I am genuinely excited to share our 2022 season with you all. These concerts showcase the magnificence of two monumental requiem settings by Verdi and Mozart, The Sacred Veil, composed and conducted by Eric Whitacre, a performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana performed by our three national choirs, and a production for sixteen Voices New Zealand singers, Voices Love Opera, staged by the award-winning opera and theatre director, Jacqueline Coates.

Such collaborations as this season offers give us the point of difference as national choirs. The opportunity to work with the NZSO and their newly appointed Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor, Gemma New, to perform Mozart’s Requiem and with the APO and Music Director, Giordano Bellincampi, for a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform Verdi’s Requiem are priceless opportunities for our singers and audiences alike.

The versatility and panache of Voices New Zealand singers is captured in Jacqui’s staging for Voices Love Opera. The show is one of the funniest and most engaging we have presented and I’m very proud of the ensemble singers and the professional soloists who bring the stories of the lovers and their various successes (or otherwise) to life. The excerpt from Nico Muhly’s The Two Boys exposes the horrors of relationships in chat rooms and gives the show a particularly contemporary and poignant twist.

Most significant for 2022 are the opportunities for our national choirs viz. Voices New Zealand, New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, and New Zealand Youth Choir to perform together. First, the opportunity to present two recitals conducted by Grammy award-winning American choral composer, Eric Whitacre, will give the choirs and the listeners the opportunity to hear the first New Zealand performance of The Sacred Veil, a profound meditation on love, life, and loss. Then all three choirs join, together with alumni soloists Natasha Wilson (soprano), Oliver Sewell (tenor) and James Harrison (baritone), in the dramatic and intense work by Carl Orff, Carmina Burana which I will conduct in Holy Trinity Cathedral.

Can’t wait to share this with you all. See you at the concerts!

Karen Grylls ONZM
Artistic Director

Manager, NZ Secondary Students’ Choir

Wellington based

(part-time 0.6)

 If you like variety, travel, and working in small teams for something utterly beautiful, read on!

After nearly 13 years in this job, our staff member has decided to change roles within our organisation. We are looking for a new team member to manage all activities of the iconic New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir.

We are working out of a groovy office in the Wellington Central delivering the management of our three internationally-awarded national choirs (New Zealand Youth Choirs, Voices New Zealand and NZSSC).

Your role would be to manage the logistic preparation and planning of all NZSSC’s activities, travel arrangements, scheduling and administration. You would also tour-manage these choirs within New Zealand and occasionally overseas and lead the touring party and artists on the road. If you like good systems, have attention to detail and work well with creative people, this job could be yours. Work experience with secondary school aged teenagers highly preferred!

This is a fantastic opportunity to work for an iconic national organisation and grow as an arts manager in New Zealand’s vibrant creative sector.

You can find more info about this role in this JOB SCOPE

Get in touch now or send your application to joinus@choirsnz.co.nz no later than Wednesday 19 January 2022.

Just in time for the festive season, we’re proud to present ‘Follow That Star’, a southern hemisphere Christmas collection of New Zealand Choral Music. In the midst of the pandemic, six New Zealand composers (five are represented here) were commissioned by Voices New Zealand and Artistic Director, Karen Grylls, to reimagine familiar Christmas tunes. The new works set old tunes, some with the atmosphere of centuries old traditions and some with the stories and traditions from New Zealand.

You can read more of Artistic Director Karen Grylls thoughts here.

Stream now on all your favourite music platforms.

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 the Amplify Collective makes commissioning new work possible and enables us to create meaningful opportunities for established and emerging composers.

(more…)

Thank you to the many individuals and choirs who have supported this initiative and ordered masks over the past 8 months.

We are no longer accepting individual orders – the minimum order is now 8 masks.

If you are a choir or group wanting a large number, please contact us directly before ordering as we may need to have them made specially, which could take some time.

In this new environment of uncertainty, we are dedicated to keeping our singers safe. In stylish black, all our national choirs will be wearing our uniquely designed mask for singers. These masks are designed to hold the fabric away from the mouth, and allow for full jaw movement.

