Voices New Zealand and their inspiring conductor Karen Grylls presented another dazzling and risk-taking programme when they brought their ‘Horizons’ concert to Wellington for three performances over Labour weekend. It is, in fact, much more than a concert. Horizons offers complete musical storytelling, integrating choral music, movement, staging and lighting linked by poetic narration and evocative percussion colours.
read the full review
We have several leadership roles within the NZSSC, and rely greatly on the students in these roles to help run rehearsals and sectionals, to teach repertoire (particularly our cultural pieces), to support members on a personal level, and to represent the choir at concerts and other events.
We are very proud to introduce you to our wonderful over-arching Choir Leaders for the 2021-22 cycle! These three individuals have the level of respect and comradeship required within the choir group to develop a close-knit choir family, to be the face of the choir at concerts and events, and to help keep the choir on an even keel through both happy and tough times.
How did you hear about NZSSC?
As a singer at Burnside High School, I was well aware of the NZSSC and Jean Cumming (teacher) was consistently having students audition and be accepted into the choir throughout her teaching career.
How did a boy from Burnside High become a baritone in the incredible Kings Singers?
It’s been a wonderful journey, starting out when I was a boy chorister at ChristChurch Cathedral, a place I spent the next fifteen years honing my ensemble skills. Having been in the Specialist Music Programme throughout my time at Burnside High, the follow-on with my six years in the national choirs (NZSSC and the NZ Youth Choir) was a natural continuation of that top level education. After school I completed a Mus.B (Hons) at The University of Canterbury, majoring in Voice and minoring in French. Then, I spent a year at the NZ Graduate School of Education to gain a diploma in teaching before spending just over three years teaching at my old stomping group, Burnside High School, running the choral department. It was very much a case of coming full circle.
Give us a snapshot of a day in the life of a member of The King’s Singers?
There is always some form of travel, be it a plane, train or automobile. If possible we’ll check into the hotel beforehand to drop off our luggage before heading to the venue to rehearse for up to two hours on any given concert day. Then we have dinner before the show. The concert is a two hour performance, usually with an interval, and then we come out to sign and meet people afterwards. If we don’t have any post-show commitments, then it’s back to the hotel for as much sleep as the schedule allows. In Asia, especially, the signing can be nearly as long as the concert itself! Depending on the travel we sometimes have to drive for up to two hours after the concert to get to an airport hotel ahead of an early morning flight the next day. Living out of a suitcase is perhaps not the most glamorous part of the job but the opportunity to, literally, see the world doing something we love is a dream come true.
Where’s ‘home’?
We’re on the road 200 days a year. My home is in a village called Kennington, just south of Oxford. It’s a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of touring life.
What are the highlights from your time in NZSSC?
There are many highlights: definitely the tour to Brisbane in 2002 and working with the esteemed (conductor) Anton Armstrong. I’ll never forget his talk on authenticity with Afro-American music and then his workshop with us of his piece, ‘Keep Your Lamps’.
Have you kept in touch with your old choir friends?
I have indeed. Facebook’s good for that. Most recently, I was in Doha performing with The King’s Singers and Alexi O’Brien came to the show so that was wonderful catching up with her!
Apart from the friendships, what else did you gain from NZSSC?
NZSSC, and Elise Bradley (Director from late 2000) in particular, have a special place in my heart. Under her guidance I developed my love for conducting, and was encouraged to be a choral conductor. I spent the rest of my time in New Zealand, before moving to the UK in 2010, conducting choirs, namely the Burnside High School Male Voice Chorus and The Christchurch Boys’ Choir.
NZSSC built on the foundation that I had gained from being a Cathedral chorister, teaching me about a vast amount of repertoire from many more languages than I’d encountered before. The introduction of Kapa Haka was particularly special and it provided the launch-pad for singing in the National Youth Choir. I simply wouldn’t have had the opportunity to join the touring choir in 2004 had I not been in the NZSSC.
Do you have any advice for other young singers just starting out in NZSSC?
It’s so important to remember why we perform. It’s for the love of music. So, whether you want to have a go at making a career out of it, or keep it as a hobby, never forget what made you get into music in the first instance. In the challenging and competitive world of professional music, particularly outside of NZ, it sometimes feels more like a job than a vocation and we can fall out of love with it quickly. Identify what your version of ‘making it’ is and work harder than anyone else to make that happen. I’ll never forget what the late Christopher Doig said to me when I was studying at University: ‘I was never the best singer on the circuit, but I made a career out of turning up on time, being prepared, was always reliable, and easy to work with.’ If I can add to that, I would say that one is only as good as their last gig and you never know who’s listening! Practise as you would perform and, above all, have fun and enjoy the experiences and relationships you make. They can last a lifetime.
