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 surprised 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