This is it! The final Aotearoa concert of this three year cycle before we begin our Australian Tour. Join us in the beautiful St Matthew-in-the-City to celebrate the ups and downs of what has been the strangest NZ Youth Choir cycle in our 40+ year history.

From the difficulties of lockdowns, canceled tours, virtual rehearsals and times when we were the only national choir in the world able to get together, to the jubilant highs of touring again, working with world class musicians like Eric Whitacre and Voices New Zealand, singing the Carmina Burana,  it’s certainly been an adventure!

We’ll be performing repertoire from the last three years, as well as some newer pieces that we are taking to Hobart, Port Arthur, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney across November and December.

Come see us off in style, this will be a night to remember.

With support from:

Come and support Auckland members of the New Zealand Youth Choir as they prepare for a tour of Australia in late 2022.

Led by the choir members themselves, this is a rare opportunity to hear some of the best young choral/ensemble singers in New Zealand perform in both small ensembles of lower, upper and mixed voice combinations plus massed items and solos. Moreover, the concert will feature choir members not only as versatile singers but also composers and conductors. 

Music will include works by J.S. Bach, Byrd, Gershwin, Holst, Mäntyjärvi, Pärt, Whitacre, and more! This will truly be a choral feast with something for everyone from the spirited Renaissance and Baroque to the spice and delight of contemporary choral music and jazz.

We will also be holding a raffle in which you can win a double pass to our upcoming concert in September, featuring the music of Eric Whitacre sung by the New Zealand Youth Choir and Voices NZ Chamber Choir conducted by Whitacre himself! Tickets for the raffle are $5 each.

We would also be grateful for any donations that you’d like to offer. There will be an option to add a donation at checkout. 

NZYC Auckland members performing:

Soprano:

Eden Garside
Libby Montgomery
Maggie Zhang

Alto:

Anna Hamilton
Keani Taruia-Pora
Grace Wellik

Tenor:

Matthew Bennett
Nicholas Curry
Josh Long
Ivan Zhang

Bass/Baritone:

Takerei Komene
Blake Nicholson
Blake Scanlen
Benedict Tan

COVID-19

Singers will be unmasked in concert and taking a RAT test the day prior and on concert day. We request that audience members are masked and do not attend if they feel unwell.

The internationally awarded national choir for secondary school singers is back in Nelson for the first time since 2006! Bringing their “infectious joy for music-making” to the NCMA, the choir will present a wide range of music from classical choral to gospel, jazz, modern, and music from New Zealand and the Pacific – repertoire from Eric Whitacre, Antonio Lotti, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Puanaki whānau, David N Childs and crowd favourite, a bit of toe-tapping Toto!

The choir of 53 singers, selected at nationwide auditions to join the NZSSC for a two year cycle, has had several Nelson members over the years, and this year includes Charle Rainey of Nelson College. Charle is very excited to perform in his own town and recommends you all come along! “ The repertoire that we sing in this choir is so diverse and fresh. It’s not that choral music you’d expect. The choir is one of the best sounding in Aotearoa, and we have so much fun performing the pieces. Anyone who sings in choirs or just for fun as a hobby should come and hear us perform in Nelson, especially schools kids as the performance could encourage them to audition for the choir. I’m really looking forward to performing in Nelson with this fantastic choir, and I really hope other young Nelsonians come to listen.”

Music Director Sue Densem has been with the NZSSC since 2019, through the “COVID years” and has therefore faced a lot of disruption, including two cancelled international tours. The Southern Stars Tour stands in place of the NZSSC’s tour to Tasmania, with ticketed concerts in Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch and Wānaka, and casual performances at Aoraki Mt Cook and Queenstown.

Bring the whole family – under 12s are free, and concessions available.

