- Jane Comerford
Infobox musical artist
Name = Jane Comerford
Img_capt = Jane Comerford, lead singer ofTexas Lightning
Background = solo_singer and
Born = Birth date and age|1959|1|1|mf=y
Died =
Origin =Newcastle, New South Wales ,Australia
Genre =Pop, Country
Associated_acts =Texas Lightning ,
New Baccara
Years_active =
Label =
URL = [http://www.janecomerford.de/ janecomerford.de]
[http://www.texaslightning.net/ TexasLightning.net]
[http://www.janecomerfordfanbase.de/ janecomerfordfanbase.de]Jane Comerford (born
1 January 1959 in Newcastle,Australia ) is asinger ,songwriter ,lecturer andvocal coach working inGermany cite web|url=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Comerford|title=Jane Comerford article on German Wikipedia|accessdate=2006-05-28] .Education
Jane has an extensive musical and music-related education. She studied
violin andpiano for 12 yearsFact|date=February 2007, and latermusic theory , and graduated from Newcastle Conservatorium (where she was awarded her A.Mus.A. diploma). She had 6 years ofclassical ballet Fact|date=February 2007 training in Newcastle as well asjazz dance training inLos Angeles . Further, she went on to study singing inHamburg ,Vienna andAmsterdam cite web|url=http://www.janecomerford.de|title=Jane Comerford's official website|accessdate=2006-05-28] , as well as learned to playukulele .Career as Singer
From Australia via America to Europe
Having studied
piano andviolin in Newcastle, Jane was no longer sure whether the classical style still fulfilled her expectationsFact|date=February 2007. She went to theUnited States where she worked as pianist in several night clubsFact|date=February 2007. A holiday inSpain made her stay inEurope .After she discovered that life in
Spain still did not meet her expectationsFact|date=February 2007 she moved toHamburg where she worked again as pianist in the bar of the hotel "Intercontinental"Fact|date=February 2007. There she started to work with several bands and gained more and more experience in the sound studio. She wrote and composed songs, worked in her husband's studio and became popular as abackground singer Fact|date=February 2007. In addition to that she started to teach at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.Through a friend Jane was given the opportunity to attend a two week long Musical Course (taught by
Buenaventura Braunstein ). There she met the directorMarkus Weber who wanted to have her in several of his productionsFact|date=February 2007. She played the leading roles "Eponine " in "Les Miserables " (inVienna ), "Roxie Hart" in "Chicago " (inDortmund ) and "Marilyn/Sue" inMarkus Weber 's own musical "M wie Marilyn " (inHamburg ). Other roles include "Angel" in "The Rink" (inBielefeld ) and "Dot/Marie" in "Sunday in the Park with George " (inKaiserslautern ). In 1998 she released her debut album "Somebody Sent Me An Angel " with a collection of her own songs under the Polydor (Universal Music) label. Apart from live performances, Jane is also an accomplished studio singer, songwriter and producer, running her own recording studio.With Texas Lightning to the Eurovision Song Contest
In 2005, Jane joined
Texas Lightning , a Hamburg-based Germancountry music -inspired band as lead singer. They released the single "Like a Virgin" (cover of Madonna's song), as well as an album called "Meanwhile, Back at The Ranch ", consisting mainly of country-flavoured covers of popular rock and pop hits.In 2006, Texas Lightning, along with
Vicky Leandros andThomas Anders , was nominated by the German public broadcaster NDR to enter the Vorentscheid 2006 (German preselection for theEurovision Song Contest 2006 , which actually took place in Hamburg). Their entry was a typical country song "No no never", written and composed by Jane Comerford. It came as a clear favorite with the viewers during the voting, and consequently Texas Lightning went on to represent Germany in the ESC. As Germany is one of the four biggest contributors to the EBU (organiser of the contest), their entries go straight to the final. On the final night, Texas Lightning came 15th, with 36 points, but the song had already reached no. 1 in the German charts.Lecturer & Coach
Since 1984 Jane Comerford is a lecturer at the [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hochschule_f%C3%BCr_Musik_%26_Theater_Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg] . Within a "Popkurs", she teaches
singing ,songwriting ,performance and composition. She also provides coaching to artists and bands on an individual basis. Among her former students areWir sind Helden ,Die Happy ,Cultured Pearls ,Seeed ,Rosenstolz ,Lemonbabies ,Fury in the Slaughterhouse andCucumber Men . Other personalities she provided coaching for includeYvonne Catterfeld ,Blümchen ,Eva Herman ,Bettina Tietjen ,Katja Riemann andUwe Ochsenknecht .Jane Comerford also worked as a singing and performance coach for the contestants in the 2003 German version of the TV show "
Fame Academy " onRTL II . This involved daily work with them for three consecutive months.Since June 2007 Jane has worked as a judge and coach on the sixth season of the German
Popstars show.References
ee also
*
Texas Lightning
*Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006
*Eurovision Song Contest 2006
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