The best way Christchurch singer Naomi Ferguson can describe performing with an orchestra is that it is like body surfing.
"It’s like that moment when you catch the wave and you just feel lifted. You just feel like you could fly."
So the opportunity to perform with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra in its "Simply the Best" concert was never going to be turned down.
"It's pretty much, if someone's asked me to sing with an orchestra, I'm like, ‘yes, you tell me what it is later, but I'm just a straightaway yes’."
However, this time she did know what it was about. She had performed a similar concert with conductor and arranger Tom Rainey and the Auckland Philharmonia and Christchurch Symphony last year.
"The repertoire for this concert is absolutely fantastic, because we're just exploring the back catalogue of the divas from the recent past to now. So it's a real treat on both levels, both the repertoire and the environment musically."
Rainey, who has arranged and conducted the DSO’s last three cross-over concerts, has aimed to pull together a diverse range of songs from the most popular female singers of all time, ranging from Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Taylor Swift to New Zealand artists such as Bic Runga and Margaret Urlich.
It will provide a challenge for the orchestra, as some of the parts are quite tricky and as it is also new music for them to play.
"So that's quite uncommon for an orchestral musician. So the orchestra will be on their toes, as they always are, doing an amazing job," he says.
He has given the guest artists — Ferguson, Dunedin’s Arlie McCormick and Auckland’s Jackie Clarke — the chance to select works they wanted to sing and that speak to them.
"These singers, they really are at the top of the game. And we're also featuring some students from the university, which is really exciting."
Ferguson was glad it was not just one song she had to select, given the wide range of songs she could select from.
"I'm sort of doing everything from Edith Piaf to Dolly Parton to Kate Bush. I think variety does not begin to describe it."
She suggested doing Wuthering Heights after tackling the song for a good friend’s birthday party. As the friend was in her book group, she thought she would do something book-related.
"I thought, oh, I'll sing Wuthering Heights, which, full disclosure, I had never performed or sung before in my life. But I thought, you know, it's a great book from Emily Bronte."
It was such fun to sing that she texted Rainey on the way home to ask about including it.
Ferguson was also looking forward to performing alongside the other singers, as often she sings alone, so the chance to collaborate with others is always welcomed.
"That's what's another thing that's lovely about ‘Simply The Best’ is getting to work with Jackie and Ali and the student vocalists as well."
Singing works from such well-known singers does not faze Ferguson, who has been singing since she was a young child and learning the piano since she was 4 and a-half.
"I have a very strong memory of one day driving to church, singing away in the car and saying to my mum, ‘I'm a really good singer, aren't I?’ And my mum being like, ‘you're OK’. She sort of was trying to keep this ego in check."
She did her first solo appearance at 10 as Angel No 1 in the Sunday School Christmas production, and loved it.
From then on she looked for opportunities to get back on stage. She took part in musicals, choirs and continued learning the piano.
When it came time to chose a course of study, classical programmes did not seem to fit, so she selected Christchurch’s former CPIT Jazz School, where funnily enough Rainey was one of her tutors.
"Music has been a part of my life ever since. And I've been sort of singing professionally since I was sort of around 18 or 19. When people would say, ‘what styles do you sing?’ I just would say ‘everything except classical’. But now I've started singing classical music as well. So it's just a bit of everything really."
"I'm very naughty and I take from everywhere."
But her jazz education has had the most influence on her as a singer, as it formed the way she approaches music.
"I tend to be very personal in the way that I like to interpret music. And that comes from that jazz education of like, you take what we would call in jazz a standard, but it's not a cover, you know. You don't do the same version that somebody else did. What you're doing is trying to look for something that sort of is expressive and unique and original of your own. And I think that's probably what I really look for."
Though in the upcoming concert she will be representing the original artist, as she is not Carole King or Kate Bush, the songs will still have her own interpretation.
Performing has always excited her, especially when she gets to convey a story or a character.
"I love being out on stage in front of a big crowd of people and performing for them. I think to me, it's a way of, it feels like a gift that I can give to people. So giving to the musicians that I'm performing on stage with, giving to the audience."
And singing has always come as naturally to her as breathing. "It just feels so much part of who I am as a person. That I can't really imagine ever not being, not doing it. It just feels essential to me."
Often Ferguson sings without realising it. In high school she worked part-time at a pharmacy, and was told to stop singing when serving — she had no idea she had been doing it.
