TALENTED soprano Julia Clarke will be supporting Aled Jones on his UK tour, which starts at the Beck Theatre in Hayes on Sunday, March 8.

Julia was born into a musical family and her own music career took its first steps at six, when she started having singing lessons with Catherine Humpter, who was also her music teacher in primary school.

While Julia attended Methodist College in Belfast – renowned for having one of the finest music departments in the UK – Catherine’s influence continued to driver her career.

Julia told me: “She still teaches at my old primary school but I have never gone to anyone else.

“I trust her completely – she is brilliant. She will be coming to a few of the shows during the tour.”

Julia has already appeared at Carnegie Hall in New York as part of a US tour, recorded her own solo Christmas album, O Holy Night, which she sang live on BBC and UTV radio, and performed in front of an audience of 6,000 at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

However, this tour is particularly important to her. She said: “A lot of great opportunities came my way while I was in secondary school, but, since then, this is the first big experience I have secured on my own.

“I am excited to be performing with Aled, who is such a great singer, and I hope I can learn from him.”

She was chosen by Aled to support his tour after listening to her demo. She will perform for 25 minutes by herself and will also form a duet with him in Morning Has Broken.

This will be Julia’s first time performing at The Beck and she is excited to be performing in Greater London.

“I’ve always been in Northern Ireland so everything in England is so new to me!” she said.

Julia Clarke’s new single will be released on March 2.