CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations.

We aim to:

– Increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts

– Publish an Interculturalism Policy

– Develop and enhance relationships with Māori composers

– Ensure all music that is attributable to, or derived from, Māori composers and lyricists is used with proper and appropriate permissions, payments, and attributions

We won’t always get it right and recognise there is a lot to do, so we welcome your ideas or feedback about how we can improve our approach.

Please contact us at ceo@choirsnz.co.nz or chair@choirsnz.co.nz, or feel free to have a chat with us when you’re at our next concert!

_____________________________________________________________________

Ka manaakitia, ka whakamānawatia hoki e CANZ te taonga o te ao Māori ina i ā mātou whakaaturanga me ā mātou mahi o ia rā.

Ka whāia e mātou:

– Te pikinga o te whakamahinga o te reo Māori i ā mātou mahi o ia rā, ā mātou whakaputanga, ā mātou whakaaturanga hoki.

– Tētahi kaupapahere whanaungatanga te tuhi.

– Te whanake me te whamana i ngā whanaungatanga ki ngā kaitito Māori.

– Ngā kaitito me ngā kaiwhakaari Māori te whakamana ki ngā whakaaetanga tika, ngā utu tika, ngā mihi tika hoki.

Kāhore mātou e tika ana i ngā wā katoa, ka mutu, e mōhio ana he nui ngā mahi kei mua i a tātou nō reira e pōhiritia ana ō whakaaro mō tō mātou whanaketanga.

Hena koa kia whakapā mai ki a mātou ki ceo@choirsnz.co.nz ki chair@choirsnz.co.nz rānei, e pai ana hoki kia kōrerorero ki a mātou i ā mātou whakaaturanga.

CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations.

We aim to:

– Increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts

– Publish an Interculturalism Policy

– Develop and enhance relationships with Māori composers

– Ensure all music that is attributable to, or derived from, Māori composers and lyricists is used with proper and appropriate permissions, payments, and attributions

We won’t always get it right and recognise there is a lot to do, so we welcome your ideas or feedback about how we can improve our approach.

Please contact us at ceo@choirsnz.co.nz or chair@choirsnz.co.nz, or feel free to have a chat with us when you’re at our next concert!

_____________________________________________________________________

Ka manaakitia, ka whakamānawatia hoki e CANZ te taonga o te ao Māori ina i ā mātou whakaaturanga me ā mātou mahi o ia rā.

Ka whāia e mātou:

– Te pikinga o te whakamahinga o te reo Māori i ā mātou mahi o ia rā, ā mātou whakaputanga, ā mātou whakaaturanga hoki.

– Tētahi kaupapahere whanaungatanga te tuhi.

– Te whanake me te whamana i ngā whanaungatanga ki ngā kaitito Māori.

– Ngā kaitito me ngā kaiwhakaari Māori te whakamana ki ngā whakaaetanga tika, ngā utu tika, ngā mihi tika hoki.

Kāhore mātou e tika ana i ngā wā katoa, ka mutu, e mōhio ana he nui ngā mahi kei mua i a tātou nō reira e pōhiritia ana ō whakaaro mō tō mātou whanaketanga.

Hena koa kia whakapā mai ki a mātou ki ceo@choirsnz.co.nz ki chair@choirsnz.co.nz rānei, e pai ana hoki kia kōrerorero ki a mātou i ā mātou whakaaturanga.

CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations.

We aim to:

– increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts

– publish an Interculturalism Policy

– develop and enhance relationships with Māori composers

– ensure all music that is attributable to, or derived from, Māori composers and lyricists is used with proper and appropriate permissions, payments, and attributions

We won’t always get it right and recognise there is a lot to do, so we welcome your ideas or feedback about how we can improve our approach.

Please contact us at ceo@choirsnz.co.nz or chair@choirsnz.co.nz, or feel free to have a chat with us when you’re at our next concert!

_____________________________________________________________________

Ka manaakitia, ka whakamānawatia hoki e CANZ te taonga o te ao Māori ina i ā mātou whakaaturanga me ā mātou mahi o ia rā.

