Miriam Stockley

Miriam Stockley
Miriam Stockley at Night of the Proms, 22 December 2006
Background information
Birth name	Miriam Arlene Stockley
Born	15 April 1962 (1962-04-15) (age 49) Johannesburg, South Africa
Origin	South Africa
Genres	Classical, World music New age music, Pop music
Occupations	Vocalist, Composer, Recording artist
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1973–present
Labels	Arcturian Gate, Sony
Associated acts	Miriam Stockley, Adiemus, Aomusic
Website	Official website
Notable instruments
Vocals

Miriam Stockley (born 15 April 1962) is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music in her home country. Her unique vocalese style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins' launched the "Adiemus" project with "Songs of Sanctuary", featuring Stockley as the lead vocal. She is married to Rod Houison. They have two children, Carly Houison and Leigh Brandon Houison.

Career

At the age of eleven, Stockley and her older sister Avril formed the group, the Stockley Sisters, and had a hit with a cover of Shocking Blue's "Venus" in 1976 on the South African Top 30, ten years before Bananarama's version. Later in her life, she moved to London to further pursue her musical career. There, she contributed vocals to several albums, and TV commercials.

During the late 1980s and early 90s, Stockley worked as a session singer for the UK song writing and production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Stockley was featured on tracks by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Sonia. Alongside fellow session singer Mae McKenna, Stockley is credited with being partly responsible for the distinctive Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound of the 1980s.^{[citation needed]}

Stockley provided backing vocals for the United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest entry on several occasions, most notably with Emma in 1990 and for Katrina and the Waves when they won in Dublin in 1997.

In 1991, Stockley became a part of the dance group Praise whose single "Only You" reached number four on the UK charts. A year later, the band, with Stockley on vocals, released its second single "Dream On." This failed to have the same success as their previous single and the band decided to call it a day. In 1995, she worked with Karl Jenkins as the multi-layered vocalist on his first Adiemus release, which also gave her broad international exposure in a Delta Air Lines television commercial and release on the album Pure Moods.

Stockley has been featured in several feature film soundtracks, including The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring,^[1] One Night Stand and The 10th Kingdom, in which appears her cover of the Rose Royce song "Wishing on a Star".

Her song, "Perfect Day", was the theme song for the BBC children's programme, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends, which ran from 1992 to 1995. The song was written by Colin Towns, and has since become unofficially known as 'Theme for the Lake District' by enthusiasts of the show.^{[citation needed]} She has also appeared as a singer on several BBC school's programmes, most notably Look and Read.

In 2004, Yamaha released Vocaloid software that allows one to synthetically create background vocals. One of the three available voices from the studio Zero-G released for the first edition of the software is based on material recorded by Miriam Stockley.

In December 2006, Stockley contributed as a solo vocalist and as a co-vocalist with Mike Oldfield at the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts. She also released her third solo album, a collection of rearranged classical standards entitled Eternal, in 2006.

Beginning in 2006, she joined Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver as a primary member of the world music group Aomusic (also known as AO). She first appeared on Aomusic's album release "Twirl", released 17 February 2009 on the group's indie label AO Music/Arcturian Gate.^[2] The Twirl album features the song "On Jai Ya"; a piece Aomusic was asked by the Beijing Olympic Committee to compose as theme music for the 2008 Summer Games. Ultimately, the Aomusic song was not selected as the 2008 Olympic theme piece and was later chosen as soundtrack music for the 2011 promotional trailer Project Peace on Earth.^[3] "On Jai Ya" was also released to an international audience on Aomusic's Twirl, and well received by a broader fan base with Stockley as a core member.^[4]

In June 2009, she, Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver composed and produced the song "Gaiya Lo Mane" as theme music for the Give Kids the World Foundation.^[5]

Stockley and Aomusic released their third album "...and Love Rages on!" on 15 February 2011 on AO Music/Arcturian Gate. The album features children's choral ensembles from Beijing, Tbilisi, Johannesburg, Asheville and Orlando.^[6] With the release of "...and Love Rages on!", Miriam and Aomusic aligned with one of the many charities under the FirstGiving / GlobalGiving umbrellas. The FirstGiving / Aomusic alliance is specifically organized to build sustainable villages for the children of Haiti who were displaced by an earthquake in 2010.^[7]

On 28 March 2011, Miriam was invited to give a private performance for the Education Without Borders International conference in Dubai.^[8]

Discography

Full discography available at official website.

Solo albums

• Miriam (1999)
• Second Nature (2003)
• Eternal (2006)

Band/Ensemble albums

• Aomusic - "Twirl" (2009)
• Aomusic - "...and Love Rages on!" (2011)

Others

Backing vocals:

• Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé - Barcelona (1988; backing vocals on "The Golden Boy")
• Elaine Paige - The Queen Album (1988)
• Alphaville - "Romeos" (1989)
• Brian May - Back to the Light (1992)
• Queen - Made in Heaven
• Mike Oldfield - The Art in Heaven Concert (2000; backing vocals and lead vocal on "Moonlight Shadow")
• Queen: The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (DVD, 2002)
• Atlantis vs Avatar - Fiji (provided lead vocals; Inferno Records, 2000)
• The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
• Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (main theme featured partially)

References

1. ^ "News Archive". Miriam Stockley. November 23 2003. http://www.miriam.co.uk/external/newsarchive.htm. 
2. ^ Twirl - Ao
3. ^ PPOE 2011 promotional trailer
4. ^ AllMusic artist album-"Twirl"
5. ^ Label annoncement-Aomusic and GKTW
6. ^ AllMusic artist album-"...and Love Rages on!
7. ^ Release Wire news article-Aomusic and FirstGiving
8. ^ Stockley interview

External links

• Official website
• Aomusic website
• Official German Nokia - Night of the proms Website
• Inferno Records

Persondata
Name	Stockley, Miriam
Alternative names
Short description	Vocalist
Date of birth	15 April 1962
Place of birth	Johannesburg, South Africa
Date of death
Place of death