Ellis Carrington

‘Born to entertain’ opera singer’s personal libretto of low times and high notes

Ellis Carrington insists she was born tone deaf.

It took her family’s move from the British Midlands to New Zealand and her introduction to kapa haka at Otonga Primary to rectify that musical malady.

“I absolutely fell in love with it [kapa haka]. Maori culture, language and performance absolutely fascinated me,” rhapsodises the up-and-coming opera singer presently studying at the University of Waikato for a Bachelors degree in music, specialising in voice performance.

New Zealand opera royalty Dame Malvina Major is a tutor, and Ellis relishes her classes.

“I’ve had lessons with her, that’s awesome, and at the moment I’m doing a paper on the directed study of opera which she’s taking. There are a group of us learning scenes from The Marriage of Figaro. She is basically directing, teaching us so we are very very lucky, that’s really cool.”

Any conversation with Ellis revolves around words of the “cool” and “awesome” kind, they personify her passion for her craft. 

The 22-year-old’s pathway to finding her forte in opera has been a roller coaster route laced with lashings of the genre’s dramatic ingredients. She’s endured health hiccups, school yard bullying, an unhappy introduction to university and grieved over the deaths of several young friends. On the plus side a real life fairy godfather, a great uncle in the UK, has financed much of her classical singing career.

All that’s by way of an introduction to Ellis’s back story, one that would have daunted many, but not this iron-willed young woman with her sights set on international success. 

Vocal pathway 

Despite the pancake flat singing voice of her early years, the young Ellis enjoyed some prima donna moments admitting she was a child who always put herself “out there, entertaining”. 

“When I was very little I’d get up in front of Mum, Dad and their friends and put on a show. I couldn’t sing at all, I was tone deaf as a kid, like absolutely tone deaf, I was terrible. They’d politely clap and I’d yell ‘I’m NOT finished!’ but I always loved to entertain.”

Kapa haka cured her of not being able to hold a note, and she started vocal training with local singing teacher [the late] Sherlie Dingwall.

At the age of 10 she entered her first competition under the umbrella of the national Aria competitions held annually in Rotorua. “I wasn’t placed anywhere, I was really upset because I am a person who has to win, not that I like to admit it.”

It didn’t take Ellis long to discover popular music wasn’t for her. “I fell in love with classical music. It suited my voice, popular songs don’t sound good when I sing them.”

Much as she enjoyed giving opera a crack at school assemblies other kids weren’t impressed, mocking her hitting the high notes of the soprano she was morphing into. 

Ellis ignored them, re-entered the Aria and won a placing.

“That’s when I really fell in love with it [classical music]. I started getting the chance to perform here and there. Mum [Liz Carrington] is very involved in the community. She’d say ‘Ellis, you’ve got a gig’, I call her my ‘Mumager’. Initially Ellis performed at small charity functions, then the word began to spread that here was a singer of some note which led to performances at corporate events. “They were my passport to university, all through high school I worked with my voice.” 

She still fizzes that her John Paul College (JPC) principal Patrick Walsh hand-picked her to perform solo in front of the country’s secondary schools’ principals when Rotorua hosted their annual conference. “That was such a huge honour for me.”

But back to her pre JPC days, her involvement with kapa haka continued at Rotorua Intermediate.

“I was working with Jamus Webster and his sister Leeda. They are really awesome people, they were very much a part of my growing musically.” 

Musical theatre, drama

By the time she stepped up to JPC she’d joined the Rotorua Musical Theatre.

“I started with the more classical stuff like My Fair Lady. My first proper musical was Miss Saigon. It was pretty raunchy. I was in the chorus mostly playing a prostitute, I was 13 and don’t think I really knew what a prostitute was.

“In musical theatre I had to sing, dance and act, I am not an amazing dancer.”

Her acting skills flourished under the directorship of the late Robert Young.

“Working with him was an awesome experience. I had so much respect for Robert I never wanted to let him down. I learnt how to take stage direction from him, it was just fantastic, really cool and got me into drama, I did drama right through high school.”

Her first school production was A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the pivotal role of Titania, Queen of the Fairies.

There was an unexpected repeat performance at the secondary schools’ national Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival in Wellington. In classic theatre tradition, Ellis was a last minute ring-in. “Another girl injured herself, I stepped in with only two days to learn her lines for a 15 minute scene. It was awesome.”

Health hurdles

Ellis has tussled with health setbacks since she entered her teens, including four bouts of surgery. Her feet were the first to require surgical attention followed by her ears. “I had these really bad sticking out ears, so bad I had to have them pinned back for the sake of my mental health, I was being badly bullied because of them.”

