"It was the one thing I was good at. We all like to be good at something.'' So says mezzo-soprano Janet Budden of her decision, as a teenager, to pursue singing as a professional career.

Growing up in Wolverhampton, England, she had shown early promise singing in churches and concerts. By the time she was 18 she had won a scholarship to pursue a four-year degree in voice and piano at London's famed Royal Academy of Music.

Following her graduation, Miss Budden went on to sing both as a soloist and in choirs. Equally at home in opera or oratorios, her professional life took her to the Royal Opera House, the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera and the English Opera Group, and to performances in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Particularly fond of opera, Miss Budden lists The Marriage of Figaro and Dido and Aeneas as two of her favourites, the latter because "it is such a wonderful opera for a mezzo-soprano''. Solo operatic roles have included Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and understudying Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte.

Of the four years she spent in the Royal Opera House chorus, the voice teacher says: "It was a wonderful feeling. Some of my greatest memories are of singing and recording with Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and Dame Joan Sutherland, who are great heroes and a heroine of mine.'' And what were these world-famous singers really like? "They are all great artists and such nice people -- very warm and friendly,'' Miss Budden responds.

Certainly, the trio did not exhibit any of the unpleasant traits so often associated with artists who achieve international fame and glory, nor did they regard fellow singers as lesser mortals.

"Truly great artists respect the fact that while we are not great names, we are all singers in our own right,'' the mezzo-soprano explains. "As such, they respect the job that chorus singers and lesser soloists do.'' Naturally, singing in one of the world's most renowned opera houses generated a host of recollections, one of which remains Miss Budden's most memorable.

"We were recording the opera Turandot , and late at night Pavarotti came out to record (the famous aria) Nessun Dorma . He had been recording all day, was very tired, and wanted to go home to bed. `Couldn't it wait until tomorrow?' he pleaded, but no, they wanted to do it that night, so he agreed and recorded it just once,'' she relates. "It is the only recording he has ever made of it, and it has since gone around the world. It was used in the 1990 soccer World Cup.'' Another fond memory is of working with the renowned conductor James Levine who, unlike some of his fellow conductors, likes to record "enormous sections'' of a major work at once, rather than the shorter takes often preferred by others.

"Because instrumentalists and soloists are of such a high standard today, larger takes are possible. Often it is just a matter of balance and tidiness (carried out by technicians before a recording is released),'' Miss Budden explains.

As a member of the Queen's Company, a small opera company in the British Midlands, Miss Budden often travelled to engagements in Europe, but one in particular stands out in her mind -- a harrowing performance of Dido and Aeneas, which took place in the open air amid the ruins of a 12th century French abbey.

"Towards the end there was a thunderstorm, and since we were singing with period instruments, the musicians had to flee in order to protect them. Then we were attacked by a swarm of bees, which got into our costumes,'' she relates.

As a singer, wife of a singer, and mother of two student musicians, Susan and Flora, Miss Budden says music has always been "a binding force'' in the family's life.

"As well as being our careers, it has been our family's hobby and entertainment. We love it,'' she says.

While the couple's oldest daughter, Susan, plays the violin and is studying for a music degree at Manchester University, their younger daughter, Flora, a student soprano with a voice "quite similar'' to her mother's, will be sharing the same programme with her parents at tomorrow night's baroque concert at St. Andrew's church. (See On the Arts Scene for details).

"Flora, John and I will be singing, and John will also be conducting,'' the voice teacher explains.

A TEACHER'S NOTES Miss Budden will also be joining her fellow faculty members from the Bermuda Conservatory of Music in a concert at City Hall on Saturday evening. On this occasion, instead of her usual classical repertoire, she will perform what is referred to in the UK as "crossover music'' -- lighter pieces -- by Gershwin, Porter and Dring, in keeping with the concert's "fun for all the family'' theme.

How Miss Budden arrived as a voice teacher at the Bermuda Conservatory of Music can be traced to her husband, John York Skinner, who is now vice-principal of the Bermuda Academy of Music.

"John had been Director of Music in a public school in England for more than 15 years, and was looking for a musical challenge. As our daughter Flora was just leaving home to go to college, it seemed the right moment to move on,'' she relates.

The Bermuda appointment provided a ready answer, thanks to the couple's friendship with the head of the vocal faculty at the Royal Academy of Music.

And so it was that Miss Budden arrived just six weeks ago to take up her post as vocal teacher at the Bermuda Conservatory of Music, following a long career teaching in similar positions in British schools.

Although she has only been here a short time, already she has acclimatised to Bermuda's notorious humidity, and is enjoying her new appointment.

"I love teaching,'' she enthuses. "It is wonderful to pass on the things you have learned professionally, to hear new talent, and to inspire students to the music that I love -- baroque and opera -- as well as just open their ears.'' Miss Budden does not, however, teach pop music, because she knows her young singers will imitate what they hear.

"I teach through a more classical medium so that they approach the music without any preconceived ideas, then I can stop them from straining their vocal chords, and also sing with purer vowel sounds,'' she explains.

"Training also teaches you to breathe and to sing using the whole of your body, not just your throat.''