12 Classical Crossover singers around the world from different backgrounds all unite in a song of strength and hope. “I Believe” written by Eric Levi and famously performed by Andrea Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins, was a perfect piece for all 12 girls, featuring each girl with solos and trios. There was also a big range of ages from just 13 years old, to 24 years old. The girls find unity coming together in harmony and wish to spread hope for all who listen.
How did the idea of recording this song first come about?
Mireya Derksen: Anastasia and I were thinking about singing a song that would give people hope, strength and support in these strange Corona times.
It also had to be a song we all could sing. We are all crossover singers, but some of us are more classical oriented while others are more pop oriented. Also, some of us are sopranos, some are mezzos and some are altos.
Anastasia Lee came up with the idea of singing the song ‘I Believe’ from Andrea Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins. That’s a real crossover song in which high and low harmonies fit very well. Agne elaborated the harmonies.
Tell us a little bit about the performers?
Rose: We’re all young classical crossover singers, who have connected and formed a group online. We have a group chat on Instagram where we coordinate projects like this, and share videos we find.
Anastasia: We have a couple singers from South Africa, a talented young child from Belgium, several from the US and the Netherlands, etc. So we really have quite the variety here.
Diana: Each singer represents either where they live or where they are from. For me specifically, I represent Sicily because that is where my ancestors came from.
Mireya: In 2016 I sang a duet with the young singer Amira Willighagen and then I came up with the idea to start a chat-group for young classical crossover singers around the world. Most of us were working on solo careers, but I thought it would be awesome to also do some collaborations and music projects together. This way we can support each other and help each other in our careers. Most of us already knew each others names and we followed each other on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. I sent every talented young crossover singer I knew a message to ask if they were interested in joining the chat-group. Most of them answered very enthusiastically! That’s how it all started. It indeed resulted in duets and special collaborations.
Not everyone in the chat-group was able to join in this video project, and also, not every singer in this video is in the chat-group (not everyone has an Instagram account).
These are the singers who joined the video project:
Anastasia Lee: USA, 23-year-old Billboard charting singer. She has performed with Josh Groban, been a special guest to Andrea Bocelli, and she has nearly 10 Million Views on YouTube.
Rose Mae: USA, 22-year-old is a versatile lyric soprano from Wisconsin. Her powerful voice shines on the opera and musical theatre stages, and in concert work. In addition to singing, she also plays several instruments and writes her own musical arrangements.
Tatiana Marie: USA, 21-year-old lyric soprano that was included on Elvis’ European Christmas CD. She and Anastasia Lee are sisters and they both have Bachelor’s degrees.
Marjolein Acke: Belgium, 13 year old singer, violin player and Belgium’s Got Talent 2016 Finalist.
Faith Tucker: United Kingdom, 19 year old Singer and piano player. Britain’s Got Talent 2019 finalist. Studying music at the Royal College of Music in London.
Lieneke van Eijkelenburg: The Netherlands, 19 year old singer. When she was nine years old, Lieneke performed “The First Noel” in Dutch during a Christmas celebration. People were amazed by her pure voice that led her to many more performances. Since then, she has collaborated with many highly talented musicians.
Mireya Derksen: The Netherlands, 20-year-old Mireya performed at the German TV show ‘Das Supertalent’ in 2017 and in the Dutch TV show ‘We Want More’ in 2020. She released several songs on the platforms, like Ticket To Mars, and is now working on an album with (Tre Principesse).
Agne G: Lithuania/USA, 18-year-old award-winning recording artist from Chicago who has already performed at The Carnegie Hall, NY, and joined David Foster in concert at the Ravinia stage in IL. She has toured the US and Europe and her latest Christmas album ‘Merry Christmas from My Heart” brought her the “Best New Teen Artist of The Year” award.
Ekaterina Shelehova: Canada, 24-year-old winner of many vocal competitions. Graduated with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan, and performed in “Marriage of Figaro”, “Les Contes D’Hoffmann”, “Rusalka”, and “Don Giovanni”. At Toronto Conservatory of Music, she received three Gold medals for Voice and the diploma for Level 10 Vocal Performance. She also completed her piano studies and received the ARCT diploma in Piano Pedagogy.
Ying-Shan Tseng: South Africa, the 17-year-old singer and award-winning piano prodigy, that could breeze through Tchaikovsky and Mozart concertos from as early as age 8 despite being blind.
Roné Roux: South Africa, 22-year-old singer and composer. She wrote her first musical at age 15.
Diana Marie Paunetto: Sicily, Italy, 16-year-old, an international soprano soloist for the diocese of Brooklyn, Queens, and New York. She has sung abroad in Sicily, at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and will be making her Carnegie Hall debut in March of 2021.
What were some of the challenges that were faced?
Mireya: I made a demo recording (for the timing) and wrote an instructional email about how to record the sound and the video.
Singers recorded their voices with the music on headphones, because they had to hear the music for the right timing, but on the recording you only want the voices. Otherwise you would hear the music twelve times in the final mix. The music was edited behind the voices later. I made a demo edit and sent it to Jan Deeben to make a better mixed edit. Editing was a lot of work, because the timing was, despite the instructions, still not the same everywhere in the last chorus.
For the video, everyone recorded themselves singing or play backing on their recorded track, so they had the right timing. The sound behind the videos where muted later: the edited track was put behind it.
Agne G edited the video. This was also a lot of work.
Agne G: One thing for sure that was challenging was to edit 12 video tracks at once on my old laptop. It was something I hadn’t done before. I’ve learned a lot in this process.
Also writing choral arrangements and sheet music as well as recording separate parts was a totally new experience but definitely taught me a lot.
Rose: It was challenging coordinating the different voice parts and harmonies, especially for the end. Agne wrote some nice harmonies so we didn’t just have to duplicate the recording, and we had various google docs to keep track of who sang which part.
What are some of the things you have learned from this process?
Mireya: I think we started a little bit too late with this project. It was more work than I thought it would be. We would have liked to release the video in April or May, when the whole world was in quarantine.
Also, I think with the next project, I’ll make an instructional video instead of a long email. That’s easier to understand for everyone, as English is not everyone’s native language.
Rose: I learned more about how to record audio and video, which has helped me post more music online.
Diana: I’ve learned that even during this difficult time, we can still come together and make something inspiring.
How can people continue to follow your work?
Anastasia: They can find all of us on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.
Mireya Derksen
Diana Marie Paunetto
Agne G
Rose Mae
Ekaterina Shelehova
Marjolein Acke
Tatiana Marie
Anastasia Lee
Faith Tucker:
Lieneke van Eijkelenburg
Ying-Shan Tseng
Roné Roux
Song originally performed by Andrea Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins
Song composed by Eric Levi
Audio mixing: Jan Deeben
Strings by Hans Rusche
Video editing & production: Agne G
Song arranged by Agne G
Music project initiated and coordinated by Anastasia Lee and Mireya Derksen
You can watch video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKcgH6IV0O4
