New Zealand Youth Choir Music Director, David Squire, has been travelling around the country auditioning young singers for vacancies in the choir. In recent years NZYC has had around a 50-voice membership but the choir’s new sponsorship from Infatil has enabled the Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust to increase the nominal strength to 60 voices.
With a number of members leaving the choir over the last year for a variety of reasons – going overseas for further study being the main one – the recent auditions in Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington had 22 vacancies to fill. From the 67 auditions, David Squire has been able to recruit a talented batch of new singers.
“I was impressed with the quality of singers auditioning across the country, many of whom had rich tone and vocal colour beyond their years. I hope that those singers who didn’t make it this time continue to work on their technique and musicianship, and then re-audition 2014.”
The new member’s names will be added to the online list in 2013.
After a series of 68 auditions in Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington the New Zealand Youth Choir’s Music Director, David Squire, has made his selection for the 2013 choir. Twenty four new members will join the existing 36 singers from the 2011/12 choir in this new 60-member strong ensemble.
It was a difficult choice and Maestro Squire commented that the overall standard of those auditioning was very high. “The difference for the successful applicants was that many had a combination of desirable factors: a strong, confident voice that demonstrated the potential to add the right tone to the current section, high-level musicianship skills, and a personable, enthusiastic attitude. As it happened, there were more of these applicants than places available, so I really hope we see everyone else back next year when the 2014 choir is auditioned.”
The 2013 NZ Youth Choir list with their hometown: new members are shown in bold.
Soprano
Alicia Cadwgan (Puhoi, Auckland)
Juliette Irwin (Hastings)
Lydia Muschamp (Christchurch)
Madison Nonoa-Horsefield (Hamilton)
Luana Prictor (Auckland)
Mevagh Sanson (Wellington)
Olivia Sheat (Blenheim)
Fiona Tibbles (Auckland)
Zailie Gillard (Auckland)
Michelle Kendall (Christchurch)
Euphemia Li (Auckland)
Grace Neale Auckland
Ella Smith (Auckland)
Phoebe Sparrow (Napier)
Joanna Wells (Nelson)
Alto
Latafale Auva’a (Papakura, Auckland)
Bianca Davidson (Auckland)
Sophia Good (Christchurch)
Penny Hooson (Lower Hutt)
Beth Kriechbaum (Palmerston North)
Chelsea Numanga (Auckland)
Savannah Post (Auckland)
Julia Robinson (Auckland)
Josh Clark (Auckland)
Rhianna Clarke (Auckland)
Hazel Fenemor (Nelson)
Dilys Fong (Auckland)
Natalie Foy (Wellington)
Rebecca Sutton (Wellington)
Janet Van (Auckland)
Tenor
Phillip Akau (Auckland)
Sam Bennett (Wellington)
Cameron Casey (Auckland)
Lachlan Craig (Auckland)
Benjamin Madden (Dunedin)
Samuel Madden (Dunedin)
Alexander Smith (Taupo)
Benson Wilson (Auckland)
Jeffrey Chang (Wellington)
Jared Corbett (Ashburton)
Jonathan Eyers (Hamilton)
Cameron Gray (Auckland)
Joel Miller (Wellington)
Griffin Nichol (Wellington)
David Webb (Auckland)
Bass
Nick Dow (Auckland)
Clinton Fung (Auckland)
Warren Kilham (Auckland)
Joshua McGirr (Christchurch)
Kalauni Pouvalu (Auckland)
Isaac Stone (Wellington)
Benjamin Tan (Auckland)
Simon Anderson (Alexandra)
Timothy Carpenter (Ohaupo)
Michael Forde (Invercargill)
Laurence Hughes (Wellington)
Jae Hyun Jeong (Auckland)
Michael Miller (Wellington)
Tyler Neumann (Palmerston North)
Alexander Sinclair (Wellington)
Our collection of trophies were unmoved!
The office of the Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust is located in Wellington’s CBD, in the thick of the worst affected area from the recent seismic activity. Luckily Central House in Brandon Street came through the earthquake relatively undamaged by comparison with some of its neighbours. In the Choirs office we had seven cracked windows, files dislodged and pictures sent askew. But our proud collection of trophies, won in competition overseas, remained completely unmoved – museum wax is great stuff!
This latest shake has been a ‘wakeup call’ for Wellingtonians and many home emergency supplies have been refurbished as a result. It also served to remind us what our friends and colleagues in Christchurch have been through and still endure. Thanks to all who sent expressions of concern to us at Choirs Aotearoa.
Roger Lloyd,
Chief Executive
Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust
New Zealand Youth Choir will be touring to the USA and Canada in late 2013.
Click here for more information about the tour and how you can help.
Please DO NOT use the Fundraise Online facility to pay individual choir members tour fees as this incurs a 7.5% surcharge
Private donations to the New Zealand Youth Choir USA and Canada Tour have paid for the coach journey from Toronto to New York. There are just a few more kilometres to go to Washington! See the Kilometre Barometer here.
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.
