Claudia Morris – Living A Dream

Claudia Morris - A Woman of Many Talents

Claudia Morris - Made to Perform

Attractive, engaging and certainly appearing much younger than her age suggests, as I sit down for tea in the living room of Claudia Morris’s home and we begin our interview I immediately get the sense that I am in the company of a woman completely comfortable in her own skin.

“From a very young age, I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. I think I was made to perform. My family were supportive of me and that helped a great deal as I began to carve out a career in musical theatre.

“My first big break came with Buddy Holly, when I was 24, but theatre life is a tough existence and despite my enthusiasm my initial experiences left me a little disillusioned.”

Claudia continued with the West End and she was offered the role of understudy to one of the lead roles, Cosette in Les Miserable’s, which after some thought she turned down.

“By this time I had spent many years in the theatre and enjoyed a steady climb up the ladder but at the back of my mind I was also thinking about a family and after some difficult decision making, I decided to step away from my career to concentrate on my children.”

However, in her time out of the limelight, Claudia applied her abilities to other areas and once again enjoyed success in a completely new environment.

“With young children relying on me every moment of the day, returning to theatre wasn’t really an option but because my daughter had serious food allergies, I put my mind to creating an allergy free cake that went on the shelves at Sainsbury’s. Of course the market has become quite sophisticated these days but at the time what I did was quite revolutionary and I was presented with the Vegetarian Award of the Year as well as a lot of media coverage.”

Off the back of this success, Claudia found herself drawn towards more altruistic and spiritual pursuits and she went onto to train as a psychotherapist.

“In a complete departure from performance I studied and qualified as a psychotherapist and I now have a practice of my own. In an odd way there is a link between the two professions since with both you need to connect with the people in front of you, be they a patient or an audience.

“I was at a real low point in my life following my divorce and during that time I was having a great number of dreams. Over the last 9 years I have been recording my dreams. I believe they’re a guide and are there to help you.

“Last year I decided to reread my dream journals. In one dream from 2002 I saw myself sitting in a classroom and I was given the task by the teacher of drawing myself. I recall thinking should I draw myself as sad or as a singer. And in that single thought everything suddenly came together. I took this as a clear sign to return to my singing.

“I then tracked down my former accompanist Janet Edwards who is now a well known voice coach. Rather nervously I sang to her for the first time in 18 years. She was thrilled with my voice and couldn’t believe how much it had matured. That was all I needed to ignite the spark in me and I was away.

“I decided to put together a band and soon enough the album was born. It is a collection of songs that have a special significance to me and includes material that I really enjoy performing.”

There is no question that Claudia’s album – Love & Demons – is a very personal CD and she clearly shares a special affection with the material.

“How can you not love these songs? They have so much personality and backed up by wonderful musicians and an exceptional musical director - the very talented and well known jazz and pop pianist Simon Colam – I think this has reflected really well in the finished product.

“Of course the real acid test is going to be when I do my second gig on the February 28th at the New End Theatre in Hampstead. I’m so looking forward to it.”

Following on from this show Claudia is the set to perform at Pizza on the Park on Wednesday 17th March.

If they say that life begins at 40 then there can be no better example of that than Claudia Morris. Happily married again and with her career very much on the up, it seems the woman from Finchley is finally living her dream.

www.claudiamorris-music.com

George R Vaughan

Categories

• entertainment
• Claudia Morris
• Janet Edwards
• Jazz
• Pizza on the Park

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