NEWS

The world’s longest running national youth choir, NZ Youth Choir (NZYC), is getting ready for its 14^th international tour: to Singapore and Europe. The traditional “farewell” concert will take place at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, Friday 27th June, with tickets selling fast. The following day, NZYC will head to Singapore for concerts before flying to Europe to compete in the 6^th European Choir Games and Grand Prix of Nations in Aarhus, Denmark. The choir will then return to the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales where they previously won “Choir of the World” in 1999.

This is the New Zealand Youth Choir’s first European tour since before COVID-19. The choir gathers New Zealand’s finest young voices aged 18–25 and offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from our top conductor and vocal coaches, with the three-year membership culminating in an international tour. Director David Squire will end his time with the choir at the completion of the tour. David has directed NZYC since 2011 and was himself a member from 1985–1991 before becoming a founding member of Voices NZ and going onto an illustrious career in music education.

“It’s been my great honour to direct the New Zealand Youth Choir for the past 15 years,” David says, “As an NZYC alumnus, I’ve always considered this role bigger than any person who has the opportunity to conduct it and, with that in mind, 2025 is the time for my tenure with the choir to come to an end”.

The Holy Trinity Cathedral concert on Friday 27th June will be David’s last New Zealand concert as New Zealand Youth Choir director.

“David is one of New Zealand’s most prominent conductors, and his extraordinary legacy with New Zealand Youth Choir will be cherished and celebrated,” says Arne Herrmann, Choirs Aotearoa NZ’s CE, “While David’s tenure with NZYC will come to an end, his mahi with CANZ will continue. We will announce the new Music Director closer to the commencement of their start date in early 2026 – and once the recruitment process is complete”.

While overseas, NZYC will also sing in Singapore and the UK: Oxford, Barnsley and a concert at Sinfonia Smith’s Square,  London – where NZYC in 2016, the last time they were in Europe led by David, recorded their “Live in London” DVD and won the Grand Prix at the 2016 IFAS in the Czech Republic in 2016. NZYC has a Give-a-little page to support their 2025 tour.

NZ Youth Choir Farewell Concert at Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell, Auckland
7:30pm, Friday 27 June, 2025

For more information, contact: Rachel Healy, PUBLICIST. 027 2706105, rachel@rachelhealy.co.nz 

MORE ABOUT DAVID SQUIRE

David has taught music in schools for 35 years and in 2011 won a New Zealander of the Year Local Heroes Medal for services to music education. His ensembles have won many awards at local and international music festivals, such as the NZCF Big Sing. His Rangitoto College mixed-voice chamber choir, The Fundamentals, won the platinum award at the 2008 NZCF Big Sing Finale in Wellington – the first time for a mixed-voice choir. David’s upper-voice choir from Kristin School, Euphony, was third in the open female choir competition at the International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, in 2013. In 2019, Euphony represented New Zealand at the Budapest International Choral Festival, winning the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices category, coming 3rd in the open Musica Sacra category and was invited to compete for the Grand Prix. David’s Westlake Boys High School lower-voice choir, Voicemale, won the Grand Prix at the 2nd Leonardo da Vinci International Choral Festival in Florence in 2018, and David won the award for best conductor at this event. David has been music director of the Westlake Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, and it has won more gold awards at the KBB Music Festival than any other ensemble. In 2014 the orchestra was placed first equal at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna.

David is also the director of the Auckland Youth Choir, Vice-Chair of the New Zealand Association of Choral Directors, is a national conducting advisor and tutor and was a governance board member of the New Zealand Choral Federation for 9-years. He completed his undergraduate study at the University of Auckland, with an emphasis on conducting and composition, later graduating with a Master of Music degree with first class honours in choral conducting. He studied singing with Isabel Cunningham, Glenese Blake and Beatrice Webster, and conducting with Karen Grylls and Juan Matteucci. He has sung with many top choirs in New Zealand, including the Auckland Dorian Choir, University of Auckland Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir. He was a founding member of Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the V8 Vocal Ensemble.

David has previously led the New Zealand Youth Choir on four international tours, including the USA and Canada in 2013, which featured performances of the War Requiem by Britten in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, as well as concerts in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York and Washington DC. In 2016 the choir gave concerts in Singapore, the Czech Republic, France and the UK. Tour highlights included singing high mass at Notre-Dame in Paris, a lunchtime concert at Windsor Castle, and producing a live DVD recording of a well-received concert at St Johns Smith Square in London. The choir also participated in the Festival of Academic Choirs in Pardubice, Czech Republic, winning every category it entered, as well as the prize for outstanding vocal culture, and then going on to win the Grand Prix. At the end of 2019 the choir embarked on a Pacific tour aboard the cruise ship MS Maasdam, taking in Tonga, Niue, Fiji, New Caledonia and Sydney. In 2022 the choir toured Australia, presenting performances in Tasmania, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, and at the Sydney Opera House.

As a freelance musician, David has conducted several local ensembles, including the Auckland Philharmonia and the St Matthews Chamber Orchestra. He was the assistant musical director of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, founding musical director of the Auckland Youth Big Band, chairman and administrator of the KBB Music Festival, and a live performance reviewer for Radio NZ Concert. David is often involved in session and recording work, particularly as a conductor, adjudicator, clinician and singer and was choir director on the recent New Zealand film, Tinā. He has also served as the choir director for Synthony, and is the chorus master for the International Schools Choral Music Society based in China.

For more information, contact: Rachel Healy, PUBLICIST. 027 2706105, rachel@rachelhealy.co.nz