From medicine to music for rising singing star

At school in London she had her heart set on becoming a doctor, but when a teacher overheard her singing the title song from The Sound of Music when she should have been in detention, her life suddenly took a different path.

"I was messing around on the piano, hamming it up and when our teacher arrived he said, 'Do you realise you've just sung half an octave higher than the highest note ever written for the human voice?' Up until then I never thought my voice was anything special."

Dreams of medical school were replaced by dreams of studying music and while at Guilford's Academy of Contemporary Music, Camilla saved up enough money to buy some studio time. The result was a recording of Ave Maria and Pie Jesu and, when the singer heard Take That were recording in London at the same time, she turned up on a daily basis to ask Gary Barlow to listen to her demo. Eventually, he relented and signed 21-year-old Camilla to his own label.

Camilla's debut album is due out in the autumn, but before that she will be performing alongside Russell Watson at Harewood House on June 26. Proceeds will go towards the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. Call 0113 218 1000 or visit www.muscular-dystrophy.org/thatgloriousnoise