Donna Burke

Donna Burke, a singer, narrator, and entrepreneur, was born in Perth, Australia, and moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1996. She lives with her guitarist and husband Bill Benfield and her three cats.

Formerly a high school English teacher in Perth, she gave up that pursuit and went on the path of singing and voice acting. Burke has had over 10 years of classical voice lessons, and does jazz, classical, techno, folk, and rock concerts. Because of this, she has been described in reviews as "one of the world's most versatile singers". Her last album entitled "Blue Nights" came out in 2005 and featured many of her original songs like "Don't I look Pretty" and "Quiet Night".

Burke has 3 solo albums, a celtic compilation and a maxi single, and can be heard on many anime and video game soundtracks, including Turn-A Gundam, Haibane Renmei, Vandread, Tokimeki Memorial, Tales of Legendia, Final Fantasy, and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. She has acted in several video games, such as Out run 2 ,and the Shenmue, and the Silent Hill series, and has been credited in several OVA's such as Strange Dawn, Hoshi no Koe and Trip Trek and the anime series Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's. Donna is the voice of Hel in Boktai, Ursula in Lunar Knights, and Norah in the Sega game "Let's go Jungle". Additionally, she has been credited as a lyricist for numerous Japanese TV commercials, anime, and J-POP groups.

Burke's voice is well known in Japan as the guidance voice since 2003 on the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train system. Her voice is heard in Narita Airport Northwest Airlines lounges and as the English guidance for the Emperor Showa Memorial Museum. Burke has worked as a freelance announcer at NHK since 1999 on various documentaries, NHK Specials and reading the nightly bilingual news. She narrated the award winning Climate in Crisis- Part 1 which won the 2007 silver medal (Environment Ecology) at the New York Television Festival and the EARTH VISION AWARD in 2007 at the Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival.

Burke started an agency called Dagmusic in 2004 for other foreign singers, voice actors, composers and musicians living in Tokyo. Donna splits her time between music and Hotteeze, a company she created to export Japanese heat pads worldwide.

Filmography

• Raising Heart in all Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha series
• Angela Orosco in Silent Hill 2
• Claudia Wolf in Silent Hill 3
• Narrator and theme song vocalist in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
• Anesthesia / Dr. Cutter in Rumble Roses
• Theme Song Vocalist in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
• Charo's mother in Little Charo 2 NHK Kanon
• Hel in Boktai: The Sun Is in Your Hand
• Ursula in Lunar Knights
• Operator of the Lysithea in Voices of a Distant Star both Japanese and English for the DVD.

Solo discography

• Lost and Found (2001)
• Éirí na Gréine (2001)
• Donna Burke with the David Silverman Quartet (2002)
• Goodbye Nakamura [Single] (2004)
• "Blue Nights" (2005)
• "Howling at the Moon", written by Sir Tim Rice and Alan Menken, on the Tyler Foundation's charity album, Shine On! Songs Volume One (2011).

Featured discography

• The "Yamaha Educational Children's Songs" CDs / Various Artists (1997-2003 - vocals for several tracks)
• "Para Para Panic" CDs - Volumes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 / Various Artists (2000 - vocals for several tracks)
• Konami Beatmania - "Hero" / Various Artists (2000 - vocals for several tracks)
• "ABBA Ibiza Caliente Mix" / ABBA, Sabu (2001 - vocals for several tracks)
• Vandread: Original OVA Soundtrack 1 / Yasunori Iwasaki, Various Artists (2001 - vocal for "What a Wonderful World)
• Vandread: Original OVA Soundtrack 2 / Yasunori Iwasaki, Various Artists (2001 - vocal and lyrics for "Somedays")
• Turn-A Gundam: Original Movie Soundtrack - "Wakusei no Gogo, Bokura wa Kisu wo Shita" / Yoko Kanno (2002 - vocal for "After All")
• "Seven"/ V6 (2002 - lyrics for "One")
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - "Morning Sky" and "Moonless Starry Night"
• "RWC Music Database: Royalty-Free Music" / Various Artists (2003 - vocals for several tracks)
• Haibane Renmei: Original OVA Soundtrack 1 - "Hanenone (ハネノネ)" / Kow Otani, Masumi Sakaue (2003 - vocal and lyrics for "Wondering")
• Konami's Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA - "Star Gate Heaven" and "Star Gate Heaven (FUTURE LOVE Mix)" / Various Artists (2006 - in collaboration with Sōta Fujimori)
• Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories: Dancing Summer Vacation - "Hero ~Dancing Summer Mix English Ver.~"
• Sega Outrun 2 - "Life Was A Bore"
• The Last Remnant - "Journey's End"
• Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - "Heavens Divide"
• God Eater - "God and Man"
• Tales of Legendia - "Hotarubi" and "My Tales" with Gab Desmond

External links

• http://www.donnaburke.com/
• Donna Burke discography at MusicBrainz
• Life in Japan: Donna Burke

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