 

“The audience was enthralled and totally absorbed in everything they heard and saw, from start to finish. … Little wonder that the audience was on its feet at the end in a prolonged standing ovation in appreciation of a superb concert where all the singers continually projected the pleasure they gained from singing and sharing this with an appreciative audience.” – Hawke’s Bay Today

 

Keeping everyone safe

• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers if the venue is in the Red level of the Protection Framework
• Audience will be kindly asked to wear masks, which we will have available
• If you have any specific questions around our commitment to keep our choir and audience safe, feel free to email choirs@choirsnz.co.nz

Tour partner:

With support from:

The internationally awarded national choir for secondary school singers is back in Wānaka! Bringing their “infectious joy for music-making” to the Lake Wānaka Centre, the choir will present a wide range of music from classical choral to gospel, jazz, modern, and music from New Zealand and the Pacific – repertoire from Eric Whitacre, Antonio Lotti, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Puanaki whānau, David N Childs and crowd favourite, a bit of toe-tapping Toto!

The choir of 53 singers, selected at nationwide auditions, join for a two year cycle.

“The repertoire that we sing in this choir is so diverse and fresh. It’s not that choral music you’d expect. The choir is one of the best sounding in Aotearoa, and we have so much fun performing the pieces. Anyone who sings in choirs or just for fun as a hobby should come and hear us perform” – Charle Rainey, NZSSC member

Music Director Sue Densem has been with the NZSSC since 2019, through the “COVID years” and has faced a lot of disruption, including two cancelled international tours. The Southern Stars Tour stands in place of the NZSSC’s tour to Tasmania, with ticketed concerts in Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch and Wānaka, and casual performances at Aoraki Mt Cook and Queenstown.

Bring the whole family – under 12s are free, and concessions available.

“The audience was enthralled and totally absorbed in everything they heard and saw, from start to finish. … Little wonder that the audience was on its feet at the end in a prolonged standing ovation in appreciation of a superb concert where all the singers continually projected the pleasure they gained from singing and sharing this with an appreciative audience.” – Hawke’s Bay Today

Keeping everyone safe

• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers if the venue is in the Red level of the Protection Framework
• Audience will be kindly asked to wear masks, which we will have available
• If you have any specific questions around our commitment to keep our choir and audience safe, feel free to email choirs@choirsnz.co.nz

Tour partner:

With support from:

The internationally awarded national choir for secondary school singers is back in Blenheim! Bringing their “infectious joy for music-making” to the Church of Nativity, the choir will present a wide range of music from classical choral to gospel, jazz, modern, and music from New Zealand and the Pacific – repertoire from Eric Whitacre, Antonio Lotti, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Puanaki whānau, David N Childs and crowd favourite, a bit of toe-tapping Toto!

We are especially excited to welcome Marlborough Girls’ College choir Ovation to our concert. They will present their Big Sing repertoire ahead of their South Island Cadenza performance in August.

“ The repertoire that we sing in this choir is so diverse and fresh. It’s not that choral music you’d expect. The choir is one of the best sounding in Aotearoa, and we have so much fun performing the pieces. Anyone who sings in choirs or just for fun as a hobby should come and hear us perform” – Charle Rainey, NZSSC member, Nelson

Music Director Sue Densem has been with the NZSSC since 2019, through the “COVID years” and has faced a lot of disruption, including two cancelled international tours. The Southern Stars Tour stands in place of the NZSSC’s tour to Tasmania, with ticketed concerts in Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch and Wānaka, and casual performances at Aoraki Mt Cook and Queenstown.

Bring the whole family – under 12s are free, and concessions available.

“The audience was enthralled and totally absorbed in everything they heard and saw, from start to finish. … Little wonder that the audience was on its feet at the end in a prolonged standing ovation in appreciation of a superb concert where all the singers continually projected the pleasure they gained from singing and sharing this with an appreciative audience.” – Hawke’s Bay Today

Keeping everyone safe

• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers if the venue is in the Red level of the Protection Framework
• Audience will be kindly asked to wear masks, which we will have available
• If you have any specific questions around our commitment to keep our choir and audience safe, feel free to email choirs@choirsnz.co.nz

Tour partner:

With support from:

The internationally awarded national choir for secondary school singers is back in Christchurch! Bringing their “infectious joy for music-making” to St Mary’s Pro Cathedral, the choir will present a wide range of music from classical choral to gospel, jazz, modern, and music from New Zealand and the Pacific – repertoire from Eric Whitacre, Antonio Lotti, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Puanaki whānau, David N Childs and crowd favourite, a bit of toe-tapping Toto!

The choir of 53 singers, selected at nationwide auditions, join for a two year cycle.