The new choir gathered for the first time in January 2021 and have since spent a week singing together in Wellington. Check out this newsletter for a few fun facts about the new choir!
-NZ Choirs team
NZSSC: How did you hear about NZSSC?
My singing teacher in college was the one who told me about NZSSC and pushed me to audition. All of the music staff members at Tawa College were also really supportive of me doing it.
NZSSC: You live in New York, how did that come about?
I moved over in September 2011 to get a Master of Music and a Professional Studies Certificate and now have a visa to stay on for a few years. Opera careers take a while to get started because they require huge amounts of training and time before the voice is mature enough to take on real roles, so it’s a waiting game. I was very lucky that New Zealand Opera hired me in a principal role right after I graduated my Masters and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with them on several operas since. My American career is still just beginning, but I have a big season of auditions coming up and I’m confident with the repertoire I’m presenting so I’m feeling positive about it!
NZSSC: Tell us about your education following NZSSC, what lead you to the prestigious Manhattan School of Music?
I studied with Flora Edwards when I did my BMus at university and from the beginning she put the idea in my head that I should go and study in America. It wasn’t really the done thing in New Zealand because most singers went to the UK, but I always felt like America was the place for me. After I graduated university here, I was an Emerging Artist with New Zealand Opera and that really gave me a lot of the professional skills I needed to get into a prestigious conservatory overseas. I had great musical training through college and university, as well, so a combination of all those things led me to the point where I was ready to study overseas.
NZSSC: Any highlights from your time in NZSSC?
Going on tour to China and Hong Kong in 2006. It was a huge culture shock for most of us and I remember that all we wanted to do was get McDonald’s, but we weren’t allowed unless we won the big competition. I’m pretty sure that’s why we ended up winning – we were just so desperate for a little bit of Western food after all the deep fried milk and blubber soup!
NZSSC: Do you keep in touch with the old friends?
I still have a couple of close friends from NZSSC and I have many others as friends on Facebook… I’m thankful for the friendships I made in the choir and especially for those who remain close friends today. Many of us went through the Youth Choir, too, so we sang together for a fair few years.
NZSSC: What skills did you gain in NZSSC?
The number one skill was discipline, which is of huge importance in an operatic career (or any career, really!) Much of what I do on a day-to-day basis is self-directed and without discipline I would get nowhere. Learning to sing as part of an ensemble was another important skill. In opera there is so much ensemble singing (although it’s usually one per part in a duet, trio, quartet or quintet) and NZSSC taught me to be musically accurate, how to listen to the other singers around me and also how to watch and follow a conductor. I had my first introduction to singing in foreign languages during my time with NZSSC and I’m also grateful for the mental and physical stamina I acquired after long days of rehearsal. I don’t sing in choirs anymore but I use all of these skills in opera.
NZSSC: Any advice for young singers just starting out?
It’s really hard to have a full time career in music. You have to make a lot of sacrifices, but if it’s something you want to do then commit yourself to it fully. You have to be really hungry to succeed and have the strength to push yourself every day.. A career in music doesn’t have to mean full time performance, either. I know so many people who are really happy teaching music, running opera companies or singing in choirs as a hobby. If you love music then find a way to have it in your life.
There’s so much to talk about with Shona across the arts, sport and family that her decade as NZSSC accompanist almost feels like a blip in her exceptional career—one that’s seen her awarded many accolades including the Queens Service Medal and the National Excellence in Teaching Award.
During nearly 40 years’ involvement with Tawa College, 21 as head of the music department, Shona has also directed her own award-winning choirs. We asked Shona about her love of music and her time with NZSSC …
I loved that the choir brought students together from all over New Zealand, from both large and tiny schools. I was particularly proud when students took what they had learned in NZSSC back to help their own choirs, Katie MacFarlane (choir director and Choirs Aotearoa board member) did that for her school in Timaru.
I always enjoyed the cultural diversity and that we had so many boys wanting to sing! That doesn’t happen everywhere and was commented on when we toured to Australia in 1998.
It was humbling to get the chance to travel to see other cultures and other choirs. What a privilege! Sometimes at festivals, where many languages were spoken, music might be the only commonality—our common language. The image above is of me at the Bosendorfer Grand Piano in Victoria Hall when we were on tour in Singapore.
In 2000, NZSSC was part of a massed choir in Canada, directed by Robert Sund
I remember the trip to Canada in 2000 with great excitement. The massed choir performance directed by Robert Sund was incredible. In Calgary, we sang with the Calgary Youth Choir during ‘stampede week’ when everyone dressed up as cowboys.
