Chair of the Choirs Aotearoa NZ Trust, Amanda Barclay, expressed the organisation’s gratitude, saying, “It’s been our privilege to benefit from Dr Karen Grylls’ expertise through her musical direction of Voices New Zealand and the NZ Youth Choir, and as Artistic Director of all four of our national choirs. Karen is a tireless promoter of choral music and brings a great deal of heart to her unrelenting pursuit of choral excellence. On behalf of the Trust Board, I congratulate Karen on this well-deserved honour.”

Reflecting on this significant recognition, Dr Karen Grylls shared her deep appreciation for the opportunity to contribute to choral music in New Zealand, saying, “I am deeply honoured to receive the CNZM in the King’s Birthday and Coronation Birthday Honours, 2023. I consider myself very privileged to have worked and performed with so many choral musicians, and to be a voice for choral music in Aotearoa.

In receiving this award I acknowledge these many musicians and colleagues who have supported me along the way: composers, singers, stage directors, international and national conductors and pedagogues and the many managers who have made it happen. This award honours them also.”

Dr Karen Grylls’ passion for singing and its transformative power has been a driving force throughout her career. “The opportunity to have worked with and trained ensemble singers and conductors over several decades as part of my long-standing work with Choirs Aotearoa NZ has given me the greatest opportunities which I acknowledge here with heartfelt thanks.” She expressed her hope that young musicians feel empowered to lead and become global musical citizens themselves.

As Dr Grylls looks forward to the immediate future, she eagerly anticipates the upcoming tour with Voices New Zealand and Chamber Music New Zealand. The tour, titled ‘Reimagining Mozart,’ features a new full-length work by composer Robert Wīremu for choir and instruments promising to be a captivating exploration of Mozart’s timeless Requiem from a fresh perspective.

We extend our warmest congratulations to Dr Karen Grylls on this well-deserved honour. Her unwavering commitment, extraordinary talent, and visionary leadership have elevated choral music in New Zealand and beyond, leaving an indelible impact on the cultural landscape.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Arne Herrmann

Chief Executive
Choirs Aotearoa NZ

027 276 1751

ceo@choirsnz.co.nz

About Dr Karen Grylls:

Dr Karen Grylls is an acclaimed conductor and the Artistic Director of Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand. She established the renowned Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir in 1989, which she continues to lead. Dr Grylls’ pioneering efforts have made an indelible mark on the international choral music landscape, and her visionary leadership has shaped the future of choral excellence in New Zealand.

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

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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.

We had a wonderful tour down south to Christchurch and the West Coast back in April, and our thanks to everyone who made it happen. We did get rained on a little, but luckily singing isn’t an outside sport! Our three public concerts were packed, and we had the eyes of the world on us at South New Brighton Primary School, when a video of our performance there went viral and received over 280,000 views from a truly global audience. We received comments from Ireland, USA, Newfoundland, UK, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Brazil, the Bahamas, Poland, France, Iceland, Netherlands, Philippines, South Africa and more!

Follow the link below for a recap video of the tour, with footage from our school visits, pop-up performances and concerts.

Read more here

NZYC’s choir leaders are senior positions of responsibility in the choir who are there to assist, support and unite the choir both musically and pastorally – and they’re always there to lend a hand to the staff while on tour.

What are you watching, eating and listening to right now?

Bianca: Eating chicken and cranberry pizza, listening to the Jersey Boys soundtrack, and keeping a watchful eye out for a courier delivery!

Peter: Watching Invincible and Midnight Diner. Eating a lot of homemade egg sandwiches at uni. Currently jamming out to The Days pt.2 by my incredibly talented friend (and NZYC alumnus) Jack Page.
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David Squire was a member of NZYC from 1985-1991 and a founding member of Voices NZ in 1998 before he became NZYC Music Director in 2011 (the first alumnus conductor of the choir); Michael Stewart has been a member of both NZYC and Voices NZ and became NZYC Deputy Music Director in 2017; and Dr Morag Atchison currently sings with Voices NZ and became Vocal Consultant to NZYC in 2008!

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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.

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

Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) continues to thrive and we are looking for new Trustees with specific skills. We’d love to hear from you and invite you to send your governance CV to canztrustees@gmail.com by 7 August 2020. If you have questions you can contact the current CANZ Chair at this email address or by text 027 278 6050.

The Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust governs three national choirs with great domestic and international reputations – NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ. We work under the leadership of the internationally renowned Dr Karen Grylls as Artistic Director.

The Trust is a dynamic organisation which aspires to and achieves artistic excellence while developing the artists and contributing to  the place of New Zealand contemporary vocal music with commissions and performances of New Zealand works. We have excellent working relationships with our major funding organisational partners – Creative New Zealand, Infratil and NZ Community Trust – and enjoy the generous sponsorship and donor relationships with a wide variety of committed individuals. Our highly capable management team is led by Chief Executive, Arne Herrmann, and they complement the top artistic talent we attract.

We would like to hear from people who appreciate excellence in artistic performance and the creative arts, and have the governance skills to make a difference for our top quality endeavours.  The Trustees have a strong governance focus, currently meeting 5 times a year, generally online for a couple of hours, with one more strategically focussed face to face meeting for around half a day.

CANZ Trust Board

We have reviewed our governance skill mix and, in the context of the direction we want to take, we   are looking for a managed transition towards inclusion of the following skills on the Trust Board.

1. capability and experience in one or more members to support the embedding of CANZ’s approach to partnering with Māori that is commensurate with our role as a national organisation, and builds on the many good things already acknowledged as happening in this area
2. high end / strategic finance and business thinking – somebody who has contemporary experience of formal reporting & audit practices, supporting the CE to work with the management accountant and supporting the Board’s strategic conversations
3. business or political networks – someone who has networks and connections which may help us open doors otherwise inaccessible to us to support the CE turn these into actionable opportunities

CANZ Foundation Trust Board

We are also looking for new members for the Choirs Aotearoa Foundation Trust Board, again for a managed transition from the establishment members, who have achieved the organisation’s initial goals.

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

The Foundation Trustees currently meet on an as required basis; as it enters its next stage of maturity, the meeting frequency and patterns may change as the Trustees see fit. The CANZ management team provides administrative support for the Foundation.