Nikki Hartliep undoubtedly saved her life with her voice.
Picked from obscurity in Alaska, the Japanese-born soprano has won awards and sang in some of America’s finest opera houses.
However, she had to overcome a major 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 in high school that she began to realize the power of her big voice, thanks to her choir teacher.
“I was a very insecure, big 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 got more confident – I was even a prom queen in high school – it’s usually the cheerleader – because of my talent for singing. My voice saved me.”
But when she auditioned 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 education and settled in San Francisco, where she studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
“It was courageous. I was lucky enough to be guided and taught and guided by the greatest singers, teachers, conductors and directors.”
The soprano won first place in the Merola Opera program (Schwabacher Prize) and was awarded a prestigious Adler Fellowship for two years. She was also one of the winners of the Grand Final of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 1987, which she describes as the competition most comparable to New Zealand’s Lexus Song Quest.
Having been there as a contestant, she has the utmost empathy for the singers who auditioned for the Lexus Song Quest. As one of two preliminary judges, Hartliep traveled to key centers, including Dunedin, to find the 10 semifinalists for this weekend’s concert.
“It was a crazy, amazing opportunity. People said they had no idea I was here. I loved every audition because as a singer I could understand what they were going through, so I was rooting for each one of them.”
Although she often tells her students that there are many singers who perform in opera houses around the world who have never won a competition, she admits that it can be beneficial 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 – everything that goes into that.”
Not being aware of each contestant’s vocal journey, she said she just needed to focus on how they performed on that day. She wasn’t looking for perfection, but for the energy of the artist, how they brought the music to life and ‘in her heart’, their ability to touch her and their career potential.
“I was not disappointed. The quality was very high. It was not easy to reduce it to 10 semi-finalists. It was very beautiful.”
Of the semifinalists they selected, two had Dunedin connections—Sarah Hubbard and Ridge Ponini—although Hartliep was unaware of that at the time.
Hubbard has sung frequently with Opera Otago, receiving the Colin McDonald Memorial Prize for musical excellence from the University of Otago in 2019 and 2021, while Ponini, a Cook Islander, received his degree in music from the University of Otago, under Judy’s tuition. 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 of them had really good days where everything was aligned for them on that particular day. They both brought everything for that audition.”
Hartliep will attend the Song Quest concert this weekend, where the 10 semi-finalists will perform over two evenings, culminating in the announcement by Chief Judge Teddy Tahu Rhodes of the five finalists for the following weekend’s grand finale gala.
Winning the Metropolitan Opera grand final set Hartliep for a 20-year career singing important roles such as the lead in Sister Angelica with the Canadian Opera Company, Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Mimi in Tenth with Opera Colorado, Amelia in a ball in Maschera with Nevada Opera, and Alice Ford in Falstaff in Japan.
But it’s in the title role of madam butterfly what Hartliep is most known for and with which she most identifies as a Japanese-born American.
Her Japanese mother gave Hartliep to her American family for adoption – her father was an air traffic controller who traveled for work.
“It’s also my real life story. All those years I thought I was half Italian and half Japanese, like Pinkerton in Mrs. Butterfly, but I realized he only sang in Italian. He was never said to be Italian and so, when my DNA came back [I found out] I’m not Italian, my father is from Great Britain.”
That didn’t 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 impressed with them. You can’t imagine being in a room with them and not ‘can I have your autograph’, they didn’t take selfies then, but I would like to take a selfie.”
During that time, Hartliep often took masterclasses and along the way she began to realize that she really loved teaching.
“It was more and more about those opportunities, even though I never imagined being a teacher.”
When Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, asked if she would like to join their program as an assistant professor of voice (part-time) (2003-14), because they would like to have a younger singer as a teacher, she took the opportunity usage. She also held a position on the performing faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2003-05).
After some health problems, Hartliep decided to “reinvent” herself and “pay ahead” by opening her own singing studio.
“All the information I have gathered over the years, I pass on to young singers.”
She describes the people she taught in the United States not as “the stars” per se, but as graduates looking to gain a foothold in the industry.
“I took the people that no one was paying attention to and those singers who were able to get the information they needed and they started working with it. They showed up at competitions and won competitions and entered programs for young artists. .”
Teaching is a “wonderful responsibility” and she gets immense satisfaction from seeing singers go on to perform on artist programs and be successful.
Along the way, Hartliep (67) married a New Zealander who was very supportive of her career in the United States, but had wanted to return to New Zealand for several years.
“We used to visit his family every two years because all his family is here, except for one brother. Now he is at home with family, which is great for him.”
When a job opened up for him in New Zealand, they decided to move to Dunedin—a town Hartliep had only recently visited six years ago—and settled in St Clair.
“I loved it. It was hard to pull ourselves out of the United States as I had a full studio of about 45 singers, mostly semi-professional and professional, so we were used to using the internet, although I don’t teach all the singers I haven’t heard live.”
Then Covid-19 hit, and because many of her students had to learn online, they asked to keep learning from her.
“It was quite a challenge with the time zones, sometimes 6am and the last class I teach is 11pm. It depends on what time zone they are in as there are three time zones in the US. I have a student who has been stuck in China for some time.”
She has followed a few New Zealand students but mainly focuses on her US-based students, although she joined the University of Otago for a week when teacher Anna Leese was ill.
“I loved working with the young singers there. It was a great experience. I enjoyed my time there.”
New Zealand singers who graduated from New York schools have also sought out Hartliep to collaborate with.
“People love them, love them. They represent so well in all the big houses and look what they’re doing 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 because once their careers take off, they are often too busy to keep learning.
“Get the soul in your sound, beauty of tone.”
The key for singers, though, is realizing it’s an apprenticeship that can’t be rushed, she says.
“You can’t rush it. It’s your vocal journey, you can’t compare yourself to anyone else. You know when you’re ready. It takes time, you can’t rush it.”
It is also important for singers to know that it is a very difficult career path to take as only 1% of music graduates in the US get a job in music.
“You have to find out what is unique to you and if you have it, then sell it. But you can’t sell it until you are in love with your own voice, you have to tell a story, but the story has to be personal. What time you forget a person in the audience that they had a crappy day, that they pay a lot of money for childcare and leave crying? That’s what it’s all about.”
Hartliep does not miss getting on the boards himself, especially the demands of the job – the worries of catching a cold. It often meant only seeing the hotel, location, and airport while traveling.
“Your business is your voice. It’s not like any other instrument, you can’t put it in a cupboard and run away from it.”
She’s settled in New Zealand life, although parallel parking on the “wrong side” of the road is still a big challenge. But she also doesn’t miss the two-hour train ride from her home in Princeton, New Jersey, to New York for eight hours of teaching and then return home.
“I don’t miss any of that.”