Miriam Stockley

Miriam Stockley (born 15 April 1962) is a South African-born British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music in her home country. Her unique vocalese style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins' launched the Adiemus project with "Songs of Sanctuary", featuring Stockley as the lead vocal. She is married to Rod Houison. They have two children, Carly Houison and Leigh Brandon Houison. Their residence is Orlando, Florida, United States. At the age of eleven, Stockley and her older sister Avril formed the group, the Stockley Sisters, and had a hit with a cover of Shocking Blue's "Venus" in 1976 on the South African Top 30, ten years before Bananarama's version. Later in her life, she moved to London, England, to further pursue her musical career. There, she contributed vocals to several albums, and TV commercials.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Stockley worked as a session singer for the UK song-writing and production trio Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Stockley was featured on tracks by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Sonia. Alongside fellow session singer Mae McKenna, Stockley is credited with being partly responsible for the distinctive Stock, Aitken and Waterman sound of the 1980s. Stockley provided backing vocals for the United Kingdom's Eurovision Song Contest entry on several occasions, most notably with Emma in 1990 and for Katrina and the Waves when they won in Dublin in 1997.

In 1991, Stockley became a part of the dance group Praise whose single "Only You" reached number four in the UK Singles Chart. A year later, the band, with Stockley on vocals, released its second single, "Dream On". This failed to have the same success as their previous single and the band decided to call it a day. In 1995, she worked with Karl Jenkins as the multi-layered vocalist on his first Adiemus release, which also gave her broad international exposure in a Delta Air Lines television commercial and release on the album Pure Moods.

Stockley has been featured in several feature film soundtracks, including The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, One Night Stand and The 10th Kingdom, in which appears her cover of the Rose Royce song "Wishing on a Star".

Her song, "Perfect Day", was the theme song for the BBC children's programme, The World of Peter Rabbit and Friends, which ran from 1992 to 1995. The song was written by Colin Towns, and has since become unofficially known as 'Theme for the Lake District' by enthusiasts of the show. She has also appeared as a singer on several BBC school's programmes, most notably Look and Read.

In 2004, Yamaha released Vocaloid software that allows one to synthetically create background vocals. One of the three available voices from the studio Zero-G released for the first edition of the software is based on material recorded by Miriam Stockley.

In December 2006, Stockley contributed as a solo vocalist and as a co-vocalist with Mike Oldfield at the German Night of the Proms tour, consisting of 18 concerts. She also released her third solo album, a collection of rearranged classical standards entitled Eternal, in 2006.

Beginning in 2006, she joined Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver as a primary member of the world music group Aomusic (also known as AO). She first appeared on Aomusic's album Twirl, released 17 February 2009 on the group's indie label AO Music/Arcturian Gate (debuted on international music charts at No. 5). Twirl featured the song "On Jai Ya"; a piece Aomusic was asked by the Beijing Olympic Committee to compose as theme music for the 2008 Summer Games. Ultimately, the song was not selected as the 2008 Olympic theme and was later chosen as soundtrack music for the 2011 promotional trailer "Project Peace on Earth". After the release of Twirl to an international audience, Aomusic was well received by a broader fan base with Stockley as a core member. In June 2009, she, Richard Gannaway and Jay Oliver composed and produced the song "Gaiya Lo Mane" as theme music for the Give Kids the World Foundation. Stockley and Aomusic released their third album ...and Love Rages on! on 15 February 2011 on AO Music/Arcturian Gate (charted at No. 2 internationally in its genre and awarded Zone Music Reporter's "Best World Album of 2011"). The album features children's choral ensembles from Beijing, Tbilisi, Johannesburg, Asheville and Orlando. With the release of "...and Love Rages on!", Miriam and Aomusic aligned with one of the many charities under the FirstGiving / GlobalGiving umbrellas. The FirstGiving / Aomusic alliance is specifically organized to build sustainable villages for the children of Haiti who were displaced by an earthquake in 2010. On 28 March 2011, she was invited to give a private performance for the Education Without Borders International conference in Dubai