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Angelina Kalahari, lyric soprano opera singer, regularly performs at glamorous events and venues, both in the UK and around the world.
Her work received recognition, when on 1 March 2005, she was invited by The Queen to Buckingham Palace in celebration of her contribution to the music, culture and economy of the UK.
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Namibian-born Angelina first performed in public when she was just seven years old. She has always studied privately with a number of opera luminaries, most recently with international singing teacher and celebrated Welsh tenor, Jeffrey Talbot, and also well-known West End vocal coach, Mary King.
In 2005 The Queen invited her to Buckingham Palace, alongside such stars as Eric Clapton, Charlotte Church, Jools Holland, Dr Evelyn Glennie, Bryn Terfel, and many other well-known celebrities. And because it was an A-list celebrity event, it led to huge media exposure for her, with many TV, Radio and Newspaper interviews. The invitation came as a result of her work as a member of The London Underground Licensed Busking Scheme, launched in 2003 and sponsored, at that time, by Carling. She felt that busking on the Underground was one of the best ways to share beautiful operatic arias and classical songs with as many people as possible - her life’s passion.
Angelina was also invited to sing a recital at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, as well as at a designer launch party for London Fashion Week.
As a result of her many invitations to sing at events such as Luncheons, Dinners, Birthday Parties, Galas, Banquets, Fashion Shows, Product Launches, Restaurant and Building Openings, Weddings, and Corporate Functions, both in the UK and abroad, regretfully, she is now no longer able to continue her busking work.
Lately, her work has taken her abroad more often, where most recently, she sang at SKF’s centenary celebrations, one of Sweden’s largest and most prestigious companies.
She says: “Living as we did, on a farm in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, we had no television and I remember my mother constantly playing records by Mario Lanza, Di Stephano, Gigli and other popular Italian opera tenors that she liked. I simply loved the music and their beautiful voices, and was convinced I wanted to be a tenor when I grew up!
When I was five years old, I won my first local singing competition, but I had to wait until we moved to Cape Town, five years later, before I could start studying with distinguished opera singer and singing teacher, Len Clarke.
My mother, who had reconciled herself to the fact that my only ambition was to sing, would take me to the opera in Cape Town once a month, where I would sit transfixed and often in tears until the final curtain.
Aged twenty, and after continuing to win numerous reputable competitions and eisteddfods, mainly in South Africa, I decided to stop singing altogether and instead, went to drama school. But prior to this change in direction, I participated as a principle in operas such as Amahl and The Night Visitors and was cast as the female lead in Lock Up Your Daughters, among other musicals.
I loved the drama classes, which opened up a whole new world to me and I excelled in my studies as performer and director at the Academy of Dramatic Art and the University of Cape Town, where I completed my BA Drama degree course with distinction and continued to complete also a psycho-drama course. After working as an actress at the now-defunct People’s Space Theatre in Cape Town with people like Richard E Grand and Henry Goodman (before they were famous!), I had the opportunity to direct plays for the stage. I enjoyed directing more than acting, and although initially I received more work as an actress, eventually I succeeded in becoming rather successful as a theatre director and won acclaim for my work in South Africa, the UK and Hong Kong, where I also worked as a soprano and as a voice dynamics facilitator.
But during a karaoke evening with friends in Hong Kong, I realized that singing would always live in my soul and that I simply needed to sing again.
Today I continue to love sharing as many beautiful arias with as many people as I can and it had a lot to do with why I started busking, first in Covent Garden Piazza, with it’s wonderful atmosphere, and later, on London’s Underground, when it was made legal there in 2003. It’s obvious that spectators both on the Underground and at my concerts and recitals enjoy these age-old arias too - I guess that’s why I’m often honoured with standing ovations by my audiences! And it is always wonderfully exciting to experience how the voice by-passes everything and really touches people’s souls, in a way that perhaps no other instrument can - I guess it’s because we all possess a voice and therefore can relate to it especially.
The human voice has held an unwavering fascination for me ever since I started singing, and I’m constantly in awe of this wonderful instrument, possessed by everyone and used every day, from the day we’re born till the day we die, from the moment we wake up till we go to sleep. Yet, only a few people ever see the benefits of developing this remarkable instrument to its fullest potential.
In a former life, I used singing, together with visualization and NLP techniques, among other perhaps more esoteric techniques, to help students attain a deeper level of wholeness in their lives generally, and specifically to improve their vocal health and also to help develop and maximize their overall communication skills.
I use the same techniques to help executives to develop the voice as part of their presentation skills - very important, where careers are made or broken on the strength of a person’s presentation abilities.”
Further projects include a television programme about the haunting music of Namibia and a heavily autobiographical novel about a busker.
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