Sarena Paton mixes classical chops with pop appeal

After listening to Sarena Paton on her new CD, La Carissima, meeting the petite singer in person left a dominating first thought: How can such a small person produce such a huge voice? The answer, of course, is a combination of natural gifts and years of training, but it’s a question Paton hears often. Immaculately dressed and coiffed, she looks the part, but her slight frame and ethereal looks don’t exactly convey ‘powerhouse soprano.’ “A lot of people have said to me, ‘You’re so soft spoken and shy, I can’t imagine you onstage and entertaining an audience,’” Paton says. “Then they see me and say ‘I had no idea you could do that.’”

A seasoned pro at 27, Paton has been performing in public since she was three, when a kindergarten teacher recognized her talent and started arranging gigs at nursing homes and other Dundas, Ont. hot spots. She spent an unconventional childhood in and out of auditions, studios and voice booths, which included a five-year run on Mr. Dress-up, from age eight to 13, numerous commercials and a recurring role on Road to Avonlea. “It was an amazing way to grow up,” she says over herbal tea in a Toronto café. “Thinking back now, it was obviously work, but as a kid, how could you spend a better day? And my parents always treated it as an ‘activity,’ not a job.”

In recent years Paton’s musical career has taken her from the role of Christine Daae in the Canadian Phantom Unmasked tour with Peter Karrie, to the 8th International Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria. And in December, she sang the national anthem for an intimate crowd of 16,000 at a World Junior hockey game at Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum. Paton has also sung backup for international acts passing through Ontario, like Paul Anka and Reba McEntire. “One day I could be singing with Michelle Wright, then Sarah Brightman,” she says. “Classical training gives you the freedom to try other genres—you know you have all the tools.”