Launching his protégés to the world, Dickon Stainer, general manager of Universal Music Classics & Jazz, said the girls were "set to do for classical music what the Arctic Monkeys have done for rock".
The group is the product of a nationwide search for singers by All Angels producer/manager Steve Abbott, who also looks after Scots violinist Nicola Benedetti. They were signed to Universal earlier this year in a £1 million, five-album deal.
Progress has been swift. The girls met for the first time in June. Since then they have released a single (a version of Songbird, the song made famous by Eva Cassidy) and recorded an album. A second single (a version of the Robbie Williams' song Angels) will be out on 18 December, a bid for the Christmas number one.
The day we meet they were up at 4am to sing on breakfast TV. But when I catch up with them in the late afternoon in a classy hotel on London's South Bank they're sparkling company, not remotely tired. Helping me carry my various belongings over to their table, Melanie grins: "Well, we are angels after all!"
All four are experienced performers. Daisy, from Edinburgh, made her first professional appearance aged nine as Young Cosette in Les Miserables. Charlotte has been on stage in musical theatre since she was 11, Melanie leads her school choir and Laura is a former BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year who has appeared as a guest soloist in St Paul's Cathedral. Nor are their achievements limited to music. Melanie is taking flying lessons and working towards her pilot's licence, Laura has competed in sports at county and national level, Daisy has appeared on the cover of various magazines and made a CD, Charlotte has an acting career and an agent. In short, they are beautiful, confident young women with the world already at their feet.
To Universal, they are a gift: experienced performers with both youth and talent. The record label believes they will bring "a fresh new sound and a fresh new look to classical crossover music". Their first album, All Angels, out this week, is a mix of well-loved classics which showcase pure female voices (Delibes' Flower Duet from Lakme, Schubert's Ave Maria), and arrangements of contemporary ballads (Windmills of Your Mind).
Following in the footsteps of groups such as Opera Babes and Il Divo, they divide the music world. Some say they are the future of the classical music industry, which struggles to make money from traditional orchestral recordings. Others say putting Schubert on the same CD as Robbie Williams represents dangerous dumbing down. "That's the whole point of classical crossover," says Laura, the youngest of the group and perhaps the most earnest. "If people look on the back of a CD and see names they can't even pronounce, and then they see Robbie Williams, it might make them more likely to buy it." Charlotte, who might be the most laidback of the four, adds: "It's an appreciation that people can do two types of music. It's not that we're dumbing down Schubert, in fact we've kept much more to the classical, we're making Angels a lot more classical."
"I think that good music is good music, no matter what style it is," says the bubbly Daisy. "I don't think you should separate them and have unwritten rules about what should be on one CD and another."
Melanie has a clear idea of her target audience - her friends. "A lot of my friends don't really know much about classical music, so a personal aim for me is to try to educate them. It's not that they've heard it and don't like it, it's just that they haven't been exposed to it."
Daisy chips in again: "It's nice to say that we're normal teenagers, we listen to other music, we do normal things, but we also do this. We're not changing the music, we're changing the image."
"In the words of Charlotte on GMTV," quotes Melanie, "'we're making classical music cool'."
They're wise enough to know that image is key when it comes to selling records, though they say they've never felt under pressure to change their look. Publicity so far has shown them in demure white dresses, more First Communion than Girls Aloud. "People try to emphasise the music as much as possible," says Daisy. "But you can't avoid the fact that the industry is this way, and some people buy into the image a lot more than the music."
Charlotte says: "We get given clothes that match, but none of it's revealing. They used the word classy, we've got to look smart. It's not that we'll be wearing hugely revealing outfits so people will look at us."
"It's a happy medium," says Laura. "It's not that we're spending loads of time stacking on make-up and buying the clothes, but if you spend no time at all it looks like you don't care and you haven't made the effort." And Charlotte quips: "Maybe it would be best if we all went around in masks."
