Marge Rivingston

A Great Life at 82

Question: What are you up to now?
At age 82, I am still very active and involved in vocal coaching. I have a wonderful array of students studying Broadway music to jazz.

Question: How did you become interested in music?
My involvement with the Broadway Theater came mostly in the late seventies through the eighties. Broadway was very hot and interesting then.

Question: What led you to Broadway?
My career started in Santa Ana, California, as an opera hopeful and continued there, with a two-year break for college. In 1952, I convinced my husband, also a singer, to relocate to New York City. We found a small apartment on the West Side and began to make our way into the world of music.

Question: Was there something that caused you to look at theatre over opera?
Musicals began to replace my taste for opera. Although, I did spend time introducing children to the world of opera through the New York City Opera’s educational program. It was a wonderful experience. We did excerpts from popular operas and did them with english translations.

Question: What type of productions did you work on?
I performed for ten weeks with a touring company performing “An Evening with Johann Strauss and our lead soprano was Beverly Sills (now world-renown).

Question: When did teaching begin?
Although, I had reasonable success in performing, I began to teach in the seventies. My first students were young chorus people from the Broadway shows. Then in 1978, I received a magical phone call from Bette Midler’s office. Bette wanted to schedule a lesson the next day.

Question: What was that like?
Wow! Bette was serious about learning more ways to keep her voice healthy and strong for her career. I taught fundamentals, regardless of who I was teaching.

Question: Any other high profile students?
I was contacted by Joseph Papp on behalf of Linda Ronstadt with her singing of Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. This was in 1980 and Linda and I still work together today when the opportunity arises. These experiences secured my career as a singing instructor.

Question: So you gave up performing?
I discovered teaching was more rewarding for me than performing. My expertise continued to grow and consequently I have had the privilege of working with many celebrities like Robert de Niro and Ron Liebman. I became the ‘go to’ vocal coach in the 80’s on Broadway and in London.

Question: Any experience special?
Working with Meryl Streep was a personal highlight for me, although the one role did not work out, she eventually went on to secure the singing role in “Moma Mia!” many years later.

Question: Why did you return to California?
In my 60’s I decided to move back to Southern California where I still had many friends. It was 1991, when I settled into Laguna Woods Village in Laguna Hills. I continued to teach bicoastal students and yet enjoy the wonderful weather of Southern California.

Question: Will you tell us about your book?
In 2008, I realized a dream that had blossomed during my teaching career. It was my desire to publish a book depicting my experiences, as well as include a CD in order to share my vocal coaching techniques. The book is called Do You Hear What I Hear? and comes with a CD. It can be purchased through www.amazon.com, www.trafford.com and on my website www.secretsofmarge.com. I am now an author and love talking with the people that have learned from this teaching tool.

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