Thomas is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Auckland, completing a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music conjoint majoring in Classical Trumpet and History. He began singing during primary school and took part in the auditioned choirs during primary and secondary school. In early 2017 he was selected for the 2017-19 cycle of NZYC, including the end-of-cycle cruise tour around the Pacific in 2019. Thomas currently lives in Auckland. He has a major passion for all things music and enjoys everything historical. He also loves to compete in pub quizzes and trivia!

Michael Stewart is at the forefront of choral conductors in New Zealand, as well as being one of the country’s leading concert organists. In June 2011 he was appointed Organist and Director of Music at the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, after previously serving for five years as Director of Music of The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. Michael is also the Music Director of The Tudor Consort, and a member of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir.

Michael was awarded a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honours from the University of Canterbury and also held the inaugural John Robert Godley Organ Scholarship at Christchurch Cathedral. He was the recipient of a Dame Malvina Major Arts Excellence Award in 2002, which enabled him to pursue further study at McGill University (Montréal, Canada). He was awarded a McGill Organ Scholarship and graduated with a Master of Music degree majoring in organ performance in 2004. During his time in Montréal, Michael held the position of Assistant Organist to The Church of St Andrew and St Paul, a flourishing downtown Presbyterian church which boasts the finest music programme in the country. He has recorded for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio New Zealand – Concert, and has produced two solo organ CDs: Puissant (2001) and Ave maris stella (2007).

Since becoming Music Director of The Tudor Consort in 2007, Michael has continued the standard of choral excellence which this renowned early-music ensemble is noted for. He has broadened the repertoire to include music from the early Tudor composers through to the 20th Century, and has led critically-acclaimed performances of Handel’s Messiah and J S Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. In 2011 Michael led The Tudor Consort in their 25th Anniversary Season, including a performance of Tallis’s Spem in Alium. Following the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch in 2012, he recorded Antoine Brumel’s Missa Et ecce terrae motus (The ‘Earthquake’ Mass) with The Tudor Consort as a fundraiser for Christchurch Cathedral’s music department.

Benjamin Madden is a proudly born-and-bred Dunedin tenor trained by Pat Scally-Richardson and Judy Bellingham. Since finishing a Bachelor of Music in Classical Music Performance (Voice) and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at the University of Otago in 2014, Benjamin has been working as a choral director and private singing teacher in Dunedin. Benjamin is an alumni of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, the New Zealand Youth Choir, and a current member of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir. Benjamin attended the 2016 New Zealand Opera School and the 2017 IFAC Handa New Zealand Singing School. Benjamin currently directs choirs for Otago Boys’ High School and Otago Girls’ High School, and teaches instruments (guitar, drums, keyboard, ukulele and singing) at Abbotsford Primary School and Mornington Primary School. Benjamin works with the New Zealand Choral Federation as a mentor for primary school singing leaders as part of their Singing Matters programme, and is Assistant Music Director and Vocal Consultant for the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir.

Benjamin has played a number of operatic roles with Opera Otago. Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Dr. Ivor Chale in Dearest Maurice (John Drummond), Bob Cratchitt in A Christmas Carol (Phillip Norman, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni) and most recently as Jo in The Woman at the Store by Dorothy Buchanan. He has appeared with the Freemasons NZ Opera Chorus in La Boheme and Madama Butterfly.

Benjamin’s concert performances as a soloist include Ich freue mich in dir (Bach), Evangelist, St John Passion (Bach), Mass in B minor (Bach), Mass in C Major (Beethoven), Messiah (Handel), Mass in C minor (Mozart), Misa Criolla (Ramirez), The Crucifixion (Stainer) .

Outside of singing and teaching music, Benjamin is a big fan of Formula 1, an avid rock climber and a keen runner, enjoying running distances up to and beyond the marathon.

Catrin Johnsson, mezzo soprano, was born in Sweden and trained at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm and at the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 2018 she was awarded an ARAM. Other awards include the prestigious Christina Nilsson Award. She has worked as a principal artist for companies such as English National Opera and Opera Holland Park and in 2016 Catrin made her debut for NZ Opera in their production of the The Magic Flute as Second Lady. In concert she has performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and St John’s, Smith Square in London. Catrin is a Performance Teacher in Voice and Stagecraft at the University of Auckland, is language and vocal coach for Voices NZ Chamber Choir and the Auckland Chamber Choir and is Principal of Faculty and Curriculum for the New Zealand Singing School. In 2017, Catrin was National Adjudicator for the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition. Catrin is also an accomplished organist who began her professional career at the age of 15 years.

As a student at Ashburton College, the now internationally acclaimed tenor joined the NZSSC in 1988. See our feature on this champion of the NZSSC.