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Rachael Leahcar
Bio updated June, 2011

Rachael Leahcar is a very talented and gifted 17 year old girl with retinitis pigmentosa and has very little vision. She found her love of music at a very early age. Her first performance, at the age of eight, was for “CanDo4Kids” (school for vision, hearing and sensory impaired children) at their annual Christmas concert.

Rachael not only sings, but has been playing the piano since the age of six and the flute from the age of thirteen. At the age of twelve, Rachael was accepted into South Australian Public Primary Schools choir. The same year she auditioned and was accepted into the music program at Brighton Secondary School, which she currently attends.

Also at the age of twelve, she entered Fellini’s Search for a Star competition and made it through to the grand final. There, she performed in front of 1500 people at the “Crows Shed” and was chosen as one of the top three performers of the evening. She won $200 and the judges’ encouragement award of $1000 worth recording time at “Quentin Eyres Studio”. All the proceeds of this event went to the “Cora Barclay” Foundation for Hearing Impaired Children.

In March 2009, age 15, Rachael entered and won Dino Prizzi’s “International Festival of Song” competition. The prize was a return trip to Rome to perform on “RAI Uno – Il Caffe” television program. This was a wonderful experience for her, being interviewed and performing one of her prizewinning cover songs, “Notte Di Luce”. This program was viewed all over the world. She was also invited to perform in Benevento while touring Italy on the television program called “Listen”. Her mum, dad, brother, grandmother and Dino all went with her and she had a marvellous time learning about her heritage in Italy. Since this time, Rachael has been strongly supported by the Italian community of South Australia and has performed professionally at many of the Italian clubs and events in Adelaide including the 2010 and 2011 “Italian Carnevale”.

The most recent competition Rachael entered was “Star Life Talent Search” at Colonnades Shopping Centre. She won and received a trophy, $500 for her school and $500 in vouchers for herself to spend at Colonnades. One of the judges was Cosi from “SAFM” radio and was so impressed with Rachael, he asked her to sing her winning song, “Non Je Ne Regrette Rien”, on the radio. Cosi was so overwhelmed with her talent that he asked her to perform at his wedding reception, which she did.

Since October 2009, Rachael has released a CD called “Rachael’s Repertoire” which includes ten of her most performed songs at the time. We decided to donate $1 from every CD sold to “CanDo4Kids” who have supported Rachael throughout her life. Rachael has also recently brought out her second album of cover songs (self-titled "Rachael Leahcar") since her first had been such a success.

Rachael is now in year 12 and hoping to further a career in languages as this may also help her musical career. She does this along with performing professionally at many social functions and community events.

If you would like further information regarding Rachael Bartholomew, please contact her through this e-mail address:

rachb94@hotmail.com

Rachael has been very interested in Psychology but due to her huge success in singing, she has decided to pursue her knowledge of languages to promote the use of French and Italian in some original songs for something unique.

In the future, Rachael hopes to work with a band to create original music and advertise this for more exposure.

1. Confident
2. Adaptable
3. Versatile
4. Reliable
5. Passionate