"I'm also the reason that in our family, there's a rule that's no singing at the dinner table. For the same reason. I did not know I did it."
To prepare herself for big concerts like this, she makes herself a hand-drawn spreadsheet, listing every song aspect she needs to learn and ticking them off as she conquers them. When fully rehearsed they get a final tick.
"I'm the biggest nerd in the world. I'm definitely not rock’n’roll."
She rehearses in her living room at the piano, with her phone at the ready if she needs the orchestral tracks prepared by Rainey to help, and her clear file with all the songs for the show.
"I walk across a park quite close to my house to get to the hairdresser. So I just sang the whole way through that, because the other thing is [that] practising while I'm moving is really helpful."
Lying awake at night she will be running lyrics through her head, and cycling to work she will be singing away.
"Which always gets a few funny looks from people. But I figure, ‘hey, I just make the most of the time that's available to me’."
For the first 20 years of her career, singing and teaching was her full-time job, but then she felt she needed a change, so she moved into art management and now works at the University of Canterbury.
"That's been fantastic because it's still really close to that performance career. But the joy of having a day job for me is that I can be so selective with the performances, the opportunities that I take on and selective in a number of ways. I don't have to be taking on performances to pay the rent, so that's really helpful."
No longer having to take on gigs and be singing covers at 2am just to make ends meet means her primary objective these days is artistic fulfilment.
"That's just a really, really special and privileged place to be."
It means she can grab opportunities such as singing with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra for Amsterdam: The Jacques Brel Song Cycle, singing in French and English.
"It’s exactly the kind of challenge I love to sink my teeth into. I'm absolutely thrilled to be asked to do that."
She first ventured into the classical realm when she collaborated with Invercargill singer Deborah Wai Kapohe. Together they sing music Ferguson, a mezzo soprano, never thought she would sing.
"It's just been like a portal to another universe has opened up to me. That's been a very special collaboration and it's great at the stage of my life and my career to be able to be exploring new repertoire and new ideas and not just feel like you're fixed in one place."
Arlie McCormick
What does being a "diva" mean to you?
To me, the word "diva" has been reclaimed and it has evolved from a potentially negative stereotype into a powerful compliment. To me a diva is an emotional storyteller’. She doesn’t just sing notes but she delivers her story with raw, human emotion and makes you really listen. She makes you feel everything from the heartbreak to the joy and everything in between.
Who will you be channelling during the concert?
Adele because she is raw, unapologetic and completely authentic. Her songs are an intimate confession and she allows us to feel her vulnerability and she has the power to make every person in the audience feel like she’s singing directly to them. Channeling her would ensure my storytelling is genuine and ensure that you were seeing the real me.
Who is your favourite pop diva?
Unquestionably Whitney Houston. When I was child I was absolutely obsessed with her and I had her very first album, and I used to listen to it over and over, stopping an starting it on my tape recorder so I could transcribe the lyrics and sing along. To me she personifies vocal prowess, agility and an endless effortless vocal range that is absolutely second to none. When you hear Whitney sing, you are hearing a force of nature. She could convey angelic tenderness in one phrase and earth-shaking power in the next, often within the same song. The legacy she left behind has been unequalled, in my opinion.
Jackie Clarke
What does being a "diva" mean to you?
I think a diva is an incandescent star with totally unique artistry. I guess traditionally there was also a negative connotation of a diva bringing a lot of personal drama into the workplace and being high-maintenance and demanding, possibly with a scandalous private life as well (think Maria Callas and Billy Holiday), but I think that definition belongs to a bygone era when women’s behaviour was judged very differently to men’s i.e. badly behaved male artists are geniuses, badly behaved female artists are unstable!
Who will you be channelling during the concert?
I have the dauntingly fabulous task of channelling Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Peggy Lee, Abba and more — a real mix of singers and styles, I’m really looking forward to it.
Who is your favourite pop Diva?
I am a huge Kate Bush fan because of her sheer originality and general wigginess — she is inspirational, idiosyncratic and a team of AI music executives could never have invented her! Lady Gaga is my pick of the pop divas of the moment because she channels a true American diva tradition that flows directly from Judy Garland to Barbra Streisand, inhabiting the space between pop music and acting and musical theatre with real style and huge aplomb.
TO SEE:
"Simply the Best", Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, November 15, Dunedin Town Hall
