Katherine Jenkins with partner Mark Ballas in the show "Dancing With the Stars." (YouTube photo)
By TIM KELLY
Katherine Jenkins is a classical music icon, and someone who is very accomplished performing many other different types of music.
That attribute gives Jenkins much in common with the versatile Ocean City Pops Orchestra.
It also makes fans wonder if they can expect pretty much anything when the Welsh-born mezzo soprano crossover star and the Pops team up Aug. 11 at the Ocean City Music Pier.
“I hope so,” Jenkins said with a giggle during a phone interview on Thursday. “The aim is to have a nice evening of great music. We will touch on opera and classical, pop, Broadway and more.”
She admits most of her set list is not yet finalized, but that it won’t matter.
“I’m confident in the Orchestra, that (the Pops) will adapt to what I hope to sing.”
The 39-year-old native of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, is probably best known to American audiences as the runner-up in the 14th season of the blockbuster ABC reality show and ballroom dancing competition “Dancing With the Stars” in 2014.
She has also been a model, television actress, environmental champion, fundraiser for cancer research and entertainer of British troops stationed in war zones.
Jenkins brings all that diverse talent to the Ocean City Music Pier on Sunday, Aug. 11 for her 7:30 p.m. show.
Tickets, ranging in price from $40 to $70, may be purchased online at www.oceancityvacation.com/boxoffice, at Welcome Centers and City Hall, at the Music Pier’s box office at Moorlyn Terrace and the Boardwalk, or by calling 609-399-6111.
In her native country, Jenkins is the most prolific and top-selling classical music artist in history.
She has a string of 12 consecutive albums that reached No. 1 on the British classical music charts and earned more than eight million album sales.
She also was named the top classical performer of the last 25 years by Classic FM, one of the UK’s three independent national radio stations.
Katherine Jenkins with partner Mark Ballas in the show "Dancing With the Stars." (YouTube photo)
Classically trained at England’s Royal Academy of Music, Jenkins gained national attention at home as a 23-year-old vocalist during Pope John Paul II’s Silver Jubilee at Westminster Cathedral in London before running off her string of hit albums.
She also endeared herself to her UK fans by performing for British troops in Afghanistan, and for running and finishing the London Marathon to raise funds for cancer research to honor her late father, Selwyn, who died of lung cancer when Jenkins was a teenager.
She also was acclaimed for performing on the British Broadcasting Company’s “Saving Planet Earth” for the benefit of the BBC’s Wildlife Fund.
With all of those accomplishments before the age of 30, Jenkins could have contented herself with being one of the biggest stars and most popular celebrities in Great Britain. Instead, she headed to the United States and landed a singing gig on “Dancing With the Stars” before being selected to appear on the show as a contestant the following season.
“That honestly terrified me, because it was so far out of my comfort zone,” she said. “I thought that I was going to be the first contestant eliminated, and each week always thought I was going to be (voted off the show).”
Instead, Jenkins and partner Mark Ballas rolled up some of the highest scores ever achieved at that point in the series, including a perfect score of 30 in her finals appearance. She and Ballas were narrowly defeated by former NFL star Donald Driver and Peta Murgatroyd for the coveted mirror ball trophy, but that hardly mattered, she said.
“(DWTS) was really the thing that put me over as a performer and gave me a new level of confidence and personal growth. It was an incredible four months I will never forget.”
Other high-profile performances included at the London Olympics, the Euro 2016 soccer championships and Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday party.
One of Jenkins’ goals as a performer has been to make classical music more accessible and enjoyable to a wider audience, she noted.
Katherine Jenkins receives her medal from Prince Charles. (BBC Photo)
“If any of that happens, that is great because (wider acceptance of classical music) is something I have set out to do,” she said.
One way she tries to accomplish this is through new arrangements she characterizes as “pop treatments of classical music.”
Jenkins was given the title of Order of the British Empire, an order of civility similar to knighthood, in 2014 in recognition of her charity work and accomplishments as a performer. She joined such Welsh entertainment icons as Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey who have received similar recognition.
“Obviously that is a huge honor and one I hope to continue (to live up to),” she said. “Just an incredible thrill.”
Since then, she added the roles of wife and mother, marrying American artist and filmmaker Andrew Levitas and giving birth to daughter Aaliyah Reighn in 2015 and son Xander Levitas last year.
Her latest album, “Guiding Light,” is a homage to her current station in life.
“It’s not quite as happy as some of my previous albums, because I’m in a different place,” she said. “A place where I need to express gratitude.”
She included a song she wrote for her son, a lullaby.
“This is something that he enjoys hearing now, but will probably be mortified about when he’s 17,” she said laughing.
Despite the pride Jenkins feels for her Welsh and UK heritage, both children were born here to become automatic U.S. citizens, and she says they will be raised here, sparking a friendly rivalry with her spouse.
“If my husband hears my daughter’s British accent he will say it might be ‘to-mah-to’ across the ocean but here in Long Island it’s ‘to-may-to,’” she said, with a laugh.
There is no doubt, however, where the family is settling and where the couple’s kids will be raised, Jenkins remarked.
“(The U.S.A.) is just an amazing place, and this is where we will be, where we’re building our family.”
And that means discovering new places, such as Ocean City, which she will be visiting for the first time.
“We love the East Coast, and I’m really looking forward to this show,” Jenkins said. “I’ve heard good things and I’m quite excited to be coming to Ocean City.”
In recent years, Jenkins added the roles of wife and mom to her resume. (London Mirror Photo)