The girls were chosen not because their voices were alike but because each brings different strengths to the group. After Les Miserables, when she was 13 ("I still had braces"), Daisy appeared before six million viewers on Stars In Their Eyes Kids as the young Judy Garland. She also had her first singing lesson. "I took them to learn how to sound like her. It's an interesting thing to learn how to emulate her sound. I didn't win, 'Robbie Williams' won, but it was really cool, it gave me insight into the TV world."
She made a CD, Simply Jazz, when she was 15, after encouragement from jazz singer Mark Murphy, who compared her voice to that of the young Barbra Streisand. "It was almost a promotional thing. I wasn't hoping to get to number one in the charts or anything like that." But she did catch the ear of Humphrey Lyttleton, becoming the youngest singer to feature on his Radio 2 show, and when she met composer and TV presenter Howard Goodall during the Music for Youth School Proms at the Albert Hall, she gave him a CD too. As a result, he asked her to sing on his four-part documentary series How Music Works, which starts on Channel 4 tonight.
Charlotte began her career with the National Youth Music Theatre at the age of 11. Her first love is musical theatre and she admits she barely listened to classical music until she was studying for her GCSEs, two years ago. "Someone told me that if you need to concentrate better, you should listen to classical music. I was frantically trying to revise, so I went into my room, switched on Classic FM and it didn't go off until the end of my exams. By then I just loved it. I really enjoy singing but never thought of myself as a singer, so this has come as a big shock, a nice surprise." She loves acting and is taking part in a school production of Brecht's Threepenny Opera. "It's quite hardcore, so we're dumbing it down, making it a bit more PG!" Melanie compares her family to the Von Trapps. "I've got three sisters and a brother and we all play instruments and sing. I've always grown up with music around me in the house." She's looking forward to singing at the Albert Hall this evening, when All Angels perform there as part of the Festival of Remembrance. "That's going to be absolutely incredible because it's a place I used to go as a child. To perform there will be a dream come true."
Laura started singing because her friends enjoyed it. Winning the Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year two years later was "a really really big surprise". "I can't express how much I want to carry on classical singing, in a group or as a soloist. Sometimes I find it such a challenge and so frustrating trying to learn this hard music, but it's such a rewarding thing to sing." When not singing, or on the sports field, she can be found crawling through bushes in combat gear with the Combined Cadet Corps. "It's a bit of a change from standing in a white dress performing, but it's great fun."
Daisy was auditioned later than the others, after Goodall recommended her to Abbott. "I think they had an idea of who the other three were and hadn't found a fourth. After the audition they took me to another room and started talking to me about what I was going to do when I was in the group. And I was like: 'What, so I'm in the group?' "
The girls have taken it all in their stride, though Barber's Agnus Dei stretched them and their vocal cords. "It's written for strings, and strings can hold on notes for as long as they like," says Daisy. Charlotte grins: "We were all going purple!"
Talk to them about the future and they're calmly realistic. They know how the music industry works: the Next Big Thing can very quickly become an Also Ran. They balance commitments to All Angels alongside their studies - Daisy, Melanie and Charlotte have A-levels next year. Ostensibly, at least, their plans - for university, music college, gap years - have not changed. But the possibility of success hangs in the air.
"I love what we're doing at the moment," says Laura, "but I don't think it's a good idea to think too far into the future, to think 'We're going to achieve this by such and such a year', because if it doesn't happen you'd think it was the end of the world. I think as a group we're just trying to enjoy those opportunities."
"You can't expect this to go on for ever," says the practical Charlotte. "It's a great opportunity, you need something to fall back on." It's Melanie who voices the unspoken thought: "But who knows?"
• The debut album, All Angels, is out on Monday, priced £16.99. The Festival of Remembrance is broadcast this evening on BBC1 at 9:45pm.
