Connie Fisher
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Constance Elaine Fisher was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in 1983, the twin daughter of Michael and Jan Fisher. Sadly, her twin brother Justin died as a baby, something that Connie
I met Connie Fisher after I had been to see her starring in Leonard Bernstein's Broadway musical Wonderful Town at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham in May 2012.
Connie was lovely to meet. She signed my programme and a photograph, which she told me she liked, of her at the Olivier Awards
It was a terrific, colourful show with some great music and dancing from the superb cast. Little wonder the production has had outstanding reviews!
Connie didn't find out about until she was thirteen. Connie's father served as a major in the Royal Corps of Signals, at the time when Belfast was still plagued by unrest and violence, and the family lived at the Thiepval Barracks. After leaving
leaving Northern Ireland in 1987, the family settled in Pembrokeshire, toafarmin
to a farm in Hayscastle, a village near Haverfordwest. Connie attended the primary school there, before moving on to the Sir Thomas Picton School in Haverfordwest.
Connie visits the house where she was born
Hayscastle Primary School
Connie aged 10
Singing teacher Marilyn Lewis
Hayscastle was a community where everyone spoke Welsh, and young Connie quickly learnt to speak it fluently. Her singing teacher, Marilyn Lewis from Maenclochog gave Connie a loto
lot of help in this respect. Connie, who from the age of eight had wanted to be a professional singer, also became a member of Côr Newyddion Da ("Good News Choir"). This introduced herto
her to the world of Eisteddfods where she performed as a soloist. She went on to win prizes at the Urdd (Welsh League of Youth), National and International Eisteddfods.
Connie aged 14
Connie in a school production
As a teenager with a passion for singing, Connie joined the Haverfordwest Operatic Society, performing in The Pirates of Penzance and in the musical South Pacific. She became a member of National Youth Music Theatre in 1999, touring the UK with themin
them in their production of Pendragon in which she played The Ladyof
Lady of the Lake. When the production went to Japan in 2001, Connie took the female lead role of Morgan Le Fay. She also appeared on TV in Jane McDonald's Star for a Night.
Aged 19, Connie began a three-year course at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London, graduating in 2005 with a First Class BA Hons degree in Musical Theatre, as well as their Gyearbuor Asante prize for the highest marks. As a student there, she performed in the musicals Annie Get Your Gun and Carousel.
In December 2005, Connie made her professional debut as Princess Samina in the pantomime Aladdin at Milford Haven's Torch
Connie as Princess Samina in Aladdin
Torch Theatre. Always one for having
having a go at singing competitions, Connie then entered, and won, the Gower Trophy (and £1,000 cash prize) in the Welsh Musical Theatre's Young Singer of the Year.
Connie Fisher
Aiming high, she then auditioned for a number of West End roles, including three in Mama Mia, and not getting any of them! Connie was working as a telesales operative to pay her wayin
way in London when she heard about a BBC Talent Competition with Andrew Lloyd Webber called How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria?
From a list of 200 selected applicants, including Connie, ten were eventually chosen to compete in live studio finals held on Saturday nights over six weeks. The result each week was decided
Helena Blackman & Connie await the verdict.....
.....and Connie has won!
decided by the public voting by telephone. This convoluted competition eventually resulted in 2 finalists - Helena Blackman from Southampton and Connie Fisher. Connie was voted the winner and won a six-month contract to play Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music to be staged at the London Palladium.
The Sound of Music opened on 15th November 2006, with Connie winning a London Critics Circle award for 'Best Newcomer'. She extended her contract in the show to 18 months, eventually leaving it in February 2008. She acknowledges the influence that Lloyd Webber has had on her ("He's like a father to me") and the way in which he has transformed her career.
Connie Fisher as Maria in The Sound of Music in 2007
During the eighteen months playing Maria, she did other things too. She released her first album Favourite Things in 2006, and appeared at Wembley Stadium for Lloyd Webber's Concert for Diana in July 2007. She took part in Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival in August 2007, and also featured on a 50th Anniversary studio recording of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story singing 'Somewhere'.
'Somewhere'.
After leaving The Sound of Music, Connie co-starred with Alistair McGowan in the Marvin Hamlisch musical They're Playing Our Song at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Connie plays a young singer/songwriter Sonia Walsk, who teams up with a composer, Vernon Gersch played by McGowan. The show sold out every night of its 10-week run.
Connie's Favourite Things album
With Alistair McGowan in They're Playing Our Song
Connie's second album Secret Love, was recorded around this time, and released in February 2009.
She also played herself in an episode of The Omid Djalili Show the same year.
In 2008, Connie noticed problems with her voice. She consulted Harley
Connie's album Secret Love
same year.
