Nikki Hartliep is in no doubt her voice saved her life.
Plucked from obscurity in Alaska, the Japanese-born soprano went on to win awards and sing at some of America’s top opera houses.
However, she had to get over one big stumbling block - she hated opera.
"I had no idea what an opera singer was. When I first heard it, I thought oh my God. It gave me a headache. I wasn’t interested at all.
"I really wanted to be Barbra Streisand or go into musicals."
It was at high school she began to realise the power of her big voice, thanks to her choral teacher.
"I was a very unconfident, large girl who couldn’t get out of the bathroom because I was so scared of people, but when I started singing and getting solos I gained confidence - I was even prom queen in high school - it’s usually the cheerleader - because of my talent singing. My voice saved me."
But when auditioning for touring groups she kept being told she was an opera singer.
"I didn’t like it. I was the most unlikely person to become an opera singer - I came from no money, no musical background."
Despite those challenges, Hartliep was "discovered" and left Alaska for further training, settling in San Francisco where she studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
"It was brave. I was very fortunate to be mentored and taught and guided by the greatest singers, teachers, conductors and directors."
The soprano went on to win first place in the Merola Opera Program (Schwabacher award) and was awarded a prestigious Adler Fellowship for two years. She was also one of the winners of the 1987 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions grand final - which she describes as the closest comparable competition to New Zealand’s Lexus Song Quest.
Having been in that place as a contestant she has the utmost empathy for the singers who auditioned for the Lexus Song Quest. As one of the two preliminary judges, Hartliep travelled to the main centres, including Dunedin, to find the 10 semifinalists for this weekend’s concert.
"It was a crazy, wonderful opportunity. People said they had no idea I was here. I loved every audition, as I, as a singer, could understand what they were going through, so I was rooting for each one of them."
While she often tells her students there are a lot of singers performing at opera houses all around the world who have never won a competition, she admits it can be helpful to a singer’s career, especially competitions such as the Song Quest.
"I’m aware of the money it takes, the support, the mentorship, guidance - all of that which comes with it."
Not being aware of each contestant’s vocal journey, she says she just had to concentrate on how they performed on that day, at that time. She was not looking for perfection, but at the performer’s energy, how they brought the music alive and "into her heart", their ability to move her and their career potential.
"I was not disappointed. The quality was very high. It was not easy to reduce it to 10 semifinalists. It was very fine."
Of the semifinalists they selected, two had Dunedin connections - Sarah Hubbard and Ridge Ponini - although Hartliep was not aware of that at the time.
Hubbard has often sung with Opera Otago and was the recipient of the Colin McDonald Memorial Prize in 2019 and 2021 for musical excellence at the University of Otago, while Ponini, a Cook Islander, completed his honours degree in music at the University of Otago, under the tuition of Judy Bellingham and has also sung for Opera Otago.
In 2017, Ridge was named the Most Promising Singer and received the Judges Choice Award in the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Aria award. He also placed second in the same competition in 2018.
"Both had very good days where everything aligned for both of them on that particular day. They both brought it all for that audition."
Hartliep will be attending the Song Quest’s concert this weekend, where the 10 semifinalists will perform over two nights, culminating in the announcement, by head judge Teddy Tahu Rhodes, of the five finalists for the following weekend’s grand final gala.
Winning the Metropolitan Opera grand final set Hartliep up for a 20-year career singing major roles such as the lead in Suor Angelica with the Canadian Opera Company, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Mimi in La bohome with Opera Colorado, Amelia in Un ballo in Maschera with Nevada Opera, and Alice Ford in Falstaff in Japan.
But it is in the title role of Madama Butterfly that Hartliep is most well-known for and one she most closely identifies with as a Japanese-born American.
Her Japanese mother gave Hartliep up for adoption to her American family - her father was an air traffic controller who travelled for his job.
"It’s also my real life story. All these years I thought I was half Italian and half Japanese like Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, but I realised he only sang in Italian. It never said he was Italian and so, when my DNA came back [I found out] I’m not Italian, my father is from Great Britain."
