Caitlin Buchanan impressed soprano Deborah Cheetham with her singing talent.
LOOKING at Caitlin Buchanan it is hard to imagine how such a young woman could have such a big voice.
The 12-year-old Avonvale student’s talent was a delightful surprise for Caitlin’s mother May, who said her daughter had always been interested in music.
“She shocks me sometimes, she is such a little girl with a huge voice like Celine Dion,” she said.
“She has been singing since she was about four years old.
“She started because when we went on car trips she would feel sick and the music was the only thing that would keep her occupied and keep her mind off it.”
Caitlin’s talent was recognised recently in an audition for the Pecan Summer choir, a group directed by renowned Indigenous soprano Deborah Cheetham.
Caitlin travelled to His Majesty’s Theatre in Perth for the audition and was hand-picked by Ms Cheetham to be part of the select group of young singers.
The choir is part of Ms Cheetham’s all-Indigenous opera production Pecan Summer and features singers like Caitlin from Ms Cheetham’s talent development group Short Black Opera.
Caitlin was the only Indigenous girl in Western Australia to be selected, and will travel to Melbourne on July 1 to do a week of intensive training.
The choir will then do a tour of Perth, with a three-night production at the Heath Ledger Theatre.
In the meantime she will be sent the music she must learn for Melbourne and will continue to practice with her singing tutors in Northam once a week.
