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==Biography==
===Early life===
hello Westenra was born to Jill and Gerald Westenra and has two siblings, Sophie and Isaac. She comes from a musically-inclined family: her grandmother Shirley Ireland was a singer and her grandfather was a pianist who played the [[accordian|piano-accordian]].<ref name="DVDLIVE1">{{cite video |title=Hayley Westenra: Live from New Zealand |medium=DVD |year=2005 |publisher=Universal Music}}</ref>
Her musical career began at the age of six when she was cast in the lead singing role of "Little Star" in her school's [[Christmas]] play. After the show, a teacher who had watched the performance approached her parents and informed them that their daughter had [[absolute pitch|perfect pitch]].<ref name="DVDLIVE1" /> The teacher encouraged Westenra to pick up a musical instrument to improve her abilities, and she began to take [[violin]] lessons. Along with the violin, she took up the piano and the recorder, and learned to read music by the age of seven. She began voice lessons and discovered a passion for musical theatre. By age 11, she had performed more than 40 times on stage.<ref name=DVDLIVE1/> Out of these performances, she remembers not always getting the parts she wanted: "I got boy parts quite often. In ballet, there were not enough boys. So they ended up choosing half and half. I got chosen to wear the grey suit and the wig, and not the pretty dresses. In ''[[A Christmas Carol]],'' I was Tiny Tim, so I got to be quite a sick, sick boy. There was a severe lack of singing boys and, at the time, it was quite disappointing."<ref name=cbs_online_article_1>{{cite news |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/03/entertainment/main1367468.shtml |title=Hayley Westenra: Teen Angel |work=CBSNews.com |first=Ellen |last=Crean |date=[[2006-03-03]] |accessdate=2007-01-11}}</ref>
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