Calling Me Home review in Classical Crossover

“Calling Me Home is Linda Tolchard’s first professional album, recorded independently by a small team. The wonderful thing about an album that has no major record company intervention is that the voice is always the most prominent element, and since Tolchard’s voice is peacefully beautiful, this is a good thing.

“The arrangements are dictated by Kevin Gill on the piano that has the same relaxibility that early Hayley Westenra albums possessed. The minimal instrumental backing gives Tolchard the ability to demonstrate the purity and elegant tone of her soprano, it surely has a technical brilliance.

“Her vibrato is so well controlled that it is sometimes difficult to even hear and her diction is as clear as it can be. It’s evident from Calling Me Home that her voice is a tragic gap in the public’s consciousness – she deserves a lot more exposure.

“The aria ‘Song to the Moon’ is deliciously different as only she and a piano carry it through, although the standards are pretty enough, Tolchard’s penning of the title track ‘Calling Me Home’ makes one wonder why there are not any more of her own compositions, as it’s easily the highlight track of the album.

“Tolchard brings back that natural beauty in all of these standards, and illustrates, as so many independent artists do, that a talented and wondrous voice is all that is needed to create beautiful music.”