NZSSC music team during ‘stampede week’ on the Canadian tour
Absolutely, I love staying in touch through Facebook and watching the progression of past-students and how they still use their music.
NZSSC in Brisbane, 1998
Opera singer Amelia Berry and Emily Mwila are two I follow closely and am still in touch with. I remember baritone Johnathan Lemalu very fondly from NZSSC. He stayed with us as a 6th former and had a great sense of humour. It’s amazing to think that Rowan Johnson, who now directs award-winning choirs at Westlake High School, was once such a shy boy!
I really love Elton John. I’m going to my fifth Elton John concert in Australia in January. James Galway said that Elton is ‘the Schubert of our times’!
I’ve been Involved with baroque, avant-garde and rock. When Charlotte was a baby, I musically directed SaulTalk, a home-grown rock musical that was initially performed at the Mana Arts Festival and then toured nationwide. We did 36 performances in all.
I’m passionate about breaking down stereotypes of who can sing and the hierarchies that exist around music genres. It’s the same in music education, kids shouldn’t specialise too early – they need as wide an experience as possible.
Some of my earliest memories are of dancing and singing along with Chinese street parades. I was born in Honan Province in China; my parents were missionaries who worked in a famine relief camp there. We moved back to New Zealand when I was seven. My father was a minister, and a fine violinist and choir enthusiast. I was often called on to play for him and for the congregations and choirs. The church played a huge part in my musical beginnings and this is where my love of accompanying and conducting began.
In my fourth form year, we moved to Tawa in Wellington and I went to Mana College where I was taught by David Sell (later a professor at Canterbury University and music reviewer for The Press). He directed huge choirs and had a big impact on me.
On leaving school I went to Teachers College and throughout the 70s, while raising my children, I undertook a Bachelor of Music in Performance (Pipe Organ) under Maxwell Fernie and completed my LRSM and LTCL in piano. I continued to learn piano, taking lessons with Judith Clarke.
Music and sport is in the blood, Bruce is also a singer and was a former NZ cricketer. My granddaughter Amelia Kerr, is already a world-record-scoring cricket player!
My daughter Charlotte Murray was in NZSSC and is now a music teacher and choir director. She directs two choruses at Tawa College, Maiden Tawa and Acafellas and this year has made history alongside four other women qualifying as judges for the Men’s International Barbershop Harmony Society in the USA. She’s also directed the Musical Island Boys (gold medal-winners, International Barbershop Quartet, Las Vegas 2014) and still directs Vocal FX (ranked in the top 10 choruses in the world).
My husband Bruce was also involved with NZSSC. He was the first Chair of the Board in 1997.
I took over from Guy Jansen directing an older group called the Summerset Singers. I bring students in from Tawa College to sing with us. It’s great to bring young and old together.
Music has also taken me into prison. When I was a teenager, my father was the chaplain at the Arohata Borstal and I would accompany him on visits and play the piano. That’s how I made friends with Juliet Hulme, who the film Heavenly Creatures was based on. She’d come to lunch at our house and I taught her how to knit a dress!
Everything goes back to Guy Jansen and his role as National Officer for Music for the Department of Education.
Music and the other performing arts were hugely valued in our Teachers College training back then, that’s where I had singing lessons, and all schools had music advisers.
In the early days of NZSSC, I had the privilege of being the accompanist for Professor Rodney Eichenberger, who Guy regularly brought out to New Zealand. We learned so much from him about the power of gesture in conducting a choir. His video ‘What they see, is what you get’ also impacted choral directors throughout NZ.
Roy Tankersley had a lot to do with the success of Tawa College. He was Head of Department for music when I started teaching there part-time in 1977. Roy was also the director of the Wellington Bach Choir when I was the accompanist and assistant director. I loved working with him. His daughter Jayne Tankersley was in NZSSC with my daughter Charlotte, under the direction of Roger Stevenson.
I took over as Head of Department at Tawa College in 1984 and developed several successful choirs over the years. We took the chamber choir Twilight Tones to San Francisco in 2006. This chamber choir included Year 12 student Isaac Stone, now the director of his own chamber choir, The Blue Notes. Isaac has been a member of NZSSC and the National Youth choir. He currently sings in Voices New Zealand. As well as leading the choral programme at Tawa College, he also directs Wellington choir, Supertonic.
Tawa College’s ‘Twilight Tones’ win in San Francisco 2006
“The kids realise NZSSC is a life-changing experience, and we create an environment for them that’s so welcoming and friendly. I’m very proud of that! It’s not just music, it’s the experience and the camaraderie. The students literally grow up when they’re in our choir, especially those in the choir for two cycles/four years.”
