IN HARMONY Kathi's pitch-perfect career

AT NEARLY 80, SHE’S STILL BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER

- Lynley Ward

When opera singer Kathi Craig takes the stage at her 80th birthday bash in July, she’ll make sure Puccini’s tender aria Love and Music gets top billing.

“That’s been my life,” says the Palmerston North soprano and singing teacher, who rates the beautiful solo from Tosca as her favourite of the operatic repertoire.

“I cannot believe I am nearly 80. I feel two decades younger. It’s just amazing I’ve reached this age with all the things that have happened to me!”

While she’s busy lining up concerts in coming months, including a special VE Day performance in May, Kathi is mindful of the dreadful times her career was almost cut short when she twice lost her voice for months, and survived a near-fatal blocked carotid artery and brain ulcer.

The great-grandmother of eight, whose years of service to music were recognised in the New Year Honours, says a combination of sound technique and good nutrition coupled with an enormous dose of determination has seen her voice outlast those of many of her musical colleagues.

“I was born a singer,” she asserts. “It was always there. From a very small age I would have concerts on the front verandah. We lived on a hill in Dunedin and I would sing to the valley. As people were coming out of the Sacred Heart Church below, they would turn and look up to see this little girl sitting in an apple tree, singing.”

She says her big break came after being part of winning group The Majorettes in the 1972 Mobil Song Quest, held in Christchurch.