The
Catholic Weekly
Online
Sydney
21 September 2003
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Heaven
scent floral feast
Welcome
strangers’ call
Bishops:
Fight racism
Bishop
Mayne dies at 75
Senate
‘yes’ to gay bid
Benedictine
nuns gather in Sydney
Tears
of joy at Marriage Sunday Mass
Donor
club
His
Holiness, the poet
Concert
to mark Pope’s jubilee
It’s
‘weakness of faith’
Still
a need for Catholic voice: Dr Pell
Editorial:
Spectre of fear
Letters:
Christian values
Conversation:
Amanda McKenna, Catholic singer and songwriter - ‘God’s messenger’ on a journey
of faith
Opintion:
‘Good mother of all ...’
Voice
of Youth: ‘Most wonderful day’
Insights:
Biblical ancestors?
Religious:
Spirit-ualities are everywhere
North
American, Irish, Australian sisters in historic Loreto reunion
Education:
Decade a day at school
Social
Work degree course at Strathfield
Balmain
kids hit right note
Catechism:
Daytime course
New
bishops ‘help God’s light shine in darkness’
Capacity
to forgive ...
‘Heroic
witness’ to the Gospel of hope
‘Kids
worth dying for’
Inspirations:
‘Schoolies’ faith patrol
Conversation: Amanda McKenna, Catholic singer and songwriter - ‘God’s messenger’ on a journey of faith
By Damir Govorcin
“My voice is a gift from God and I feel like his messenger,” says Catholic singer and songwriter Amanda McKenna (pictured).
“My music and faith are interlinked in ways I can’t understand. I draw inspiration from my faith and enjoy spreading the Gospel messages of love and hope.”
Amanda, a parishioner at Corpus Christi, Cranebrook, says her faith helped her deal with being raped, suffering a nervous breakdown and the deaths of her sister (brain tumour), father (cancer) and daughter (complications after birth).
She was playing in a rock band, Innocent Bystander, when her world came crashing down in the late 1980s.
She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress after succumbing to a breakdown. The pain and grief she had tried to suppress after being raped at 14, on top of coping with the sudden deaths in her family, sent her to rock-bottom.
But Amanda says the time spent in St John of God Hospital, North Richmond, proved to be a blessing in her life.
Her zest for life and faith was re-ignited. She left the rock music industry and turned her hand to Christian music instead.
“The time I spent in hospital made me come out and deal with things and proved a tremendous boost to my faith,” she said.
“I came to realise that God loves me and that I was wasting the gift he had given me.
“Losing my sister, father and daughter in quick succession was a traumatic experience for myself and my family.
“But it was our faith which got us through our darkest times. We understood their deaths weren’t the end and we all took great comfort from that.”
With her life back on track, Amanda, who is in her 40s, continues to serve in her local parish music ministry by singing and playing at regular liturgies, directing the music for major feasts, running workshops and providing support for other musicians.
She operates a private music school for piano, guitar and voice, as well as teaching part-time in high schools as a specialist consultant.
In her childhood, her family was actively involved in St Bernadette’s parish at Lalor Park, whether it be volunteering for tuckshop duty or the St Vincent de Paul Society.
Amanda, one of four children, was an active teenager involved with youth groups such as the Young Catholic Students, working on the committee to plan and organise youth camps, retreats, social events and Masses.
“Our lives revolved around the parish and faith was always discussed around the dinner table,” she said.
“Faith was an essential part of our lives and we embraced it.”
Amanda says that she knew at the age of four that she would make a career out of singing.
She and her friend Jenny, a soprano, would play on the swings in the backyard, singing popular radio songs and tunes from musicals such as My Fair Lady and The Wizard of Oz.
“After Jenny and I would finish a song we would hear claps from the neighbours,” she said.
“Dad was a drummer and Mum a pianist so music always filled our house.”
Amanda was paid to sing from the age of 13 as a wedding singer and musician. By 16, she ran her own music school, teaching piano and guitar.
After completing school and professional studies at the Conservatorium of Music, she worked for 10 years in the rock music industry.
This included duo and band work, performing in restaurants, pubs and clubs, as well as session singing in recording studios around Sydney.
Her focus shifted from rock to Christian music when she was “challenged spiritually, physically and emotionally to come to terms with various crises in my life”.
“My songs changed as I was transformed and grew into an adult embracing my Christian faith as a living, dynamic and essential component of who I am,” she says.
“My guiding light and basis for my work is the golden rule given by Jesus - ‘Love one another’.
“My journey of faith still continues.”
Amanda identifies herself as a balladeer and songwriter and draws upon the rich diversity of her life path to express God’s love through her music.
She has been commissioned to write songs and perform for the Franciscan Friars blessing in 1987 (The Blessing), the Lenten program in 1995 (Listen, A Light, To Be Alive) and the NSW school principals’ conference in 1998 (Keepers Of The Flame).
She has also composed school songs with students for Terra Sancta High School (Our Way Passes Through This Land) in 2000 and Caroline Chisholm College (Together) in 1999.
Amanda recently launched her new CD single, With One Voice, at a charity concert to raise money to repair the roof at St Joseph’s Church, Kingswood.
More than 140 parishioners attended the concert which Amanda says was an “overwhelming experience”.
It raised more than $2000.
“The parishioners at St Joseph’s were so welcoming and appreciative and provided such a good vibe for the concert,” she says.
“Playing in front of people, no matter the size of the crowd, gives me instant gratification.
“You see their smiles and tears, which makes what I do so fulfilling.”
The CD single follows the release of Amanda’s debut album, Listen, in March.
The song, With One Voice, was originally written and produced this year for the Parramatta diocese’s teachers’ conference, Focus on Learning, and first performed before an audience of more than 4000 at the opening ceremony of the conference at the Olympic Stadium.