On tour in Canada 2016
Anna is the person who ensures auditions, rehearsals, concerts and other events run smoothly, and she manages all aspects of our international tours. The recent merger into Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand has taken some of the pressure off Anna and she’s enjoying the support that comes with being in a team, rather than working from home. “I can discuss issues with colleagues who have similar experiences and challenges. I also have more access to music connections across the country and around the world. I feel part of something much bigger, which is fantastic”.
Anna, what goes on tour stays on tour but can you share some of the interesting times you’ve had overseas with the choir?
I’ve been on five international tours and there were definitely times on all of them when my skills were tested. I’ve seen quite a few international hospitals!
Probably the most intense was our 2018 tour to Asia. We got stranded in Shanghai for five days due to a typhoon.
On what was meant to be the last tour day, all our phones started pinging with notifications from Cathay Pacific, simply saying our flight was cancelled, ‘sorry for the inconvenience’! It was pandemonium, including tears from many of the students. It was the hardest I’ve ever had to work, I woke up at 4am every morning to get to the airport, liaise with worried parents back in New Zealand and deal with the airlines.
Happy staff heading to Hong Kong and Shanghai 2018 (before the typhoon….)
Thankfully we had our wonderful translator Liqin with us and I was supported by Pania Tyson-Nathan from Maori Tourism and of course the fabulous tour team, especially Gavin Hurley. We managed to get the students home in batches over a number of days, prioritising those who needed to return first. By the last day, there were just seven students left and with the pressure finally off, we had a lot of fun exploring Shanghai together. We saw a lot more of the amazing city than we had planned, and I actually felt incredibly fortunate for that!
How did you become involved with NZSSC?
It was early in 2009, my youngest child was soon to start kindergarten and I saw the job advertised. Everything felt right—I come from a family of singers (my sister was in Youth Choir), and I had previously worked as the Business Manager for Taki Rua Productions. It was there I learnt many of the skills essential to my role at NZSSC. I’d also been hugely involved with fundraising for the Ngaio School Fair and realised that experience was also invaluable to the choir.
I was interviewed for the job by Errol Pike, Chair of the NZSSC Board. My husband was waiting in the car outside because he knew how nervous I was! Luckily Errol was lovely.
I began working from home 20 hours a week, which was never enough and I now work 25 hours from the Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand office in Ghuznee St. Music Director Andrew Withington had also just joined NZSSC so we learned together on the job.
2010 was when NZSSC attended the International Choral Kathaumixw in Powell River for the second time (the first was with music director Elise Bradley) …
Being my first tour, I had sleepless nights worrying about how we were going to fund that trip, but everything came together and Errol was a great support. Because my children were only primary-school age then, the tour was my first time being submerged in the world of teenagers. I couldn’t believe how big they all were! They were great young people though, and British Columbia was beautiful. We received the People’s Choice Award at the festival, we were a massive hit. The waiata Kua Rongo was a stand-out, leaving both singers and audiences in tears with the passion of our performances.
Closing Ceremony of the 2010 Kathaumixw
As always, there were some incredibly talented students in the choir, including Benson Wilson who is now a professional opera singer.
Barring a few technical malfunctions causing our director some stress, the tour went smoothly. Oh… apart from on the last day when one of the students got lost (no cellphones back then). Thankfully he turned up as we were about to leave for the airport, totally unaware of the distress he had caused!
We know you do so much more than go on tour, but tell us about the 2012 trip to South Africa. NZSSC was meant to go to Greece?
Our tour to the International Society of Musical Education conference in Greece was all planned when the global financial crisis hit Greece hard and we could no longer get insurance to attend. We changed all the bookings and went to a festival in South Africa instead.
Culturally this tour was unbeatable, an amazing experience. We were all blown away by our African experiences, including a very moving visit to an orphanage and staying at a “free roaming” safari park where the animals roamed around our cabins and drank from the pool!
Opera singer Clinton Fung was part of that choir and it was Carole Randall’s and Rachel Alexander’s first tour.
South Africa tour, 2012
And a change of plans again in 2014?
Yes, it was beginning to feel like a pattern! In 2014, we went to Singapore and Malaysia but only because our trip to Brazil had to be abandoned. With everything booked, Aerolíneas Argentinas announced they were no longer flying from Auckland. They issued a full refund but we couldn’t find alternative, affordable travel.
