By Irene Moreno-Jimenez
Kimberley Bentham is a 29-year-old soprano known to the local artistic community for her musical passion, talent and courage. Bentham, a Centretown resident, was born and raised in Ottawa and has been working very hard to gain attention in the local musical community.
“When I was a little kid I always sang along with my Annie records, but then when I went to high school I was interested in music enough to go to an arts high school,” says Bentham, adding that she discovered her love for music at a very young age.
After high school, Bentham completed a BA in music and vocal performance at the University of Western Ontario, and has been freelancing in Ottawa ever since.
Bentham is currently busy doing night rehearsals for the Savoy Society of Ottawa, which specializes in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Bentham is scheduled to sing the lead, Josephine, in the Society’s upcoming play H.M.S. Pinafore.
“Our Savoy group is so welcoming. We are really the warm-hearted music geeks of Ottawa,” Bentham says.
Robert Palmai, who has been a musician himself for 44 years, auditioned Bentham at the Canterbury High School almost 14 years ago.
Since that time he has been occasionally working with her as an accompanist, and they have become good old friends.
“Bentham is a very determined young lady, a very strong person who cares about everything she does, with a tremendous amount of life and energy in her,” Palmai says.
After finishing her university degree, Bentham found out that her father was terminally ill, so she moved back to Ottawa to spend more time with him. He died in January.
“I am very lucky that I did (move back) because I realized that I sort of fell in love with Ottawa all over. It’s a big city, but it’s a beautiful city,” she says.
Bentham says the Savoy Society of Ottawa has given her a lot of friends and all of the people there have become a second family to her.
“It has been nice, after my father’s death in January, to have such a loving supportive group to go back to, to sing,” she says.
One of Bentham’s good friends at the Savoy Society is Julia Barry, whom Bentham first met in September 2004.
“She has such a fabulous voice,” says Barry, a medical engineer by day and a member of the H.M.S. Pinafore choir by night. “I think this show, H.M.S. Pinafore, will raise her profile quite a bit,” says Barry, adding that Bentham had been receiving applause for her solos even at rehearsals.
Barry says Ottawa is emerging as a more productive market for artists because there are opportunities for people at all levels.
“People like me that are not as professional as Kim have opportunities. There are places where people who are just beginning can get in and it is a very welcoming community.”
But Bentham, who currently works at a Centretown travel agency, says she still has a long way to go before she can make a living as a musician.
“It is still very hard to make your living just as a musician in Ottawa. I would like to be a part of the group that changes that, a part of the generation that changes that,” she says.
But as part of the new generation, Bentham is committed to both her hometown and her passion of music.
“In the near picture, I am going to be staying here, but who knows,” she says. “My life might take me somewhere else later on if I decided to follow music more aggressively.”