All Angels, but only one with her own set of wings
Daisy Chute
AGE: 17
FROM: Edinburgh
LISTENS TO: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Radiohead (left), Snow Patrol, Joni Mitchell, modern jazz
PASSION: Jazz. She made a CD, Simply Jazz, two years ago, with the band she took to the Edinburgh Fringe - "We had enough really good arrangements that we thought we might as well record it." She also loves composing and was a winner of the Scotsman-sponsored Burnsong competition last year and highly commended in the BBC Young Composers Competition.
Melanie Nakhla
AGE: 17
FROM: London
LISTENS TO: The Kooks, Ray LaMonta, Maria Callas
PASSION: Flying. After a trial lesson with her dad, who is a keen glider, she was hooked and is now working towards her pilot's licence. "The sensation of going through the air is so exhilarating I can't describe it. Now I've done enough flying to go solo. It's definitely still a possible career for me."
Laura Wright
AGE: 16
FROM: Sussex
LISTENS TO: Alicia Keys, Jimmy Eat World, Hans Zimmer, Andrea Bocelli
PASSION: Sport. Laura has played hockey at county level, represented the East of England in javelin and reached the finals of the National Schools Tennis Competition. "I find singing such a great release from the pressure of academia, and sports is a release from singing. They balance each other out, in a way."
Charlotte Ritchie
AGE: 17
FROM: London
LISTENS TO: Jeff Buckley, Counting Crows, Cuban music
PASSION: Acting. Assignments so far have included a short film with Michael Sheen and Cherie Lunghi and playing a Hogwarts pupil in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "It kind of shattered my illusion of Harry Potter, seeing the classrooms inside giant warehouses in Watford, but it was a really good experience. I'd like to do more acting, and perhaps be on the other side of the camera, filming or directing."
This article: living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1650092006
Last updated: 11-Nov-06 01:19 GMT
Richard
Angels from the left: Charlotte Ritchie, Melanie Nakhla,
Laura Wright and Daisy Chute.
Angelic upstarts
SUSAN MANSFIELD
OCCASIONALLY, one is forcibly reminded of what it's like to be 17. An hour in the company of four teenage girls will do it. It's there in the high-voiced excitement, the smothered giggles, the way everything is, "Yeah, totally, like, really cool".
But these four teenagers are anything but ordinary. Daisy Chute, Melanie Nakhla and Charlotte Ritchie, all 17, and Laura Wright, 16, are All Angels, the "world's first female classical supergroup". Launching his protégés to the world, Dickon Stainer, general manager of Universal Music Classics & Jazz, said the girls were "set to do for classical music what the Arctic Monkeys have done for rock".
The group is the product of a nationwide search for singers by All Angels producer/manager Steve Abbott, who also looks after Scots violinist Nicola Benedetti. They were signed to Universal earlier this year in a £1 million, five-album deal.
Progress has been swift. The girls met for the first time in June. Since then they have released a single (a version of Songbird, the song made famous by Eva Cassidy) and recorded an album. A second single (a version of the Robbie Williams' song Angels) will be out on 18 December, a bid for the Christmas number one.
The day we meet they were up at 4am to sing on breakfast TV. But when I catch up with them in the late afternoon in a classy hotel on London's South Bank they're sparkling company, not remotely tired. Helping me carry my various belongings over to their table, Melanie grins: "Well, we are angels after all!"
All four are experienced performers. Daisy, from Edinburgh, made her first professional appearance aged nine as Young Cosette in Les Miserables. Charlotte has been on stage in musical theatre since she was 11, Melanie leads her school choir and Laura is a former BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year who has appeared as a guest soloist in St Paul's Cathedral. Nor are their achievements limited to music. Melanie is taking flying lessons and working towards her pilot's licence, Laura has competed in sports at county and national level, Daisy has appeared on the cover of various magazines and made a CD, Charlotte has an acting career and an agent. In short, they are beautiful, confident young women with the world already at their feet.
To Universal, they are a gift: experienced performers with both youth and talent. The record label believes they will bring "a fresh new sound and a fresh new look to classical crossover music". Their first album, All Angels, out this week, is a mix of well-loved classics which showcase pure female voices (Delibes' Flower Duet from Lakme, Schubert's Ave Maria), and arrangements of contemporary ballads (Windmills of Your Mind).
