Music critics have called her voice “ethereal,” “pristine” and “captivating.” Throughout her career, Norwegian-born singing sensation Sissel has performed with a variety of artists such as Celine Dion and Sting. But for Sissel, singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square was “a match made in heaven.” In her first-ever Christmas album released in the U.S., Sissel has collaborated with the world famous Choir to offer a dazzling collection of music for the holidays.

The new CD, titled “Spirit of the Season”, releases on September 26th and features the following tracks:

1. Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella
2. Wexford Carol
3. Sunny Bank
4. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
5. In the Bleak Mid Winter
6. In dulci jublio
7. Mitt hjerte alltid vanker
8. Noe! Noe!
9. Mariä Wiegenlied
10. Spirit of the Season
11. Like an Angel Passing through My Room
12. Bells of Christmas Medley
13. Vitae lux (Light of Life)
14. Lux aurumque
15. Silent Night
16. Angels, from the Realms of Glory

Sissel Kyrkjebo was born in 1969 in Bergen, gateway to the fjords on Norway’s west coast. It’s a place where she has always found her muse. “The Norwegian countryside is my inspiration. I am very proud of Norway and its fantastic nature. All through my childhood we used to go hiking in the mountains every Sunday, whatever the weather.”

When she was only nine Sissel joined a children’s choir under a New Zealand-born conductor and stayed with them for seven years. “That was my musical education. We sang everything – classical and jazz and even Maori songs. People said we sounded like an angels’ choir because we had this very clean pure sound, almost like an English boys’ choir.”

At 14 she made her television debut in another choir on a children’s show, and went on to become a popular child TV performer with a repertoire including Streisand’s You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.

Sissel’s biggest break came at the age of 16 when she was invited to sing during the intermission of the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest staged in her hometown of Bergen. Her first album was released when she was 17 and made her a national star overnight.

A rich and varied career spanning almost 20 years has included singing the Olympic hymn at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, representing Norway at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and performing at the first Christmas concert in Moscow with the great tenors Plácido Domingo and Jose Carreras.

Domingo later invited her to sing at his Christmas concert in Vienna and recorded Ave Maria as a duet with Sissel in 2002, a tune she would re-record a year later with Welsh tenor Bryn Terfel (and a third time, solo, for a Japanese car commercial!).

She has given gala performances in front of both Prince Charles – twice – and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and shared stages with superstars such as Celine Dion, Sting, Moby and Charles Aznavour; she’s sung at Carnegie Hall with The Chieftains and appeared twice on David Letterman’s talk show in New York.

Other collaborators have included pop legend Neil Sedaka, jazz star Diana Krall and crossover favourite Josh Groban, as well as unlikely duets with Danish punk band Sort Sol (Black Sun) and rapper Warren G – the latter producing a hit single across Europe.

In 1996 Sissel was asked by composer James Horner to contribute the haunting, ethereal vocal tracks for his soundtrack to ‘Titanic’. The film went on to become the most popular of all time and the soundtrack, best-remembered for Celine Dion’s hit single My Heart Will Go On, sold some 30 million copies worldwide.

Since then Sissel has contributed stand-out songs to the soundtracks of The Adventures Of Pinocchio (1996), including a duet with Brian May, the Irish drama Evelyn (2002), and Vanity Fair (2004). More recently she has sung all over the world in Howard Shore’s Lord Of The Rings Symphony concert tour.

In May 2005 she sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir during a broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Norway’s independence.