The extraordinary efforts of a young Perth singer have ensured there is a musical alternative to the X-Factor winner’s warblings or novelty festive number this Christmas.
Twelve-year-old soprano Jack Gall has released a mesmerising album of specially-written tracks, each sung in Latin.
The launch comes after well-received performances by the Perth High pupil at the town’s concert hall and the Kinnoull Music Festival.
The album features 10 new songs written by singer/songwriter Ian White.
He said, “I started giving Jack Gall singing lessons a couple of years ago and found that the style he liked singing in the best was traditional Latin.
“He learned to sing such pieces as Panis Angelicus and Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus and I decided to have a go at writing some new pieces for him.
“Using texts from the Latin Bible I wrote 10 new songs and when Jack sang them in Kinnoull church and one occasion in the concert hall the response was fantastic.
“I decided to bring out a CD, and with the help of a great producer called Graeme Duffin, it is now out.”
Jack got the first copy of the CD on Monday and it will be on sale on Saturday morning at his old school, Kinnoull Primary’s Christmas fair, with a proportion of every sale going towards school funds.
The songs are also all available for download from www.littlemistymusic.com and the CD will be available from Concorde in Scott Street, Perth.
Jack said, “I learned my first two songs in Latin and it went from there. It’s good because if you make a mistake, no one notices. I have translations of the texts so I know what I’m singing about but hopefully I’ll learn the language properly as well.
“I enjoy other types of music as well and I’ve joined the choir at school so get a chance to do some different things.
“I’m really excited about the CD coming out and can’t wait to hear it for the first time. The day recording was brilliant and I’d love to do more in the future.”
Ian added, “From my point of view, I’m quite optimistic about the songs being able to be used much more widely than just in Perth.”