KITTY CLEVELAND
Kitty Cleveland is a native of New Orleans, and so has a rich
Catholic heritage and soulful music in her blood. The old Uptown
neighborhood she grew up in, with it's Spanish architecture,
fragrant magnolias and jasmine, the arching shade of live oaks
and the sound of streetcars rhythmically rolling down St.
Charles Avenue towards the French Quarter, was fertile ground
for a budding artist. Music was all around her, and as a young
girl she would weekly jump on the Carrollton Avenue bus to take
guitar lessons at a home in the bend of the Mississippi river.
Kitty delighted in the singing and ritual at her stately and
ornate parish church, St. Rita, which was only a three-minute
walk from her front doorstep. There she would attend weekly, and
sometimes daily Mass with her parents and younger sisters (six
girls in all). It was there that she first sensed a stirring in
her soul that she was meant to sing for God.
Some years later, the summer before her senior year in high
school, a dramatic encounter with Christ on a retreat confirmed
this calling beyond a doubt: she was to be a music missionary,
glorifying God and leading others to a deeper experience of Him
through her singing and songwriting. However, knowing this in
her heart was vastly different from making it a reality, she
soon discovered.
It took many years of struggle, doubt, distractions, impassioned
prayer, half-starts and "misguided university degrees", as Kitty
calls them (she is a lawyer and has a master's degree in
counseling), before a family crisis brought her to her knees
long and hard enough to finally surrender to God's plan for her
life. Her first CD, appropriately named Surrender, was the
result.
"I had no idea what I was doing," says Kitty. "All I knew was
that God wanted it. So each day I would pray before Jesus in my
parish adoration chapel, and I would ask him what I needed to do
next. The funding, finding an arranger, the musicians, the
studio, the manufacturer, the graphic designer...I just took
each thing to prayer as it came up." Though Kitty says there are
some things she would have done differently, musically speaking,
the album went on to win the 2001 Unity Award for Sacramental
Album of the Year and has continued to win fans around the
world. "I'm more suprised than anyone," she humbly admits. "God
is so good!"
Five appearances on EWTN's Life on the Rock with Jeff Cavins, as
well as a taping of Backstage which is now in reruns, have
exposed Kitty to a worldwide television audience she never
thought she'd reach. Now four years and three more albums later,
Kitty is doing full-time what she loves to do: sing for God and
share her testimony. Though her audiences have ranged from
small, intimate gatherings to large conferences with many
thousands of people, it doesn't really matter to her what size
the group is. "The value of one soul is inestimable--it is the
cost of all of the blood of Christ."
"For me," she says, "singing is prayer more than performance.
And when I pray my songs, others seem to be led to a deep
encounter with God, which is what their souls are longing for. I
just feel so blessed to be used as a channel of his love and
mercy."
In addition to conferences and parish concerts, Kitty also
shares her stirring testimony and gives talks on prepared topics
like True Beauty; The Power of Christ in the Eucharist; Finding
Your True Calling, etc.