That did not stop her from performing as Cio-Cio-San throughout North America and with international opera houses including San Francisco Opera, Canadian Opera, New York City Opera, Teatro Teresa Carreno (Caracas, Venezuela), Seattle Opera, Dublin Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, Atlanta Opera, Florentine Opera and Austin Lyric Opera.
She credits Mirella Freni, an Italian operatic soprano, for teaching her the role and French opera singer Regine Crespin for teaching her French.
"I was just awestruck by them. You can’t imagine being in a room with them and not being "can I have your autograph", they didn’t take selfies then, but I would have been wanting to take a selfie."
During that time, Hartliep often took masterclasses and gradually began to realise she really loved teaching.
"It became more and more about those opportunities even though I never imagined being a teacher."
After some health issues, Hartliep decided to "reinvent" herself and "pay it forward" by opening her own vocal studio.
"All the information I’d collected over the years I’m passing on to young singers."
She describes the people she taught in the United States as not necessarily "the stars" but graduates who wanted to get a foothold in the industry.
"I took the people nobody was paying attention to and those singers that were able to get the information they needed and they ran with it. They started showing up at contests and winning competitions and got into young artists programmes."
Teaching is a "wonderful responsibility" and she gets immense satisfaction from seeing singers go on to get into artists programmes and be successful.
Along the way, Hartliep (67) married a New Zealander who was very supportive of her career in the United States, but has for some years wanted to return to New Zealand.
"We visited family every two years as all his family is here except for one brother. Now he’s home with family its wonderful for him."
When a job opportunity came up in New Zealand for him, they made the decision to move to Dunedin - a city Hartliep had only briefly visited once before six years ago - and have settled in St Clair.
"I thought it was beautiful. It was a hardship to hoist ourselves out of the States, as I had a full studio about 45 singers, mostly semi-professional and professional so we were used to using the internet, although I don’t teach any singers that I haven’t heard live."
Then Covid-19 hit, and as many of her students were going to have to learn online, they requested to continue to learn from her.
"It made for quite a challenge with the time zones, 6am sometimes and the latest I teach is 11pm. It depends what time zone they are in as there are three time zones in the US. I have one student who has been stuck in China for some time."
She has taken a few New Zealand students but is mostly concentrating on her US-based ones, although she did step in at the University of Otago for a week when lecturer Anna Leese was sick.
"I loved working with the young singers there. That was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed my time there."
New Zealand singers who have graduated from New York schools have also sought out Hartliep to work with.
"People love them, love them. They represent so well in all the major houses and look what they do for younger singers when they come back."
Hartliep’s experience means she has some advice for young singers. "Work, work, work, work."
It is the time to learn as much music and different styles as possible while students still have time, as once their career takes off they often become too busy to keep learning.
"Get the soul in your sound, beauty of tone."
The key though for singers is realise it is an apprenticeship that cannot be hurried, she says.
"You cannot rush it. It is your vocal journey, you cannot compare yourself to anybody else. You will know when you are ready. It takes time, you cannot rush it."
It is also important singers know it is a very difficult career road to take as only 1% of music graduates in the US get a job in music.
"You need to find out what is unique for you and when you have it, sell it. But you cannot sell it until you are in love with your own voice, you have to tell a story but the story has to be personal. How do you make a person in the audience forget they had a crappy day, that they are paying a lot of money for childcare and leave crying? That is what it is all about."
Hartliep does not miss treading the boards herself, especially the requirements of the job - the worrying about catching a cold. It often meant she only saw the hotel, venue and airport when travelling.
"Your business is your voice. It’s not like another instrument, you cannot put it in a closet and walk away from it."
She is settled into life in New Zealand, although admits learning to parallel park on the "wrong side" of the road is still a major challenge. But she also does not miss the two-hour train commute from her home in Princeton, New Jersey, to New York to teach for eight hours and then return home.
"I don’t miss any of that."
