The Spotlight is Creative Huntly’s online video series, highlighting the under-the-radar talent right here in Raahiu Pookeka. Visit facebook.com/creativehuntly to hear Mary talk about her love of music, up now.
Mary Righton is living proof in Huntly that it’s possible to learn new tricks anywhere, at any age.
Mary’s entire life is different to what she once thought it would look like. Once performing as the lead of staged operas in London, she’s now in Huntly, recording original contemporary folk-inspired songs from home.
It wasn’t, at first, a change she had planned. Difficult events in her life meant she had to move down from where she was in Auckland.
“When I first arrived here there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, having family in Auckland. And I still go back once a fortnight, maybe once a month,” Mary said.
“But now I’m trying to get more involved in things that are happening in Huntly.”
And it’s growing on her more everyday, Mary said. The community spirit, the people, and the art that is more than alive here.
“I’m finding that I’m getting more and more fulfillment just from being here. And I’m trying to branch out and really get to know the Huntly people.”
Mary is trained as a classical singer, a soprano. She studied in London at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and went on to star and understudy in operatic shows such as Madame Butterfly.
As the years since her training and career in London go by, she said she has had to face the truth that she can no longer compete the same way in the world of classical and operatic singing.
But the wonderful thing about music is that there is so much of it to explore.
“I’m interested in trying to learn to make my voice less operatic because as I started to grow a little bit older I realised that it was pretty tough competing with 20 and 30 year olds,” Mary said.
“I really like all sorts of music, jazz and rock. I’ve become more and more interested in not just finding singing artists, but starting to try and write my own songs. So that is some new learning for me.”
At the end of the day, singing is the important thing, Mary said.
“Singing is about making connections. It’s about communicating, and it’s about trying to give people permission to feel their feelings.”
Mary uses a MIDI keyboard and her laptop with music recording programme Garageband to record the songs she’s writing. She takes inspiration from a diverse range of artists such as Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, Sandy Denny, and Seal.
She plans to eventually upgrade to a paid recording software, but is for now doing wonders with the free Garageband.
“I’ve been experimenting with it, and there’s all sorts of useful things you can do like mute tracks to listen to other ones,” she said.
One song she’s working on is called Ocean Dream, a ballad she wrote when she was missing the ocean.
Even with the exciting new genres she is adding to her tool belt, Mary still reminisces fondly on her time performing in the opera.
“I have some wonderful memories such as performing the Verdi Requiem with the Suffolk Symphony Orchestra. I had a huge amount of fun,” she said.
These days she teaches music and drama at primary and intermediate schools to “pass on how she has been helped in the past”.
“I’m just trying to encourage the kids to work together and create little performances, and I’ve been teaching a bit of songwriting, hence I’ve been getting into Garageband and songwriting myself.”
