[2] Wilson's father Brian, who died in 2017, was a tenor vocalist and bass guitarist in the heavy-metal band Naked Blade, which toured New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s.

[5] Wilson attended Westlake Girls High School, and was taught music by Morag Atchison, a lecturer in voice at the University of Auckland.

[5] That August she appeared with Samson Setu and Manase Latu in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, staged in Christchurch's old High Court building.

[9] In September she was soprano soloist in a Dunedin Symphony Orchestra performance of Carmina Burana, her last New Zealand role before she left to study overseas.

On her return she sang Lisa in Bellini's La sonnambula, to an audience of 200 in an outdoor performance in Days Bay near Wellington staged by Rhona Fraser.

[7][11] After working for some years on the part with composer and musician Tim Finn, she played the role Purea in the 2021 New Zealand Opera premiere of Ihitai 'Avei'a – Star Navigator.

Wilson says her favourite roles are Adina in The Elixir of Love, which she understudied for in the New Zealand Opera production, and Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, which she performed in San Francisco (especially the final aria "Deh vieni, non tardar").