We are looking for a new team member to manage the activities of our iconic national choirs, which include New Zealand Youth Choir, NZSSC and Voices New Zealand.

We are working out of a groovy office in Victoria Street and deliver the management of our three internationally-awarded national choirs, a national academy and nationwide outreach and engagement program.

Your role in 2025 would include managing the logistic preparation and planning of the ionic New Zealand Youth Choir’s activities, travel arrangements, scheduling and administration. For 2025 that includes a tour to Northland, Wellington and international tour to Europe. Your role includes tour-managing and leading the touring party and artists on the road. If you like good systems, have attention to detail and work well with creative people, this job could be yours.

This is a fantastic opportunity to work for an iconic national organisation and grow as an arts manager in New Zealand’s vibrant creative sector.

You can find more info about this role on our website choirs.nz/jobs

Get in touch now or send your application to joinus@choirsnz.co.nz no later than 12noon 20 January 2025.

Interviews will take place before 25 January and immediate start is possible.

 

 

Location: Wellington (preferred)

Essential: previous Tour Management experience

0.8 FTE to Full-Time

Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) continues to thrive and we are looking for new Trustees with specific skills. We’d love to hear from you and invite you to send your governance CV to canztrustees@gmail.com by 10 December 2024. If you have any questions you can contact us at this email address.

The CANZ Trust governs three national choirs with great domestic and international reputations – NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ. CANZ also delivers a national choral Academy and an Outreach and Engagement programme.

The Trust is a dynamic organisation which aspires to and achieves artistic excellence while developing the artists and contributing to  the place of New Zealand contemporary vocal music with commissions and performances of New Zealand works. We have excellent working relationships with our major funding organisational partners – Creative New Zealand, Infratil and NZ Community Trust – and enjoy the generous sponsorship and donor relationships with a wide variety of committed individuals. Our highly capable management team is complemented by the top artistic talent we attract.

We would like to hear from people who appreciate excellence in artistic performance and the creative arts, and have the governance skills to make a difference for our top quality endeavours.  The Trustees have a strong governance focus, currently meeting 5 times a year, generally online for a couple of hours, with one more strategically focussed face-to-face meeting for around half a day.

CANZ Trust Board

We are seeking the following skills in particular:

1. education – skills and knowledge to help us with policy settings in particular for the NZ Secondary Students Choir and the Aotearoa New Zealand Academy Choir
2. arts administration – experience working with arts organizations and managing events, festivals or tours
3. political or business networks – someone who has networks and connections which may help us open doors and/or the skills to support the CE turn these into actionable opportunities
4. capability and experience to support the embedding of CANZ’s approach to partnering with Māori and Pasifika that is commensurate with our role as a national organisation, and build on the good things already happening in this area
5. governance and leadership experience – help us ensure we’re considering the right detail at a board level to shape and influence the direction of the organisation

Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) continues to thrive and we are looking for new Trustees with specific skills. We’d love to hear from you and invite you to send your governance CV to canztrustees@gmail.com by 10 December 2024. If you have any questions you can contact us at this email address.

The CANZ Trust governs three national choirs with great domestic and international reputations – NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ. CANZ also delivers a national choral Academy and an Outreach and Engagement programme.

The Trust is a dynamic organisation which aspires to and achieves artistic excellence while developing the artists and contributing to  the place of New Zealand contemporary vocal music with commissions and performances of New Zealand works. We have excellent working relationships with our major funding organisational partners – Creative New Zealand, Infratil and NZ Community Trust – and enjoy the generous sponsorship and donor relationships with a wide variety of committed individuals. Our highly capable management team is complemented by the top artistic talent we attract.

We would like to hear from people who appreciate excellence in artistic performance and the creative arts, and have the governance skills to make a difference for our top quality endeavours.  The Trustees have a strong governance focus, currently meeting 5 times a year, generally online for a couple of hours, with one more strategically focussed face-to-face meeting for around half a day.

