Angel on the stage
FOURWAYS - Teagan McGinley is a small girl with big talent, and the desire to share it.
“I didn’t choose it – my voice did,” laughed Craigavon resident Teagan McGinley (10), when asked why she chose to sing opera.
Teagan is an unusually talented little girl. At the tender age of eight months it was obvious that she had been born with the voice of an angel, said her mother, Charmaine McGinley. She described the experience of turning off the car radio and hearing the small, sweet voice of her baby floating from the back seat, perfectly in tune. Since that day, and with infrequent classical training, Teagan has been known on more than one occasion to reduce whole audiences to tears.
Having tried unsuccessfully to enter SA’s Got Talent, this budding songstress is nevertheless working on her performance profile. Every Sunday, Teagan treats picnickers to a concert at the Fourways Farmers Market, where she is a regular fixture. Fellow performers and music organisers at the market, proudly-African local band Motherland, have even written a piece of music especially for her.
“There’s heart here…We’re one big family,” said Charmaine of the community atmosphere and support on which she and Teagan thrive at the market.
Teagan, who adds piano playing to her musical repertoire, said she would like to become a professional performer one day, but in the meantime, she gains immense satisfaction from the emotional response her voice evokes.
“I like singing because I make people happy,” she concluded with her trademark bright smile.
