| |
Elaine
Overholt is one of North America's most respected
and treasured singers and voice coaches, having
coached the likes of Renée Zellweger,
Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah,
with a reputation for working miracles in the
studio and on the set. With a lifetime of classical
training in both piano and voice, she attended
The University of Western Ontario first as a Piano
Performance major, where she accompanied singers
under many voice teachers. When her passion for
the voice became unstoppable as she worked under
international opera coaches, she switched majors
and then graduated with an honors degree in Voice
Performance, having performed hundreds of operatic,
oratorio and choral works. In addition to this,
Miss Overholt had grown up commandeering pop groups
in high school and playing and singing full-fledged
gospel music in her evangelical church. She was
the organist at 11, and the choir director at
14 and believes it was this experience that taught
her to open up her heart.
Developing
her own style, she went on to perform on world
stages, major network television, albums, films,
and thousands of jingles such as "Diet
Coke", "Pepsi", "Cottonelle",
"Mazda", "Toyota", &
McDonald's" to name a few. Elaine's
career as a solo recording artist produced two
albums and a No. 3 single on Billboard. As a "session
singer" she has sung back-up vocals for Ray
Charles, Tina Turner, Anne Murray, Dionne Warwick,
The Weather Girls ("It's Raining Men"), Ronnie
Spector, Sharon Lois & Bram, Chubby Checker, Triumph
and hundred of albums. She knows the difficulty
of keeping the voice healthy during road work,
interviews, 8 shows a week, buses and no sleep.
She has dealt with the best and worst onstage
monitor systems, the best and worst sound systems,
and the best and worst television directors and
studio producers. Thus, she knows all the joys
and tragedies of live performance.
Having
performed internationally in England, the U.S.,
Canada, the high Arctic, Bosnia, Egypt, Israel
and Croatia, she has sung for dignitaries including
her beloved Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and the representatives
of the United Nations (with the Boys Choir of
Harlem). Her performance of the national anthems
at Toronto's Skydome for the Donovan Bailey &
Michael Johnson face-off as "The Fastest Man in
the World" was unforgettable.
|
|