Following in the footsteps of groups such as Opera Babes and Il Divo, they divide the music world. Some say they are the future of the classical music industry, which struggles to make money from traditional orchestral recordings. Others say putting Schubert on the same CD as Robbie Williams represents dangerous dumbing down. "That's the whole point of classical crossover," says Laura, the youngest of the group and perhaps the most earnest. "If people look on the back of a CD and see names they can't even pronounce, and then they see Robbie Williams, it might make them more likely to buy it." Charlotte, who might be the most laidback of the four, adds: "It's an appreciation that people can do two types of music. It's not that we're dumbing down Schubert, in fact we've kept much more to the classical, we're making Angels a lot more classical."
"I think that good music is good music, no matter what style it is," says the bubbly Daisy. "I don't think you should separate them and have unwritten rules about what should be on one CD and another."
Melanie has a clear idea of her target audience - her friends. "A lot of my friends don't really know much about classical music, so a personal aim for me is to try to educate them. It's not that they've heard it and don't like it, it's just that they haven't been exposed to it."
Daisy chips in again: "It's nice to say that we're normal teenagers, we listen to other music, we do normal things, but we also do this. We're not changing the music, we're changing the image."
"In the words of Charlotte on GMTV," quotes Melanie, "'we're making classical music cool'."
They're wise enough to know that image is key when it comes to selling records, though they say they've never felt under pressure to change their look. Publicity so far has shown them in demure white dresses, more First Communion than Girls Aloud. "People try to emphasise the music as much as possible," says Daisy. "But you can't avoid the fact that the industry is this way, and some people buy into the image a lot more than the music."
Charlotte says: "We get given clothes that match, but none of it's revealing. They used the word classy, we've got to look smart. It's not that we'll be wearing hugely revealing outfits so people will look at us."
"It's a happy medium," says Laura. "It's not that we're spending loads of time stacking on make-up and buying the clothes, but if you spend no time at all it looks like you don't care and you haven't made the effort." And Charlotte quips: "Maybe it would be best if we all went around in masks."
The girls were chosen not because their voices were alike but because each brings different strengths to the group. After Les Miserables, when she was 13 ("I still had braces"), Daisy appeared before six million viewers on Stars In Their Eyes Kids as the young Judy Garland. She also had her first singing lesson. "I took them to learn how to sound like her. It's an interesting thing to learn how to emulate her sound. I didn't win, 'Robbie Williams' won, but it was really cool, it gave me insight into the TV world."
She made a CD, Simply Jazz, when she was 15, after encouragement from jazz singer Mark Murphy, who compared her voice to that of the young Barbra Streisand. "It was almost a promotional thing. I wasn't hoping to get to number one in the charts or anything like that." But she did catch the ear of Humphrey Lyttleton, becoming the youngest singer to feature on his Radio 2 show, and when she met composer and TV presenter Howard Goodall during the Music for Youth School Proms at the Albert Hall, she gave him a CD too. As a result, he asked her to sing on his four-part documentary series How Music Works, which starts on Channel 4 tonight.
Charlotte began her career with the National Youth Music Theatre at the age of 11. Her first love is musical theatre and she admits she barely listened to classical music until she was studying for her GCSEs, two years ago. "Someone told me that if you need to concentrate better, you should listen to classical music. I was frantically trying to revise, so I went into my room, switched on Classic FM and it didn't go off until the end of my exams. By then I just loved it. I really enjoy singing but never thought of myself as a singer, so this has come as a big shock, a nice surprise." She loves acting and is taking part in a school production of Brecht's Threepenny Opera. "It's quite hardcore, so we're dumbing it down, making it a bit more PG!" Melanie compares her family to the Von Trapps. "I've got three sisters and a brother and we all play instruments and sing. I've always grown up with music around me in the house." She's looking forward to singing at the Albert Hall this evening, when All Angels perform there as part of the Festival of Remembrance. "That's going to be absolutely incredible because it's a place I used to go as a child. To perform there will be a dream come true."
