Born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau, Alanah Jones (黄知秋) is a Kiwi-Chinese soprano studying classical voice at the University of Auckland under Dr Morag Atchison. Outside of her studies, Alanah regularly performs as a soloist, and as a chorister in various ensembles. Alongside singing in the NZ Youth Choir, Alanah is a member of Auckland Chamber Choir, and sings professionally as a member of St Matthew’s Voices. 

For four years, Alanah sung as a member of the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir. During her years at Westlake Girls High School, Alanah attended the Big Sing National Finale and toured Australia and Italy with the premier choirs Choralation and Cantare. She was twice the recipient of the Excellence in Music Performance Solo Cup. 

In her time so far at the University of Auckland, Alanah has been a recipient of the Pears-Britten Award in Singing, the Beatrice Ratcliffe Scholarship in Music, the Evelyn M Harrison Scholarship, and the Auckland University Singers’ Choral Prize. She has also been a finalist in the Graham Allen Prize in Musical Theatre at UoA. Alanah is an alumna of the 2025 New Zealand Opera School, and looks forward to continuing her post-graduate studies at UoA.

Riley is currently studying Graphic Design at Waikato Institute of Technology. Joining NZYC was a step up from being in the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir in 2021-2022 where they won the Llangollen Eisteddfod Children’s Choir of the World in 2022.

Riley found his passion in singing when he started high school at St Paul’s Collegiate in Hamilton in 2018. Riley made his mark by joining both the full school choir and the auditioned chamber choir from year 9. He also found a love for the stage participating in 3 of his schools annual productions — 2 as a lead. He played Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar and the Lion in The Wizard of Oz. He is super excited to see what is to come with his choral journey, especially excited for the end of course tour in 2025.

Herbert Zielinski started singing aged 8 years as a founding member of Wellington
Young Voices, before joining Onslow College choirs. He was accepted into the 2021-
2022 NZSSC as the tenor section leader while under Linden Loader’s tuition. Herbert is an amateur pianist, and holds a certificate in choral conducting from NZCF’s Young
Conductor Training Programme. During Herbert’s gap year, he joined the Tudor
Consort, Wellington Youth Choir as the tenor section leader, and the WYC committee as a fundraiser. Currently, he is studying his third year of a BSc in Biotechnology at Victoria University of Wellington, alongside a Classical Performance minor in voice under Barbara Paterson. Herbert’s soloist programme is focused on early music, which is advanced by him singing with the Queen’s Closet specialist group.