Patricia Mary O'Callaghan (born October 2, 1970) is a classically trained Canadian singer. She is a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

who has built an international reputation as a performer of contemporary opera, early 20th-century

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

music and the songs of

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

. She trained as an opera singer after being unable as a teenager to decide whether to become a rockstar or a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

and

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

magazine has labelled her "the stunning Canadian chanteuse with the chilling soprano voice".

Early life

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

heritage, O'Callaghan was born in

Dryden, Ontario Dryden, originally known as New Prospect, is the second-largest city in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located on Wabigoon Lake. It is the least populous community in Ontario incorporated as a city. The City of Dryden had a ...

, and spent her childhood in

Iroquois Falls Iroquois Falls is a town in Northern Ontario, Canada, with a population of 4,537 at the 2016 census. The town centre lies 11 km east of Hwy 11 on the banks of the Abitibi River, west of Lake Abitibi. Timmins, one of the largest cities in ...

and other northern Canadian towns. She says that it was while she was an exchange student in Mexico that she decided that rather than becoming "either a rockstar or a nun" she would combine both these ambitions by becoming an opera singer. Her first voice teacher was Rosanne Simunovic of the

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

Youth Singers. She went on to study music at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

and

The Banff Centre Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

in Alberta.

Career

O’Callaghan's first recording, ''Youkali'', was released in 1997 and features cabaret songs by

Kurt Weill Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

and

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kno ...

. She followed it with ''Slow Fox'' (1999), which contains "

Hallelujah ''Hallelujah'' ( ; he, ''haləlū-Yāh'', meaning "praise Yah") is an interjection used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four tim ...

", the first of her many interpretations of Leonard Cohen's songs. That year she performed in Toronto at Ted's Wrecking Yard, to an audience more accustomed to high energy rock music. O’Callaghan released '' Real Emotional Girl'' (2001) and ''Naked Beauty'' (2004). But it was 2011–12 before her recording career appeared to hit its full stride. That year O’Callaghan sang on '' Broken Hearts & Madmen'' with the Canadian

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

ensemble the

Gryphon Trio The Gryphon Trio is a Canadian classical music ensemble that has been nominated for several and has won three Juno Awards for its classical recordings released by the Analekta label. Its members are Annalee Patipatanakoon (violin), Roman Borys (cel ...

and released ''Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen'', which one critic pointed out was in several respects a better work than the 1987 Cohen

tribute album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records coll ...

Famous Blue Raincoat "Famous Blue Raincoat" is a song by Leonard Cohen. It is the sixth track on his third album, ''Songs of Love and Hate'', released in 1971. The song is written in the form of a letter (many of the lines are written in amphibrachs). The lyric tells ...

'' recorded by

Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947) is an American singer and songwriter. She has performed as a vocalist on a number of film soundtracks. She has won two Grammy Awards, in 1983 for the Joe Cocker duet "Up Where We Belong" and in 1987 fo ...

. Another, Jon O’Brien, wrote in a review for the

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

website: “A graceful and respectful homage to a true musical icon, ''Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen'' cements O’Callaghan’s position as one of his most accomplished interpreters.” O’Callaghan was an artist in residence with

Soulpepper Theatre Company Soulpepper is a theater company based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest non-profit theater in the city. History Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has sinc ...

in the

Distillery District The Distillery District is a commercial and residential district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, east of Downtown Toronto, downtown, which contains numerous cafés, restaurants, and shops housed within heritage buildings of the former Gooderham and W ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

for six years where she worked "towards her heart's ambition to bring her distinctive brand of cabaret to a broad-based audience". O'Callaghan was featured as a singing character in the 1999

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

series '' Foolish Heart'' and in the 2003 Canadian TV movie '' Youkali Hotel'' produced by Enigmatico Films and WestWind Pictures. The singer is perhaps best known for her cover version of Cohen's "

", recorded in 1999 and reissued in 2001 and 2012, and her many live performances of the song.

Discography

Solo albums *1997 ''Youkali'' (Marquis Classics) *1999 ''Slow Fox'' (Marquis Classics) *2001 '' Real Emotional Girl'' (Marquis Classics) *2004 ''Naked Beauty'' (Marquis Classics) *2012 '' Matador: The Songs of Leonard Cohen'' (Marquis Classics) *2015 ''Deepest December: A Christmas Album'' (Roaring Girl Records) Collaborative albums *2000 ''A Fine Line: Arias and Lieder'' (

Don Byron Donald Byron (born November 8, 1958) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist. He primarily plays clarinet but has also played bass clarinet and saxophone in a variety of genres that includes free jazz and klezmer. Biography His mother w ...

) (

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

) *2007 ''Constantinople'' (

Christos Hatzis Christos Hatzis ( el, Χρήστος Χατζής; born 1953) is a Juno Award-winning Greek-Canadian composer. Many of his compositions are performed internationally, and he is a professor at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Early ...

) (

Analekta Analekta is Canada's largest independent classical music recording label. The label, which takes its name from the Greek word ''analekta'' ("a collection of the finest works"), was founded in 1988 by the Canadian music industry manager and entre ...

) *2011 '' Broken Hearts & Madmen'' (

) (

) *2013 ''Bohemians in Brooklyn'' ( Tom Allen/Bryce Kulak) *2017 ''Faster Still'' (Brian Current) (Centrediscs/Centredisques) *2018 ''Corona Divinae Misericordiae'' (David Braid) (K52 Music)

References

External links

Patricia O'Callaghan official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocallaghan, Patricia 1970 births Living people Canadian sopranos Cabaret singers Canadian people of Irish descent People from Dryden, Ontario People from Iroquois Falls, Ontario Musicians from Ontario University of Toronto alumni Canadian women pop singers 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers