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.

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 Youth Choir in Auckland, and NZ Secondary Students’ Choir in Wellington, both 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

Check out Eric’s viral TED talk

Keeping everyone safe

• Our choir and staff are fully vaccinated
• There will be restricted audience numbers 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

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:

In the last few years this award-winning ensemble have toured the South Pacific, gone viral on Facebook, sung for the Prime Minister and had many events cancelled by the pandemic. Now they’re rearing to get back on the road and celebrate the new year with new repertoire, new singers, but the same quality which kiwis have come to expect for their NZ Youth Choir.