CLASSICAL singer Katie Oswell has performed on stages all over the UK, and trained at some of the best musical schools in the world.

But, it was in the North-East that her operatic roots were first planted.

“I inherited my love for singing from my mother,” said Hexham lass Katie. “She sang with several choirs, mostly to classical music, which she often played around the house.

“I remember as a child watching her on stage singing in a choir, and thinking that I’d like to sing up there too.”

Inspired by mother, Katie (29) joined Hexham Abbey Girls’ Choir, and began working on productions with Hexham Amateur Stage Society, where she landed the lead role in the society’s rendition of the musical Annie.

Wanting to take her love for singing one step further, she began taking lessons with operatic singer Austin Gunn, who saw Katie’s potential as a classical singer and who became the catalyst behind her applying, and later being accepted, to train at one of the leading music universities in the world, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

“My years training at university were some of the best in my life,” Katie said. “But also undoubtedly some of the hardest.

“Students were expected to undergo vigorous voice training and regular singing exams, whilst dealing with the everyday pressures that come with being a university student – such as juggling finances, social lives and making time to rest.”

Katie’s intense schedule included one-to-one tutorials with professional singers, voice training and tuning and language classes, where she had to learn to speak, and sing, in fluent French, German and Italian.

“Classes would be split into conversational, where we would get to grips with learning the languages themselves, and then vocational, where we would practise singing in them.

“Classical music is all about the emotion behind the song, so it’s important that performers understand the lyrics they are singing in order to convey those emotions through their performance.”

After four years of university, and a semester abroad training at the California Institute of the Arts, Katie returned to the North-East, where she has continued to work as a classical singer, performing at solo gigs and in bands and choirs across the region.

This month, Katie will be performing in her home town of Hexham, where she will join the Hexham Orpheus Choir as a soloist for their rendition of Handel’s Messiah, a 1742 composition comprised of lyrics from the King James Bible.

Other guests artists include singer Neil Turnbull and Katie’s own mentor Austin Gunn.

Live music from a string quartet, trumpeter, organist and timpanist will accompany the choir.

Handel’s Messiah will be performed at Hexham Abbey, on Saturday November 24, at 7pm.

Tickets can be purchased from Cogito Books or at hexhamopheus.brownpapertickets.com.