Ka whāia e mātou:

– te pikinga o te whakamahinga o te reo Māori i ā mātou mahi o ia rā, ā mātou whakaputanga, ā mātou whakaaturanga hoki.

– tētahi kaupapahere whanaungatanga te tuhi.

– te whanake me te whamana i ngā whanaungatanga ki ngā kaitito Māori.

– ngā kaitito me ngā kaiwhakaari Māori te whakamana ki ngā whakaaetanga tika, ngā utu tika, ngā mihi tika hoki.

Kāhore mātou e tika ana i ngā wā katoa, ka mutu, e mōhio ana he nui ngā mahi kei mua i a tātou nō reira e pōhiritia ana ō whakaaro mō tō mātou whanaketanga.

Hena koa kia whakapā mai ki a mātou ki ceo@choirsnz.co.nz ki chair@choirsnz.co.nz rānei, e pai ana hoki kia kōrerorero ki a mātou i ā mātou whakaaturanga.

CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations.

We aim to:

– increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts

– publish an Interculturalism Policy

– develop and enhance relationships with Māori composers

– ensure all music that is attributable to, or derived from, Māori composers and lyricists is used with proper and appropriate permissions, payments, and attributions

We won’t always get it right and recognise there is a lot to do, so we welcome your ideas or feedback about how we can improve our approach.

Please contact us at ceo@choirsnz.co.nz or chair@choirsnz.co.nz, or feel free to have a chat with us when you’re at our next concert!

_____________________________________________________________________

Ka manaakitia, ka whakamānawatia hoki e CANZ te taonga o te ao Māori ina i ā mātou whakaaturanga me ā mātou mahi o ia rā.

Ka whāia e mātou:

– te pikinga o te whakamahinga o te reo Māori i ā mātou mahi o ia rā, ā mātou whakaputanga, ā mātou whakaaturanga hoki.

– tētahi kaupapahere whanaungatanga te tuhi.

– te whanake me te whamana i ngā whanaungatanga ki ngā kaitito Māori.

– ngā kaitito me ngā kaiwhakaari Māori te whakamana ki ngā whakaaetanga tika, ngā utu tika, ngā mihi tika hoki.

Kāhore mātou e tika ana i ngā wā katoa, ka mutu, e mōhio ana he nui ngā mahi kei mua i a tātou nō reira e pōhiritia ana ō whakaaro mō tō mātou whanaketanga.

Hena koa kia whakapā mai ki a mātou ki ceo@choirsnz.co.nz ki chair@choirsnz.co.nz rānei, e pai ana hoki kia kōrerorero ki a mātou i ā mātou whakaaturanga.

Chamber Music New Zealand ‘Reimagining Mozart’, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, Karen Grylls (Music Director), Robert Wiremu (composer). Wellington, October 29, 2023.  

Elizabeth Kerr: 

Voices New Zealand: Mozart’s Requiem tells a tragic story

“Wiremu’s reimagined Requiem uses Mozart’s glorious and familiar music throughout, though not always in the order Mozart intended. Telling the story of the Erebus disaster, Wiremu, singer and composer, uses highly imaginative instrumental and vocal timbres, depicting both the scenes and the anguished emotions of the story.
There’s no doubt that direct use of Mozart’s music by Wiremu to tell this tragic story is culturally and musically audacious. It would be easy for it to become merely obvious and literal, or perhaps overly and mawkishly sentimental. Making changes to the composition of a master like Mozart could seem presumptuous. Threading Māori concepts through the whole narrative might risk cultural overload.

With great subtlety and imagination these pitfalls are avoided in this profoundly moving work of art which held the audience’s hushed attention throughout”.

“…and when a small child wailed in the audience near the end, it felt as if that crying represented our collective grief. Many in the full house rose to their feet, tears in their eyes, for a standing ovation”.

You can read the full review here! 