Instead we attended a festival in Singapore as guest choir then drove up through Malaysia, stopping in Malacca in the south, Kuala Lumpur and on to Penang. The Malaysian Minister of Arts and Culture attended our concert in Kuala Lumpur and some of our students were interviewed on national television.
We visited many beautiful places but the mid-July heat really affected our students and the itinerary was very full. There were lessons learnt on this tour, and we have improved procedures and processes as a result. For the 2018 tour to Asia, I did my own ‘reccy’ ahead of time which was incredibly useful in planning the tour and meeting concert partners. But you still can’t plan for typhoons!
In 2016, it was back to Powell River as guest choir …
Another incredible experience, the whole town of Powell River really gets behind the International Choral Kathaumixw. Because we were Guest Choir, not competing, we got to sing with conductors from across the globe and all the other choirs. Here we were introduced to the Wah Yan College Kowloon Boys Choir (winners of the Kathaumixw Choir of the World), which later lead to our 2018 tour to Hong Kong and China.
With NZSSC members Jack Page and Emma McClean in Canada 2016
What’s next?
In 2020, we’re off to Europe for the first time ever! We’ve been invited to Dresden as one of five international choirs at a children’s choir festival. We were planning to stop in Hong Kong on the way, to perform a new commission from David Hamilton with the Wah Yan Boys Choir again. But continuing our pattern of disrupted tours …. we have had to make the hard decision to cancel that part of the tour due to the political demonstrations there. The tour is earlier this cycle, in the April holidays rather than July, so that we can attend the World Choral Symposium in Auckland, which will be very exciting and a great honour for the NZSSC.
But before then, we’ve got concerts in Napier and Palmerston North to look forward to. Don’t forget to book your tickets: NZSSC in Napier and Palmerston North!
Concert Review – New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, Directed by Sue Densem, St John’s Cathedral, Napier, Tuesday, 21 January. Reviewed by Peter Williams
It was a great pleasure to have the NZSSC back in Hawke’s Bay, remembering their superb concert here two years ago. A new conductor this time, the exuberant Sue Densem who drew wonderful music from the fifty five secondary school students, auditioned members for two years of a choir which in the past has thrilled audiences both in New Zealand and on their overseas tours. They are sure to make the same impact on this year’s tour!
Jabberwocky, by Sam Pottle, from Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass, with its piano and percussion accompaniment, movement and great range of dynamics, made a spectacular opening, a marked contrast to Jack Runestad’s Nyan Nyan with its vivid exploration of sounds of the human voice.
More contrasts were shown in the poignant setting of In Remembrance by former Hawke’s Bay resident David Childs, and the sombre Catacombs by N Z composer William Yaxley where the choir’s vocal sounds accompanied the solo soprano voice in the widest range of dynamics.
The beautiful singing of the Hebrew Love Song by Eric Whitacre was balanced by the gentle piano and violin accompaniment, and the first half of the programme ended with the brilliant singing of The Heavens are Telling by Haydn, with its alternating choral singing and the separate soprano, tenor and bass trio.
The astounding performance of the two waiata – Kahu Atangatanga and Tuituia Tatou E – after the interval, with such skilled and free movement, held the audience absolutely spellbound, with even more to come in the Samoan Tate Le Fia Manatua, with its powerful singing, movement and rhythm accompaniment, at the end.
Prior to this, the choir divided to sing Irish folk songs – female voices Siull a Ruin for choir and solo voice, and the male voices singing Dulaman with the amazing traditional Irish language sounds.
Much of the programme was sung from memory and unaccompanied, but there were skilled instrumentalists among the singers and assistant conductor and piano accompanist, Brent Stewart, showed his skill, especially in Pure Imagination from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
There was an encore – the spectacular modern anthem Praise His Holy Name – where the choir sang and danced down the aisles in brilliant high spirits to end the concert.
The astonishing variety of the singing, the display of absolute confidence, freedom and easy interaction of all choir members, made this a concert which will live long in the memory – a wonderful music experience for both choir and audience, exhibiting the splendid culture in the choir, built up under the leadership of Music Director Sue Densem and her assistants, Brent Stewart and Rachel Alexander.
Peter Williams
Hawkes Bay Today music columnist
We have several leadership roles within the NZSSC, and rely greatly on the students in these roles to help run rehearsals and sectionals, to teach repertoire (particularly our cultural pieces), to support members on a personal level, and to represent the choir at concerts and other events.
We are very proud to introduce you to our wonderful over-arching Choir Leaders for the 2021-22 cycle! These three individuals have the level of respect and comradeship required within the choir group to develop a close-knit choir family, to be the face of the choir at concerts and events, and to help keep the choir on an even keel through both happy and tough times.
