Sonja Kristina | |
|---|---|
 Kristina in 1970 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Sonia Christina Shaw (1949-04-14)14 April 1949 (age 76) Brentwood, Essex, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Labels | Cherry Red,Market Square |
| Member of | Curved Air |
| Formerly of | The Strawbs |
| Website | sonjakristina |
Sonja Kristina (bornSonia Christina Shaw; 14 April 1949)[1] is a British singer and songwriter, best known for starring in the original London production of the seminal 1960s musicalHair, and for being the lead vocalist of the 1970sprogressive rock bandCurved Air.[2][3]
Kristina is also an experiencedvoice coach. She was the Rock, Jazz and Musical Theatre tutor for Performing Arts students atMiddlesex University from 1991 to 1999.
Kristina was born inBrentwood, Essex as Sonia Christina Shaw,[4] daughter of acriminologist and maternal granddaughter of Swedish actressGerda Lundequist.[5]
Kristina first appeared on stage at the Swan Folk Club inRomford at the age of thirteen. Her first professional gig was at a Folk Festival in Southgate, London a year or so later. By 1968, while studying at theNew College of Speech and Drama, Kristina was helping to run, and performing at, the Wednesday evening sessions atLondon's Troubadour Folk Club. She was generally known on the folk scene as "Sonja" having previously appeared several times on the British children's TV showSong and Story under that name.[6] Her first manager wasRoy Guest of Folk Directions.[7]
In 1968, Kristina auditioned for and won the part of "Crissy" in the London stage production of thestage musicalHair.[8] She features on the original cast album singing the song "Frank Mills", also released as a single.[6] She also briefly sang withThe Strawbs, following the departure ofSandy Denny.[8][9]Dave Cousins remembered:
"Or Am I Dreaming" (onStrawbs LP) was very much inspired by the sessions I used to do at theTroubadour with Sonja Kristina ... When Sandy left the band Sonja was going to be her replacement, but she did one show with us at a folk club in Chelmsford, and that was it. The reprise was about the magic mountain music man, which was me ... that was in the poem I wrote about her which was going to be in the book of my poems that was never released.
Cousins eventually published the book, calledThe Bruising of Hearts, The Losing of Races, in 1993. It included a poem "Silver Smile", written for Kristina in the late 1960s.[10]
According toAllMusic, it wasGalt MacDermot, who wrote the music forHair and another musicalWho the Murderer Was, who employed the four members ofCurved Air as a house band, who suggested when the stage show closed that they add Kristina to the lineup.[11] Another version has it that manager Mark Hanau had the idea Kristina's alto[2] vocals could become a vital ingredient in a new band.[6][12] On 1 January 1970, the singer received an official invitation to become a member of Curved Air. She remembered sitting backstage on the theatre stairs listening to a cassette of the band's music Hanau had given her, and being much impressed.[13] Described bySting as a "real beauty, otherworldly and unattainable",[14] Kristina played a full creative role bringing with it a powerful female sexuality.[15] Her experiences working as acroupier in the LondonPlayboy Club during the early 1970s, reflected itself in the stage persona she later developed.
Curved Air had a changing line-up over their nine albums (1970–1976 and 1990), with Kristina being the only constant element. Since 2008, she has taken part in a series of Curved Air reunion concerts.[8] She was romantically involved with Curved Air drummerStewart Copeland; they were married from 1982 to 1991.[8]
After Curved Air, she returned toHair. She has also performed solo, including as part of theacid folk movement in London in the early 1990s, culminating in her critically acclaimedSongs from the Acid Folk in 1991,[8] and in a multi-mediaduoMASK, withMarvin Ayres.[16]
In 2008, Curved Air reformed, with other original members includingDarryl Way andFlorian Pilkington-Miksa and, later, Kirby Gregory from theAir Cut line up. The band continues to record and perform internationally.[17]
Sonja Kristina has arrived on the stage. Suddenly there is no band, no stage, no college kids. Just Sonja glinting in the green light. She moves like smoke across the stage, hardly seeming to move at all, but undulating in slow motion. Who cares what the band is doing? As a muso I've never bothered with singers, considering them to be musical passengers. How wrong I've been! She's not even singing yet, and she owns everything.– Stewart Copeland[18]
Including the London version of the musicalHair (1968),[19] Kristina has performed in numerous theatre and musical theatre productions from the early 1960s onwards,[20] includingEast Lynne (1966),[21] a lead role inRomeo and Juliet,[20]The French Have a Song For It (1979) withHelen Shapiro,[22]Man to Woman withMarsha Hunt (1982),[23] andShona[24]
In 1971, Kristina received theSounds magazine Top Female Vocalist Award,[26] and in 2014 the 'Guiding Light Award' at the Progressive Music Awards. The award was presented by television broadcaster, and long-standing Curved Air fan,Katie Puckrik for helping pave the way for other female artists who followed, includingKate Bush, Heather Findlay,Anne-Marie Helder and others.[27]
Kristina was in a relationship withStewart Copeland from at least 1976; they married in 1982 and had two sons. Copeland also adopted her son from a previous relationship.[18] The couple divorced in 1991.[8]
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