Stephen and Elaine are proud to be associated with the soloist Jacqui Bennett at funeral services and highly recommend her beautiful voice for any other occasion.

Jacqui started her musical career early in life as a child solo performer in church concerts in the Belfast area and also in school performances.  She sang in her local church choir until the director of music retired.  As a member of that very successful choir, she took part in many musical festivals throughout the United Kingdom, winning their classes on most occasions, coming second on the others.

Her circumstances unfortunately changed, taking her away from music for many years, only returning in late 2004.  She recalls "it was a strange sensation having a weak voice for a while, not having used it for so long!"  However, her voice soon returned better than ever and she hasn't looked back.

She began singing for two hugely talented and award winning directors of music in Belfast and Templepatrick and has launched a successful solo and small group career from within one of the connections.  One of the choirs was a grand finalist in a recent BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year competition, which took Jacqui and her fellow choristers to sing in the Royal Festival Hall in London's South Bank Centre.  She also sang briefly in Belfast Cathedral choir until a spell of ill health forced her to reduce her commitments.  She enjoyed two evenings of singing worship music in the Odyssey Arena to a crowd of around 9,000 people and has taken part in many BBC radio and television broadcasts.  In December 2005, as a member of one of two invited choirs, she was privileged to sing at the funeral of the great footballer George Best at Stormont.

Her company of talented musicians 'Jacqui & Company' was launched recently and is going from strength to strength, as she provides all types of vocal music for all occasions.  Most of this work is singing either solo or a capella (unaccompanied harmonised) duet pieces at funerals and weddings and also providing the hymns at funerals where a group of non-musical people are present, but the family want to have hymns sung and are not comfortable with public singing themselves.  This has proven to be a great success.

Her diary is filling up with engagements for weddings in the new year - The Royal Wedding isn't the only wedding of interest in 2011!!

Jacqui is working on completing exams in classical singing and musical theatre with the intention of teaching once the courses are complete.  She is currently exploring the venture of recording her first solo CD.  She commutes between Northern Ireland and Scotland and has two teenage children. 

She is delighted to be associated with Stephen and Elaine at Willowfield Private Funeral Home.