“The repertoire that we sing in this choir is so diverse and fresh. It’s not that choral music you’d expect. The choir is one of the best sounding in Aotearoa, and we have so much fun performing the pieces. Anyone who sings in choirs or just for fun as a hobby should come and hear us perform”– Charle Rainey, NZSSC member

Christchurch-based Music Director Sue Densem has been with the NZSSC since 2019, through the “COVID years” and has faced a lot of disruption, including two cancelled international tours. The Southern Stars Tour stands in place of the NZSSC’s tour to Tasmania, with ticketed concerts in Nelson, Blenheim, Christchurch and Wānaka, and casual performances at Aoraki Mt Cook and Queenstown.

Bring the whole family – under 12s are free, and concessions available.

“The audience was enthralled and totally absorbed in everything they heard and saw, from start to finish. … Little wonder that the audience was on its feet at the end in a prolonged standing ovation in appreciation of a superb concert where all the singers continually projected the pleasure they gained from singing and sharing this with an appreciative audience.” – Hawke’s Bay Today

 

Keeping everyone safe

• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers if the venue is in the Red level of the Protection Framework
• Audience will be kindly asked to wear masks, which we will have available
• If you have any specific questions around our commitment to keep our choir and audience safe, feel free to email choirs@choirsnz.co.nz

Tour partner:

With support from:

Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust in association with JCP presents

In a landmark moment for choral music in Aotearoa New Zealand, Grammy Award winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is presenting in concert one of his most recent compositions, THE SACRED VEIL, sung by Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir.

Eric Whitacre’s works are programmed worldwide and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united singers from more than 145 countries over the last decade. A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Eric completed his second term as Artist in Residence with the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 2020 having served five years as Composer in Residence at the University of Cambridge. In 2021, Eric was named a Yamaha Artist.

There will be an opening performance from the NZ Secondary Students’ Choir in Wellington performing a selection of Whitacre’s works conducted by Whitacre himself. This will be followed by Voices New Zealand presenting his long-form work The Sacred Veil, a profound meditation on love, life and loss, written with Whitacre’s frequent collaborator, poet & historian Charles Anthony Silvestri. The work was premiered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and released on Signum Records in 2020. This will be conducted by Eric Whitacre.

In “The Sacred Veil,” Whitacre and the Master Chorale memorably celebrate the precarious beauty of life, offering the welcome consolation of art and a momentary stay against our collective fate.

— LA Times

NOTE FROM ERIC

Eric Whitacre introduces The Sacred Veil

Keeping everyone safe

• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers in the Red level of the Protection Framework
• Audience will be kindly asked to wear masks, which we will have available
• If you have any specific questions around our commitment to keep our choir and audience safe, feel free to email choirs@choirsnz.co.nz

The Sacred Veil was commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon, Artistic Director, and co-commissioned by Monash Academy of Performing Arts – MLIVE and NTR ZaterdagMatinee for the Netherlands Radio Choir.

Presented by arrangement with John Cristian Productions and Music Productions LTD

With support from:

We are coming to Wellington and Paraparaumu! These concerts will feature new repertoire, a few new faces, our signature enthusiasm and energy, and high quality choral singing.

Our 55 young singers come together from all around Aotearoa, including many from Wellington, and will perform songs from New Zealand and the Pacific, kapa haka, and a wide range of music from the choral canon.

We’re building up to our big South Island tour later in the year. Tickets are limited due to government requirements, so get in quick. We’d hate for you to miss out!

There will be no door sales.

“The audience was enthralled and totally absorbed in everything they heard and saw, from start to finish. … Little wonder that the audience was on its feet at the end in a prolonged standing ovation in appreciation of a superb concert where all the singers continually projected the pleasure they gained from singing and sharing this with an appreciative audience.” – Hawke’s Bay Today

Keeping everyone safe

• Audience will be required to prove proof of vaccination upon entry to the church
• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers if Wellington or Paraparaumu is in the Red level of the Protection Framework
• Bubbles will be spatially distanced
• Audience will be required to wear masks
• If you have any specific questions around our commitment to keep our choir and audience safe, feel free to email choirs@choirsnz.co.nz

With support from: