New Zealand Youth Choir
Concerts in Dunedin and Christchurch 5 & 6 September 2014
Texts of Programme Items
Click here to see the complete Texts of Programme for both concerts.
NZYC’s new CD, Deep River conducted by David Squire, is out now. For more details, click here
Sol3 Mio talk to the BBC on their success as well as their time at the New Zealand Youth Choir. Click this for the link.
Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust is delighted to announce that Infratil is extending its sponsorship of the New Zealand Youth Choir.
Infratil became the NZ Youth Choir’s Principal Sponsor in 2012 providing $100,000 per year. The initial period of sponsorship due to end in mid-2015 has been extended by two years.
Trust Chair, Trevor Kempton said “we are very pleased that Infratil has decided to extend support for the NZ Youth Choir as its involvement has made a significant difference to the work of our national choir. In the last two and half years we have been able to broaden the choir’s activities in New Zealand and undertake a significant tour of the USA and Canada last year with a choir of 60 singers. The continuation of our partnership with Infratil allows us to plan ahead with confidence and start working toward the NZ Youth Choir’s tour to Europe in 2016″.
The New Zealand Youth Choir, formed in 1979, is nationally auditioned with membership open to young singers between the ages of 18 and 25 years. David Squire, who was himself a NZYC member, is the choir’s Music Director. Former members of the choir include international opera stars Simon O’Neill, Jonathan Lemalu, and Anna Leese and the three members of the popular singing group Sol3 Mio – Pene and Amitai Pati and Moses Mackay.
Simon O’Neill said “the New Zealand Youth Choir was the beginning for me. I loved being surrounded with such fine individual musicians and it gave me the greatest musical love of my life, singing. I can’t thank this most wonderful New Zealand institution enough. It is truly world class”.
In 2015 the NZ Youth Choir will combine with Voices NZ Chamber Choir to give two concerts in the Auckland Festival, a joint recital on 18 March and a performance of Michael Tippett’s ‘A Child of Our Time’ with the Auckland Philharmonia on 21 March. The following month NZ Youth Choir will join the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for special ANZAC concert performances in the Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington and Auckland Town Hall on 22 and 23 April respectively.
The NZ Youth Choir performed with the Rolling Stones at Mt Smart Stadium, Saturday, 22 November. Read a number of reviews here.
Please click here to read the full review.
In a nutshell, as the Festival brochure put it, Ata Reira promised an evening of award-winning choirs, majestic voices and Te Reo Maori in song… click here to read the full review
Andrea Gray
Andrea Gray has worked in the public and private sector in roles including knowledge and information management, introduction of web services to support business service delivery and relationship management. She is currently a General Manager in the Environmental Protection Authority. She has a BMus, BA (Linguistics) and an MA (Library & Information Studies).
She spent many years enjoying supporting her children in their musical endeavours, including a great deal of choral work at their respective secondary schools. This rekindled her desire to sing and she has been a member of the Orpheus Choir of Wellington and, intermittently, the Chorale ensemble of the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul since 2006.
Upon her appointment as C
hair in April she said “I am delighted to be able to serve the Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust and intend to build on strong foundations put down by previous Trustees, management and artistic personnel and the choir members themselves whose work we support, but without whom we would not exist.”
A new biography on Peter Godfrey
Peter Godfrey: Father of New Zealand choral music has been seven years in the making and was released in October 2015. ‘The book draws on conversations with Peter himself, colleagues, friends and pupils throughout his life – people such as Peter Averi, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Karen Grylls, David Hamilton and Nick Tipping. Peter also recalls encounters and friendships with leading figures in the world of music like Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin Britten.’ Scoop October 2015
‘Immeasurable’ describes Peter Godfrey’s influence on choral music in New Zealand. The only person to have been chorister, choral scholar and director of music at King’s College, Cambridge, Peter brought those exacting standards to choirs in this country, developing them to international standard.
To buy online:
• go to www.makaropress.co.nz
• click ‘buy online’ in the toolbar
• fill in your details
• tick the box: ‘Buy your pre-launch copy of Peter Godfrey: Father of New Zealand choral music’
• select a shipping option
• enter the ‘security code’ to show you’re not a robot
• press ‘submit order’, which takes you to payments and fill in your credit card or PayPal details
• any problems email makaropress@gmail.com
If you can’t or don’t wish to buy online, please email Mary McCallum at Mākaro Press for details on making a bank deposit or sending a cheque:
The world’s choral community is sad to hear of the death of Sir David Willcocks at the age of 95. Sir David paid regular visits to New Zealand and Australia giving concerts with the NZSO and orchestras of the ABC and was associated with many of this country’s choirs.
Sir David Valentine Willcocks CBE MC, born 30 December 1919 in Newquay, Cornwall, was an internationally acclaimed British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator.
He began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Abbey from 1929 to 1934 and in 1938 took up the appointment of organ scholar at King’s College. During the Second World War he served as an officer in the British Army, and was decorated with the Military Cross for his actions during the Battle of Normandy.
From 1957 to 1974 he became Director of Music at King’s College, Cambridge. He made numerous recordings with the college choir and toured extensively giving concerts worldwide. David Willcocks was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 1971 and created a Knight Bachelor in 1977 in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Honours.
In 1980 Sir David came to New Zealand to conduct the one-year-old National Youth Choir at the invitation of its founder, Guy Jensen. The concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra had as its major work Tippett’s ‘A Child of Our Time’. It was a great success and is fondly remembered by founding alumni of NZYC.
Sir David returned to New Zealand in 1988 to conduct a performance of Orff’s ‘Carmina Burana’ with members of the Youth Choir combined with the NZ Secondary Student’s Choir together with the NZSO in Wellington Town Hall. John Button in the Dominion reported that the packed hall …’received the performance with enormous enthusiasm.’
