After starting singing lessons for the first time in her life just four years ago, this Russian born singing sensation is about to embark on her European experience, determined to make it to the top.
Singing in French, Italian, Russian and English, there's little doubt about this young woman's intelligence and ability.
Her own compositions were complex and beautifully structured, sung with a great depth of emotion and soul.
She thrilled the audience with a few well-known favourites and concluded with The Prayer. This was given true professionalism, although it reached belt voice quality at the end which was unavoidable, as she had to compete with the over amplified recorded orchestral backing.
Why do sound desk operators think loud is lovely?
It was really only when she accompanied herself on the guitar, alone, that we were able to seriously appreciate her deep, rich sensuous contralto.
Along with the over-zealous loudness was the most distracting superfluous conducting, seemingly trying to fool us into believing a live orchestra lurked behind the black curtains!
Come on Carl Doy, give Marlburians a little more credit; it was a joke. This was most obvious when the String Quartet from the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra banished their headsets and treated us to the highlight of the evening.
They serenaded the mature audience with a most moving bracket of stunningly played "real" music, which included Brahms Hungarian Rhapsody, and Gershwin's Embraceable You, just magic - the applause said so.
Yulia Townsend is a natural entertainer, completely at ease with her audience. In fact too much so. She came across a little too familiar and personal which somewhat spoilt her image. Maybe she can be forgiven as she comes with a deeply Russian influence.
Her challenge now will be to choose which category she will pursue: opera, showtime, classical, contemporary, jazz or cabaret? I rather think the latter. We wish her safe sailing in uncharted waters as she heads for Europe to fulfil her dreams.
Source: Marlborough Express