Our singers and artistic staff have all reported back that they are far easier to sing in than normal masks as the singer is not constantly inhaling fabric.

They include a label to mark the singers name.

Please note: If you are purchasing a mix of SMALL and LARGE masks, only select shipping once.

Cost:

$35 (incl GST) plus shipping

Quantity 8-10

BUY SMALL  –  BUY LARGE

Quantity 11-20

BUY SMALL  –  BUY LARGE

Quantity 20+

BUY SMALL  –  BUY LARGE

A year ago we challenged ourselves to keep singing at a world-class level, as expected from Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, but in a way that is more locally focused when borders and alert levels keep us at home.

We’re excited now to debut our regional ensembles! With funding from Creative NZ’s resilience fund, we’re now rolling out the project in Wellington and Auckland.

Read more here

The Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust governs three national choirs with great domestic and international reputations – NZ Secondary Students’ Choir https://www.nzsschoir.com/, NZ Youth Choir https://www.nzyouthchoir.com/ and Voices NZ https://www.voicesnz.com/. The associated Choirs Aotearoa Foundation Trust manages an endowment fund to provide long term financial support to the charitable activities of the Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust.

We are looking for new Trustees with specific skills for the Choirs Aotearoa Foundation Trust.

The Foundation has been well established with a simple structure and a modest investment base. We are looking for people to help take things forward with new ideas on how we might grow the fund to provide for the long term security of the choirs as well as providing the support to enable broad access and participation in our national choirs. We may also be looking for someone to chair the Foundation Trust in the future.

We are looking for skills in the areas of investment management, marketing and/or communications and community networks to oversee and grow the current invested funds, through bequests and donations.

We’d love to hear from you and invite you to send your governance CV to canztrustees@gmail.com by 18 June 2021.

If you have questions you can contact the current CANZ Chair at canztrustees@gmail.com.

Taonga Moana is heading to the mainland, the Festival of Colour in Wanaka for a one-night only concert on 14 April.

“For Voices New Zealand, Taonga Moana represents a significant moment in their performing career. When I founded the choir in 1998, the aspiration was to create a Chamber Choir on a professional level, to be visible alongside our national orchestra, national ballet and national opera company. The hope was also that such an ensemble would be something young singers could aspire to for a professional life in ensemble singing. This remains so…It is with great humility and pleasure that I invite you to share the journey of the kuaka with us…” – Karen Grylls, Artistic Director & Conductor

Read more here

Starts: 12 April

Duration: 2 months (fixed-term); can be full-time or part-time

Based in Wellington, Downtown office

A rare opportunity to work with an iconic national music organisation during one of their tours. The job scope includes:

· Telling the story: creating content and providing communications for social media channels and databases for our three national choirs, NZ Secondary Students’ Choir, NZ Youth Choir and VOICES New Zealand chamber Choir.

· Cover the action: content creation (i.e. Filming and photography) of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir during their concerts and rehearsals in Wellington.

· Strategise new ideas: opportunity to develop strategies for other social media platforms

· Proof’s in the pudding: Checking key social media metrics for audience engagement

Would suit a graduate in marketing/comms, someone who is a natural writer and is good with social media, tech savvy and enjoys listening to great music making!

You will be supported by a highly experienced arts management team in a great environment, positivity plus!

Send us your CV and cover letter now to joinus@choirsnz.co.nz

Nzyouthchoir.com

Nzsschoir.com

Voicesnz.com

Voices Ensembles is a new project offering an exciting opportunity for professional singers in Aotearoa New Zealand to work and perform at a high artistic level. Choirs Aotearoa has received funding from Creative New Zealand to run a pilot scheme that creates small vocal ensembles of Voices NZ singers. The pilot is artistically led by Karen Grylls and Christopher Bruerton (current member of The King’s Singers) and will run from March to October 2021.

Auditions will be held 19 and 26 February.

Check out this additional information and how to apply.