CANZ Trust Board

We are seeking the following skills in particular:

1. education – skills and knowledge to help us with policy settings in particular for the NZ Secondary Students Choir and the Aotearoa New Zealand Academy Choir
2. arts administration – experience working with arts organizations and managing events, festivals or tours
3. political or business networks – someone who has networks and connections which may help us open doors and/or the skills to support the CE turn these into actionable opportunities
4. capability and experience to support the embedding of CANZ’s approach to partnering with Māori and Pasifika that is commensurate with our role as a national organisation, and build on the good things already happening in this area
5. governance and leadership experience – help us ensure we’re considering the right detail at a board level to shape and influence the direction of the organisation

Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) continues to thrive and we are looking for new Trustees with specific skills. We’d love to hear from you and invite you to send your governance CV to canztrustees@gmail.com by 10 December 2024. If you have any questions you can contact us at this email address.

The CANZ Trust governs three national choirs with great domestic and international reputations – NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ. CANZ also delivers a national choral Academy and an Outreach and Engagement programme.

The Trust is a dynamic organisation which aspires to and achieves artistic excellence while developing the artists and contributing to  the place of New Zealand contemporary vocal music with commissions and performances of New Zealand works. We have excellent working relationships with our major funding organisational partners – Creative New Zealand, Infratil and NZ Community Trust – and enjoy the generous sponsorship and donor relationships with a wide variety of committed individuals. Our highly capable management team is complemented by the top artistic talent we attract.

We would like to hear from people who appreciate excellence in artistic performance and the creative arts, and have the governance skills to make a difference for our top quality endeavours.  The Trustees have a strong governance focus, currently meeting 5 times a year, generally online for a couple of hours, with one more strategically focussed face-to-face meeting for around half a day.

CANZ Trust Board

We are seeking the following skills in particular:

1. education – skills and knowledge to help us with policy settings in particular for the NZ Secondary Students Choir and the Aotearoa New Zealand Academy Choir
2. arts administration – experience working with arts organizations and managing events, festivals or tours
3. political or business networks – someone who has networks and connections which may help us open doors and/or the skills to support the CE turn these into actionable opportunities
4. capability and experience to support the embedding of CANZ’s approach to partnering with Māori and Pasifika that is commensurate with our role as a national organisation, and build on the good things already happening in this area
5. governance and leadership experience – help us ensure we’re considering the right detail at a board level to shape and influence the direction of the organisation

Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) continues to thrive and we are looking for new Trustees with specific skills. We’d love to hear from you and invite you to send your governance CV to canztrustees@gmail.com by 10 December 2024. If you have any questions you can contact us at this email address.

The CANZ Trust governs three national choirs with great domestic and international reputations – NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ. CANZ also delivers a national choral Academy and an Outreach and Engagement programme.

The Trust is a dynamic organisation which aspires to and achieves artistic excellence while developing the artists and contributing to  the place of New Zealand contemporary vocal music with commissions and performances of New Zealand works. We have excellent working relationships with our major funding organisational partners – Creative New Zealand, Infratil and NZ Community Trust – and enjoy the generous sponsorship and donor relationships with a wide variety of committed individuals. Our highly capable management team is complemented by the top artistic talent we attract.

We would like to hear from people who appreciate excellence in artistic performance and the creative arts, and have the governance skills to make a difference for our top quality endeavours.  The Trustees have a strong governance focus, currently meeting 5 times a year, generally online for a couple of hours, with one more strategically focussed face-to-face meeting for around half a day.

CANZ Trust Board

We are seeking the following skills in particular:

1. education – skills and knowledge to help us with policy settings in particular for the NZ Secondary Students Choir and the Aotearoa New Zealand Academy Choir
2. arts administration – experience working with arts organizations and managing events, festivals or tours
3. political or business networks – someone who has networks and connections which may help us open doors and/or the skills to support the CE turn these into actionable opportunities
4. capability and experience to support the embedding of CANZ’s approach to partnering with Māori and Pasifika that is commensurate with our role as a national organisation, and build on the good things already happening in this area
5. governance and leadership experience – help us ensure we’re considering the right detail at a board level to shape and influence the direction of the organisation

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

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 …

Shona, what did you enjoy most in your ten years as NZSSC accompanist?

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

Do you keep in touch with past students?

 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 6^th 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!

Your own music taste is quite eclectic …

 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.

Shona, where do you think your love of music came from?

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.

You and your husband Bruce Murray have also raised four high-achieving children …

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.

You’ve directed both young and old singers …

 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!

Who influenced you most in your career as a music educator?

 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 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

READ FULL NEWSLETTER

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

“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!