Her operations didn’t put the brakes on her vocal tuition. As well as her classes with Sherlie Dingwall she had additional tuition with Elisha Hulton joining the Te Ao Marama choir which Hulton conducted. 

Dingwall’s 2015 death profoundly affected Ellis. “The last thing she said to me was ‘Never give up’.”

In Year 10 she was selected to join Waikato University’s Accelerando [accelerate] programme honing her skills with several leading voice teachers. One, baritone Ian Campbell, remains her principal mentor. “He’s like an uncle to me.”

There was another operation during her Accelerando days. “I tore a ligament in my left leg and did half of it in a wheel chair – I am very accident prone.” 

Hold that thought: as her biographical background unfolds there’s more where that came from.

While at JPC she regularly attended the Easter holidays National Youth Drama School in Hawke’s Bay. “I took all sorts of classes, they did wonders for my confidence levels. A lot of people talk about stage presence. I didn’t think you could learn that but now I can really act the pieces I am singing.” 

Another skill set she’s acquired through persistence is musical theory. “You have to have Grade 5 Trinity theory to get into university. I was very lucky to have Claire Mason teach me when I was at JPC. At first I didn’t enjoy it at all, now I absolutely love it, have become a bit of a nerd for it.”

When JPC staged Beauty and the Beast, Ellis was a hit playing Mrs Potts the teapot. “The costumes were fabulous, crazy, they were made by Weta [Workshop]. I had a smoke machine up my spout, a very very cool experience.” 

University years

The following year she had the choice of three universities to study for a musical future: Otago, Victoria or Waikato. She selected Victoria.

“Former JPC student Christian Thurston who is now an established opera singer had gone to the New Zealand School of Music there, I really looked up to him so wanted to follow in his footsteps.”

However Victoria and Ellis were not a happy mix. Her prime concern was the lack of support she felt she needed academically and physically to cope with the auto immune disease fibromyalgia and ADHD disorder that had dogged her Rotorua school years. 

“The fibromyalgia came back, I couldn’t walk, I was in hospital for two weeks then I broke my ankle when I rolled it on a step, it took eight months to heal.”

A series of young friends’ deaths traumatised her. The heartbreaking roll call included talented Rotorua musician Michael Pilaar and Taupo Nui-A- Tia College head boy Gabriel Whakahinga, an aspiring actor. Both teenage lives were claimed by cancer. “They were really good friends of mine. Because Gabriel was so important to me I’ve had part of his tattoo put on my arm with the cancer ribbon incorporated into it.”

So many deaths on top of her litany of illnesses sent Ellis close to breaking point. 

“It was horrendous, I was at the stage I was going to give up, I just didn’t want to do it [sing and study] any more. Mum called Ian, he said I wasn’t to quit, that I could enrol at Waikato’s Conservatorium of Music. It was a huge decision to make, thank goodness I had my awesome partner to support me.”

For Ellis meeting partner Reuben Olsthoorn during her first week at Victoria was the only positive thing to come out of her time there. The pair have remained inseparable, It is, she says, his support that’s kept her focused.

Now into her third year at Waikato Ellis is a renewed ball of energy and positivity. “Changing universities meant my Bachelors has taken me a lot longer than it should but that’s okay, I have learnt so much more, my voice has grown, it is now much much bigger.”

Last year she made her solo debut playing Antonia in the university’s production of Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman.  “That was really really really cool.” 

 This year she was a finalist in the conservatorium’s Aria competition. “I was really stoked to reach the finals but my main achievement was to get over the really bad nerves I used to have before competitions and exams. It was that bad I was throwing up, now I’ve finally had this breakthrough it’s been really cool for me. I still have nerves but it is excitement.” 

On the horizon

With the present academic year drawing to a close Ellis’ name is in the ring for selection to join the 2022 New Zealand Opera School emerging artists’ programme. She’s also keen to work towards her Masters.

Ironically the one place she never wanted her career to take her was into teaching.

She did an abrupt turn on that score in April after playing a leading role facilitating Rotorua’s first Accelerando programme for singers selected from local secondary schools. She returns home each Saturday to tutor several of the potential stars it produced.

So what lies ahead for the ambitious Ellis?

“My ultimate aim is to sing in operas around the world. I’d love to perform at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Met, Glyndebourne and in Germany. I love lieder [romantic German songs] and Wagner. I’m hoping that’s where my voice will take me.

“There are so many places I can go, it’s so exciting to have that potential in my future.”