Laura started singing because her friends enjoyed it. Winning the Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year two years later was "a really really big surprise". "I can't express how much I want to carry on classical singing, in a group or as a soloist. Sometimes I find it such a challenge and so frustrating trying to learn this hard music, but it's such a rewarding thing to sing." When not singing, or on the sports field, she can be found crawling through bushes in combat gear with the Combined Cadet Corps. "It's a bit of a change from standing in a white dress performing, but it's great fun."
Daisy was auditioned later than the others, after Goodall recommended her to Abbott. "I think they had an idea of who the other three were and hadn't found a fourth. After the audition they took me to another room and started talking to me about what I was going to do when I was in the group. And I was like: 'What, so I'm in the group?' "
The girls have taken it all in their stride, though Barber's Agnus Dei stretched them and their vocal cords. "It's written for strings, and strings can hold on notes for as long as they like," says Daisy. Charlotte grins: "We were all going purple!"
Talk to them about the future and they're calmly realistic. They know how the music industry works: the Next Big Thing can very quickly become an Also Ran. They balance commitments to All Angels alongside their studies - Daisy, Melanie and Charlotte have A-levels next year. Ostensibly, at least, their plans - for university, music college, gap years - have not changed. But the possibility of success hangs in the air.
"I love what we're doing at the moment," says Laura, "but I don't think it's a good idea to think too far into the future, to think 'We're going to achieve this by such and such a year', because if it doesn't happen you'd think it was the end of the world. I think as a group we're just trying to enjoy those opportunities."
"You can't expect this to go on for ever," says the practical Charlotte. "It's a great opportunity, you need something to fall back on." It's Melanie who voices the unspoken thought: "But who knows?"
• The debut album, All Angels, is out on Monday, priced £16.99. The Festival of Remembrance is broadcast this evening on BBC1 at 9:45pm.
All Angels, but only one with her own set of wings
Daisy Chute
AGE: 17
FROM: Edinburgh
LISTENS TO: Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Radiohead (left), Snow Patrol, Joni Mitchell, modern jazz
PASSION: Jazz. She made a CD, Simply Jazz, two years ago, with the band she took to the Edinburgh Fringe - "We had enough really good arrangements that we thought we might as well record it." She also loves composing and was a winner of the Scotsman-sponsored Burnsong competition last year and highly commended in the BBC Young Composers Competition.
Melanie Nakhla
AGE: 17
FROM: London
LISTENS TO: The Kooks, Ray LaMonta, Maria Callas
PASSION: Flying. After a trial lesson with her dad, who is a keen glider, she was hooked and is now working towards her pilot's licence. "The sensation of going through the air is so exhilarating I can't describe it. Now I've done enough flying to go solo. It's definitely still a possible career for me."
Laura Wright
AGE: 16
FROM: Sussex
LISTENS TO: Alicia Keys, Jimmy Eat World, Hans Zimmer, Andrea Bocelli
PASSION: Sport. Laura has played hockey at county level, represented the East of England in javelin and reached the finals of the National Schools Tennis Competition. "I find singing such a great release from the pressure of academia, and sports is a release from singing. They balance each other out, in a way."
Charlotte Ritchie
AGE: 17
FROM: London
LISTENS TO: Jeff Buckley, Counting Crows, Cuban music
PASSION: Acting. Assignments so far have included a short film with Michael Sheen and Cherie Lunghi and playing a Hogwarts pupil in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. "It kind of shattered my illusion of Harry Potter, seeing the classrooms inside giant warehouses in Watford, but it was a really good experience. I'd like to do more acting, and perhaps be on the other side of the camera, filming or directing."
This article: living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1650092006
Last updated: 11-Nov-06 01:19 GMT
Richard
