Kiri Te Kanawa

Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa ONZ DBE AC is a New Zealand soprano who has had a successful international opera career since 1968. She possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced.

Te Kanawa was born as Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne on New Zealands North Island. She has Mori and European ancestry, but little is known about her birth parents, as she was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa, a Mori, and his wife, Nell. She was educated at Saint Marys College Auckland and formally trained in operatic singing by Dame Sister Mary Leo, DBE, RSM. Te Kanawa began her singing career as a mezzosoprano, but later developed into a soprano. Her recording of the Nuns Chorus from the Strauss operetta Casanova was New Zealands first gold record.

Source: Wikipedia