Peter Menchen: 

Robert Wiremu’s REIMAGINING MOZART – a mind-enlarging expression of human tragedy in music

“Apart from it all having  a superlatives-exhausting effect from a critical point of view, I found as an audience member, composer Robert Wiremu’s “reimagining” of sequences from Mozart’s final work, his “Requiem”, a profoundly engaging and deeply moving experience. It was thus on so many levels, though naturally the presentation exerted its fullest and deepest effect with all things considered – the atmosphere of the venue (the beautiful St.Mary of the Angels Church in Wellington), the cultural merging of ritualistic procedures, European and Maori, the idea of a “requiem” in the presence of karanga (call), kaupapa (matter for discussion) and poroporoaki (leave-taking) relating to and delivered by the composer in relation to  his subject matter, the use of both specific and “re-presented” parts of the Mozart work, both the overall and specific parts of the presentation’s “narrative”, the technical prowess of the performers, the beauty of their singing and playing, and, of course the skills and complete authority of Music Director Karen Grylls. All of these things interacted to present a work whose range and scope was breathtaking, both when experienced in situ and in subsequent resonant reflection”…

Read the full review here! 

1. Commission new works

The national choirs regularly commission work from New Zealand composers which they perform publicly, take on tour and often record. To promote a musical legacy for the choral sector in New Zealand we have also established an annual composition competition for composers under 30 years of age, Compose Aotearoa!. Support from Amplify Collective makes commissioning new work possible and enables us to create meaningful opportunities for established and emerging composers.

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Michelle already has fingers in other choirs (literally…as pianist) including Auckland Youth Choir and Auckland University Students’ Choir, so we were keen to find out where it all started, and how this NZSSC experience compared to their other choir work.

It was their grandmother who first spotted Michelle’s rhythm – they used to play duets together on trips to visit family in China – so Michelle was given beginners’ piano books and lessons when back in NZ. At high school in Wellington, Brent Stewart (NZSSC Assistant Director/Accompanist and former HOD Music at Wellington East Girls College) overheard Michelle playing piano in the music rooms, and asked them to accompany Cantala, the school’s auditioned choir. Michelle was ecstatic at this, accompanying the choir for four years – and cannot overestimate the positive effect this had on their school years.

Michelle is in the final year of a BA/BMus studying Politics and Philosophy and Classical Performance Piano. A sense of curiosity led them to Politics and Philosophy – Michelle is a keen non-fiction reader, particularly interested in the philosophy of language and semantics. On top of piano, they are self-taught in bass and acoustic guitarist and listen to jazz, funk and rock, which balances the more classical piano programme at Uni. Michelle also loves video-gaming and is a mental health and disability advocate.

Playing for a couple of Auckland choirs has introduced them to the Auckland choral network. Auckland Youth Choir reached out to them, and Michelle was appointed Emerging Accompanist with Creative New Zealand funding.

Michelle says of this week with the NZSSC, “I am blown away by the talent in this group, seriously some of the most talented singers in the whole country. I did not know what to expect, but all my expectations have been exceeded”. Michelle accompanied two pieces at our concert – our new commission from Richard Oswin, In Flanders Fields, and jammed with our band for I Sing Because I’m Happy by Rollo Dilworth.  They also spent a day working with Elise Bradley and the NZSSC Reserves.

Michelle has big dreams for the future, meaning a “diverse career, always to include teaching and choirs”. Next step would be a Master of Arts in collaborative piano performance, and eventually a PhD in Philosophy. They’d also love to play bar gigs in a cover band! Go for it Michelle!

Thank you Michelle, it has been wonderful to have you on our team for the week and we hope you have gained an insight into the accompanist role in a national choir.

We welcome accompanists, vocal coaches and conductors to submit interest in our Internship programme for all three national choirs: Voices NZ, NZ Youth Choir and NZSSC. Email Anna Bowron anna@choirsnz.co.nz for more information.

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.

What are you watching, eating and listening to right now?
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Compose Aotearoa! is a new national initiative to stimulate the creation of new and diverse New Zealand music for choirs. Designed as an annual competition facilitated by the national body managing our three national choirs, Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust, Compose Aotearoa! will be a rewarding pathway for young as well as established composers to produce new work.

For over four decades our national choirs have benefitted from and contributed to the creation of new New Zealand choral works. With this competition we aim to encourage the development of choral writing in New Zealand and provide a high quality performance opportunity for these works. We invite submissions for choral works suitable for performance by any one of NZ Secondary Students’ Choir, NZ Youth Choir or VOICES New Zealand.