Harley Street specialists but they couldn't find anything. They suggested that she should go to Boston in America, and see the world's leading vocal specialist Dr Steve Zeitels. He diagnosed a hereditary condition called Sulcus Vocalis
Connie Fisher in The Omid Djalili Show
Vocalis and after three operations, told her that it was unlikely that she would be able to sing again. She had three months of voice restoration and rehab in Boston, but Connie had to learn how to sing again. For two years she persevered with this and she now sings an octave lower than before, so her voice sounds very different. She rejoined The Sound of Music on its 2011 tour
Connie has voice restoration wth Steve Zeitels
tour but pulled out of it before theperformances
the performances in Cardiff, Manchester, and Newcastle as she felt her voice hadn't recovered sufficiently to cope with the vocal demands of the role.
Connie at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff
Connie as Maria in 2011
In 2012, Connie took the lead role of Ruth Sherwood in Leonard Bernstein's musical comedy Wonderful Town, which was premiered in April at Manchester's Lowry Theatre, with the Halle
Connie stars in Wonderful Town
As Ruth Sherwood in Wonderful Town
Halle Orchestra. The production received outstanding reviews, and embarked on a UK tour taking in nine theatres including
including Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Newcastle and Plymouth, before finishing in Cardiff in July 2012. I saw this fabulous production when it came to Nottingham's Theatre Royal in May 2012.
My signed programme for Wonderful Town
Away from the theatre, Connie has several TV credits to her name. Her first straight acting roleca
Caught in a Trap dvd
Connie Fisher in Caught in a Trap
role came in the ITV movie Caught in a Trap (2008) based onthe
on the true story of Gemma Perkins, who collects cash from parking meters for the local council. At first she steals a little every day to buy Elvis Presley memorabilia, but eventually, after taking thousands of pounds from the meters, her thieving is discovered. Connie starred as the lonely and withdrawn Gemma, alongside Jim Carter, Geraldine James and Joe Absalom. She also made the crossover to the silver screen, appearing in a short, ten-minute film The Wedding Dress (2009).
With Jim Carter in Caught in a Trap
In April 2012, Connie appeared in an episode of the hospital drama Casualty. She played Amanda Franks, a dog walker who falls into a cave, and falls for David who tries to rescue her
Connie as Amanda Franks in Casualty
her but manages to fall too!
Connie has appeared on TV as herself in such programmes as Bargain Hunt
Hunt Famous Finds (2008) on which she appeared with her mother, and Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (2009) when she was partnered by the tenor Jonathan Ansell
Ansell. They raised £50,000 for the charities Breast Cancer Care and Theatre MAD.
Jan & Connie in Bargain Hunt Famous Finds
Early in 2011, Connie presented her own four-part TV series Connie’s Musical Map of Wales. In this, she toured around Wales in a 1970s sports car that she christened Gilbert, tracking
tracking down musical talent and meeting a host of interesting characters along the way. TV executives were
were impressed by her presenting style, and this led to her co-hosting live coverage of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in June 2011.
Connie joins a male voice choir to sing before a
Wales international rugby match at Cardiff
Connie with 'Gilbert'
At Portmeirion for Connie's Musical Map of Wales
Connie Fisher interviews Geoff Hughes in
Connie's Musical Map of Wales
She then went on to present Connie's People (2012), a four-episode series for the BBC which follows
follows her travels across Wales to meet some of its amazing people. These range from members of the Mines Rescue Service near Tonypandy to St John Ambulance volunteers on match days at Cardiff's Millennium
In 2012, Connie Fisher was the subject of the Welsh language show Gwreiddiau (Welsh for 'Roots') in which she returns to her rootsinBelfast
Millennium Stadium.
Since her return to the stage with her 'new'
'new' voice in Wonderful Town, Connie has been seen as a guest on a number of TV programmes ranging from BBC Breakfast to The Alan Titchmarsh Show.
Connie on The Alan Titchmarsh Show
Connie sings on Titchmarsh
Another Connie Interview
Connie interviewed on BBC Breakfast
Connie Fisher in 2012
Connie in Gwreiddiau
Connie is married to banker Jeremy Reed after the two met on Cardiff Central railway station in 2008. They were both sitting on a bench at the station and, after a brief chat, they boarded separate trains, without exchanging any contact details. It is unlikely that they
Lewis and met the present-day Côr Newyddion Da ("Good News Choir") of which she was once a member.
Jeremy Reed & Connie Fisher
they would have met again had it not been for Jeremy doing some detective work. Jeremy played golf with Welsh National Opera conductor Gareth Jones who happened to know the Welsh baritone
baritone Bryn Terfel, with whom Connie had worked previously. Three weeks later Terfel rang Connie and this led to Jeremy and Connie meeting up again. Connie had also been secretly hoping to hear from her mystery train man again!
The wedding featured exclusively in Hello! Magazine.
Connie and Jeremy were married in September 2010 at St Donat's Church near Llantwit Major in the Vale of Glamorgan. They now live in Barry.
Hello! Magazine wedding photo
Connie has signed this photo to me
roots in Belfast, visiting the house where she lived until she was four. She also visited her old schools in Hayscastle and Haverfordwest, called to see her first singing teacher Marilyn Lewis
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Link to Connie Fisher's Official Website
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