Maori heritage fuelled sparkling soprano Natasha Wilson's rise

Natasha Wilson is relishing her musical opportunities.

Natasha Wilson was born and brought up in Auckland.

"I'm the real thing - pure Auckland.''

Brought up in a part-Maori family (her dad was Maori) singing and music was a huge component of their lives, she said.

"My father was in a band called The Huimai Rythm Boys and there was music every day and every night in our house. When we travelled in the car there was always music.

"We'd all (two older sisters and a brother) be squeezed in the back seat and everyone would sing. It wasn't just straight singing either we were encouraged to harmonise from really young. Now when I look back I realise how good we were.''

Wilson said her dad and his band sang all around Auckland down to Rotorua all the time.

As she was singing most of the time around home Wilson found that when she went to Westlake Girls High School, where well-known music teacher Morag Aitchison taught, she felt she had suddenly fallen into the musical heaven.

"It was so wonderful - it was like the whole world was only about singing.''

Dr Aitchison is a Lecturer in Voice at the University of Auckland, and is a vocal tutor for the highly acclaimed NZ Youth Choir, University of Auckland Chamber Choir, Choralation from Westlake Girls' and Boys' High Schools, and is on staff at the NZ Singing School.

This year she will present lectures at the World Choral Symposium in Barcelona (with Associate Professor Karen Grylls), and at the International Congress of Voice Teachers in Stockholm.

Wilson has continued her vocal coaching with Dr Aitchison and feels she owes her so much. "She has given me confidence, inspired me and she believes in me.''

Last year Wilson won a place performing with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in Sydney.

The performance was centred around Spanish Baroque music, fused with contemporary circus performance.

It was a combination of barefoot musicians and played around an impressive medley of circus performers, Wilson said.

"They created some unbelievable shapes and movements with their bodies that complement the music in a way you really wouldn't have thought possible. Singing with them was so wonderful.''

Baroque music or early music is much loved by Wilson. "I love to be exposed to it, I love to hear it. It is so beautiful.''

Being at the opera school was fantastic, she said. "But it's not long enough. Two weeks is nothing."

However, rising each day at 7am and getting straight into exercising has shocked her system, she said. "But It really does wake you up in the best way even though your muscles still hurt two days later."

Taking fitness seriously is a vital lesson, she said. "You can't be a great singer and performer without being fit. You'd never last the distance and I really want to last the distance.''