Sarah Brightman - The Angel Of Music

This year acclaimed vocalist, Sarah Brightman released her first album in five years, Symphony, influenced by gothic music. The Song "Symphony" is a cover of "Symphonie" by the German band Silbermond. Featured on the album are artists Fernando Lima, Andrea Bocelli, and KISS vocalist Paul Stanley, who duets with Brightman on "I Will Be With You", the album version of the theme song to the 10th Pocket Monsters motion picture, Dialga vs Palkia vs Darkrai (Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai). To accompany Symphony, Brightman will embark on a tour in Autumn 2008. Brightman made several appearances on television in the United States to promote Symphony, including Fashion on Ice on NBC, The View, Martha, and Fox and Friends on the Fox News Channel. She performed two songs, "Pie Jesu" and "There You'll Be", at the United States Memorial Day concert held on the west lawn of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.

Sarah Brightman was born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England to Paula and Grenville Brightman, the eldest of six children. At three, she took ballet lessons at Elmhurst School and appeared in local festivals. At 11, Brightman attended the Arts Educational boarding school for jazz and acting, an experience she recalled with The Independent as troublesome. Brightman was teased by other students and ran away once, but remained at the school. Later, she auditioned for London's Royal Ballet but was rejected. At 16, in 1976, Brightman joined the dance group Pan's People, on the BBC series Top of the Pops. She left a year later to lead Hot Gossip, a mixed dance act who appeared on The Kenny Everett Video Show. The group, more provocative than Pan's People, had a disco hit in 1978 with "I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper", which sold half a million and reached number six on the UK charts.

In 1981, Brightman auditioned for the new musical Cats and received the role of Jemima. In rehearsals she met Andrew Lloyd Webber. The two married in 1984 and Brightman starred in Lloyd Webber's musicals, including Song and Dance and the mass Requiem, the latter written for her. With Requiem she earned her first Grammy nomination.

Brightman starred as Christine Daaé in Lloyd Webber's adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. The role of Christine was written specifically for her. Lloyd Webber refused to open The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway unless Brightman played Christine. Initially, the American Actors' Equity Association balked, due to their policy that any non-American performer must be an international star. Lloyd Webber had to cast an American in a leading role in his next West End musical before the Equity would allow Brightman to appear (a promise he kept in casting Aspects of Love).

Her stage career curtailed, Brightman pursued solo recording in Los Angeles. In 1992, she sang the song for the Olympic Games, "Amigos Para Siempre" with José Carreras, written by Lloyd Webber. She was inspired to go solo by the German band Enigma and requested to work with one of its members. Her request was answered and in 1991 Brightman traveled to Germany to meet her producer, Frank Peterson. Their first release was Dive (1993), a water-themed pop album that featured "Captain Nemo", a cover of a song by the Swedish electronica band Dive.

Fly (1995), a pop rock album and her second collaboration with Peterson, propelled Brightman to fame in Europe with the hit "A Question of Honour". The song, introduced at the World Boxing Championship match between Germany's Henry Maske and Graciano Rocchigiani, combined electronic dance music, rock elements, classical strings, and excerpts from the aria "Ebben? ... Ne andrò lontana" from Alfredo Catalani's opera La Wally.

Later albums included Eden (1998) (the title track of which was a cover of a song by Belgian band Hooverphonic), and La Luna (2000). These albums, unlike Time to Say Goodbye, incorporated more pop music elements. Reviews were mixed - LAUNCHcast deemed Eden "deliriously sappy", while Allmusic called Eden "a winning combination" and La Luna "a solid, stirring collection".

Her 2003 album Harem represented another departure: a Middle Eastern-themed album influenced by dance music. On Harem, Brightman collaborated with artists such as Ofra Haza and Iraqi singer Kazem al-Saher. Nigel Kennedy contributed violin tracks to the songs "Free" and "The War is Over", and Jaz Coleman contributed arrangements.

Sarah has served as inspiration for younger classical artists such as Elizabeth Tryon to produce "cross-over" albums that feature several different types music, ranging from opera and classical to rock and pop.

Upcoming, Brightman stars as Blind Mag in the rock musical film, "Repo! The Genetic Opera", due to be released on November 7th, and she will also release her first ever holiday album entitled A Winter Symphony later this Fall.