Find out more on the Choirs Aotearoa NZ website here.

New conducting roles for New Zealand’s premier choir

The next step in nurturing conductor talent

Choirs Aotearoa NZ is delighted to announce the establishment of four new Associate Conductors of premier national chamber choir Voices New Zealand, Auckland-based Nicholas Forbes, Fiona Wilson, Rowan Johnston, and Wellington-based Isaac Stone. Associate Conductors will engage in our regional development activities and will also support the Artistic Director in various leadership and musical roles in rehearsal, and on the concert platform.

Artistic Director Karen Grylls says these four have contributed significantly during their time so far with the choir, and hopes this role will create opportunities for their development as future conductors on the professional stage.

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir made its debut at the 1998 New Zealand International Arts Festival and later that year won awards at the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain. With its distinct New Zealand sound, Voices NZ regularly performs at Arts Festivals around the country, collaborates with orchestras, taonga puoro and other artists across creative genres. Many of the singers, like Isaac Stone, are alumni of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir and New Zealand Youth Choir.

Isaac will be the first of the four Associate Conductors in action later this month, he will be leading a Voices NZ ensemble of six singers at ‘Classical on Cuba’ from CubaDupa, an upcoming two day music festival. The Voices NZ ensemble ‘Six on Cuba’ are performing at various bars and an art gallery on 27 and 28 June.

More about the Associate Conductors:

Fiona Wilson shared that “being a member of Voices NZ has deeply informed and influenced my musical journey as a singer and conductor.” Fiona has been a member of Voices NZ Chamber Choir since 2006 and has previously sung with NZ Youth Choir, London’s BBC Symphony Chorus, Auckland Chamber Choir and Dorian Choir. Fiona is currently the Director of Cantare, the premier girls’ choir at Westlake Girls High School in Auckland, and is the Head of Music. “The opportunity to work with Karen, who first sparked my love of choral music, is a significant and personal honour”.

Originally from Christchurch, Nicholas is a tutor and postgraduate student at the University of Auckland, studying conducting. He is the Musical Director of Harbour Voices and GALS choirs and currently, the acting Director of Music at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Auckland. New Associate Conductor Nicholas Forbes shared that “to work with a choir of Voices NZ’s stature, under the guidance of Dr. Grylls, is a great privilege.”

Rowan Johnston was a member of the NZ Youth Choir from 1993, and has been part of Voices NZ since 1999. Rowan agreed that it was a “huge privilege” to be asked by Dr Grylls, who he described as a “taonga in the NZ choral scene”, and is excited to work with the whole musical team. Based in Auckland, Rowan conducts the acclaimed school choir, Choralation and is Director of Choirs at Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland.

Isaac Stone teaches classroom music, classical singing and leads the choral programme at Tawa College, including the chamber choir Blue Notes which recently received a Gold Award at the NZCF Big Sing Finale. He is the founding musical director of the innovative Wellington-based choir Supertonic and sings in a number of choirs in Wellington, including Tudor Consort and Inspirare. Isaac has said “It’s an absolute privilege to be asked by Karen to take on this role, and I’m thrilled to be able to contribute the skills and knowledge I have acquired back into this incredible organisation.”

More about Voices NZ:

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir made its debut at the 1998 New Zealand International Arts Festival and later that year won awards at the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain. With its distinct New Zealand sound, performing music from Aotearoa New Zealand and infusing the qualities of its pacific origins into the classic choral repertoire, Voices NZ regularly performs at Arts Festivals around the country, collaborates with orchestras, Chamber Music New Zealand, taonga puoro and other artists across creative genres. As a nationally selected choir, Voices NZ runs nationwide auditions annually.

Classical on Cuba will take place on the 27, 28 June 2020, Wellington. Tickets are available from this website: https://www.cubadupa.co.nz/classicaloncuba

For enquiries or more information, contact Arne Herrmann on 0272761751 or email ceo@choirsnz.co.nz

www.voicesnz.com