On the Bright Side: Area woman set to be Enya backup singer

By Denise Richardson

Staff Writer

 

Theresa Kabat of Oneonta will travel into the Big Apple today to rehearse for a television appearance Thursday with Enya.

 

``I'm excited,'' Kabat said Monday by telephone from Long Island.

 

The chance to be a backup singer for Enya not only is an opportunity to meet the popular Celtic musician, but also to make contacts in the music industry en route to starting a career, Kabat said.

 

The singer, songwriter and composer from Ireland is scheduled to perform on ABC's ``Live With Regis and Kelly'' show, which airs at 9 a.m. on channel 7 in the Oneonta area. Kabat said Enya will be singing a selection from her recently released CD, ``And Winter Came.''

 

Enya records her songs in layers using her own voice, Kabat said, and for the performance Thursday, the goal was to find backup singers with similar timbre.

 

Kabat, 21, was born in and grew up in Oneonta. She graduated in 2005 from Oneonta High School, where she sang in the choir and played soccer. She is a senior studying music industry at the College of St. Rose in Albany. Kabat, an alto, is producing an album of her songs as a senior project and describes her style as acoustic pops and blues with ``a little soul mixed in.''

 

Victoria Rickard, vocal teacher at OHS, said she was thrilled but not surprised to hear about Kabat's success.

 

``People loved to hear her singing solos when she was in high school,'' Rickard said. Kabat's sound was lovely, and she had a romantic heart and sensitive style, the teacher said.

 

``I could just hear her with Enya,'' Rickard said. ``Theresa would just fit right in.''

 

Kabat said today she will rehearse with the other three singers for two hours in a studio in Manhattan, then they will practice another two hours with band musicians. On Wednesday, the group will rehearse with Enya in an ABC studio.

 

``I'm really excited to meet her,'' Kabat said. ``Her sound is ethereal _ she sounds like an angel.''

 

Kabat said she was told musical selections usually are toward the end of the weekday talk show, and Enya and her backup singers are scheduled to perform ``White Is the Winter Night.''

 

``I've been listening to it constantly,'' Kabat said. ``I've got it down.''

 

Kabat said Kelly Bird, a teacher of a St. Rose vocal ensemble class, knows Enya's music director for the United States and suggested she audition Dec. 7 to be a backup singer. Three days later, Kabat said, she found out that she was among four chosen from among eight candidates.

 

Kabat said she was asked to bring a pair of black high-heeled shoes but didn't know Monday what the backup singers would be wearing.

 

Kabat said she expects friends and family will be watching the show Thursday and is glad to be representing Oneonta on stage in a nationally televised broadcast. She has performed in coffeehouses but singing on live television, she said, makes her ``a little nervous.'' She has been told the job will pay between $300 and $600, but her focus seems more on opportunities to perform and make connections.

 

``It will be an adventure,'' Kabat said. ``This is a huge break for me.''

 

Source: http://www.thedailystar.com/local/local_story_351040033.html

Ooh. Never heard of her though.

:lol: Neither have I.