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.

Today’s announcement by the government to limit indoor events to 100 people means that most of our activities will be impacted. These restrictions will most certainly be in place during April when we had planned several concerts. Some of these concerts have already been cancelled and more cancellations will follow. This is disappointing news for singers and audiences alike and will affect many professional artists, contractors, suppliers and their whānau. But these are unprecedented circumstances and we are fully committed to keep our people safe and healthy.

Orchestral music performance is an art form, but how do you engage with something you’ve never experienced before? Samiyah Alghamdi and Anna Knox attend NYO Celebrates in Wellington and unpack what they hear.

Read more on The Spinoff

The coming together of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra and the New Zealand Youth Choir was a just celebration of our country’s finest young musicians – a fitting culmination of a century’s nurturing, marking the orchestra’s 60th anniversary and the choir’s 40th.

Read more on the NZ Herald

After nearly 15 years in this job, our staff member has decided to move on. We are looking for a new team member to manage all activities of two iconic vocal ensembles, the New Zealand Youth Choir and Voices New Zealand.

We are working out of a groovy office in the Cuba Street precinct and deliver the management of our three internationally-awarded national choirs.

Your role would be to manage the logistic preparation and planning of the two choirs’ 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.

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 his role in this Job Scope 2019

Get in touch now or send your application to joinus@choirsnz.co.nz no later than 12noon 26 November 2019.

The Artistic Committee was impressed with the high calibre of applying choirs and stated that NZYC’s selection was a notable achievement.

NZYC’s Music Director David Squire is thrilled: “The choir keeps performing at the highest level and to see this acknowledged in the invitation to the symposium in our own country is a huge honour. We will prepare a programme that celebrates the music of Aotearoa and the Pacific to tell our unique stories to the delegates from around the globe”.

The World Symposium on Choral Music is the world’s premier festival of choirs staged every three years in a major city around the world; in 2020 it will take place in Auckland, New Zealand from 11 to 18 July. The Symposium is the peak global event of the International Federation for Choral Music – its own “Olympics” and world congress rolled into one.

“This is great news for our singers and audiences,” says Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Board Chair, Andrea Gray, “The merger will create a stronger, clearer pathway for New Zealand’s best singers, from teen to adulthood. We’ll be better serving our sector and communities—achieving excellence across all age groups.”

“NZSSC, in particular, will benefit from the merger by having access to the expertise and shared resources that Choirs Aotearoa already provides its other two national choirs,” says Linda Webb, former Chair of the NZSSC Board, which will now merge into the Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust.

A unified organisation opens up new conversations with funders and sponsors. Outreach programmes will also be extended—incorporating schools across all levels. While the merger will see more collaboration and growth, each choir will still retain its own identity and artistic freedom. The three choirs will perform together at the New Zealand Choral Academy at Auckland Anniversary weekend, marking a new era for choral music in this country.

The Choral Academy will offer aspiring singers from across the country the chance to work alongside the three choirs for a weekend of fun and inspiring workshops and performances. Participants will be separated into age groups that align with each choir, and get to sit-in or work alongside them. They’ll experience the highest level of tuition and gain an understanding of the journey of a choral singer in New Zealand. The Academy is open to singers across the country, anyone can join in. Register here.

Acclaimed conductor and composer Tecwyn Evans sang in both NZSSC and Youth Choir. Now based in Sweden with his wife, soprano Susanna Andersson, Tecwyn will be leading the group mirroring Voices. Robert Wiremu was in all three national choirs and is a former director of NZSSC. He’ll be involved with the NZSSC group. Youth Choir will be working with conductor Michael Stewart.

The work of the New Zealand Youth Choir and VOICES NZ inspires thousands, and reaches around the globe – this year alone we travelled to the far reaches of New Zealand, around Europe, and in particular to Le Quesnoy in France for the WWI centenary commemorations. We sang under the geyser in Rotorua, workshopped with local schools, performed with inmates at a South Auckland Women’s prison, performed a new New Zealand commission with The Kings’ Singers, taught a French choir Pokarekare Ana and flash-mobbed at Hamburg Railway Station – and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

Check out our 2018 highlights on YouTube here.

Our choirs make many hearts sing and sprinkle that Kiwi charm wherever they go – all possible thanks to our generous supporters. They have helped put New Zealand choral music on the map and are an important part of our country’s musical tradition and future. This coming 2019 will be no exception and preparation is underway for another great year of singing.

Your donation will literally SING in 2019!

We are reaching out to you to help ‘spread your love for choral music’ with a donation of any size. You can choose specific options to direct your donation to something you are particularly passionate about, such as:

* the purchase of new sheet music for our library ($300)

* the recording of concerts ($100)

* supporting a concert or course destination ($1K)

* supporting an individual singer ($200) or voice section, like the tenors ($5K)

* the upkeep of our choir uniforms ($50), or even

* leaving a legacy by helping to commission a brand new New Zealand choral piece ($2K)

Donations of any level are welcome and because we are a registered charity, donations are tax deductible. You could even consider it a Christmas gift!

Whatever you choose, know that your support will go straight to our choirs to nurture young singers and train advanced voices to deliver the excellence and beauty of ensemble singing to New Zealanders and the world.

To find your choice of donation click here.

Thanks a million! 

Karen, David, Arne and Emma
Your Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Team