Helen Medlyn: Mezzo
Helen Medlyn, a 2002 Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate, is one of New Zealand’s most versatile entertainers. She takes major roles in operas, musicals and straight drama, performs on the classical concert platform in oratorio and vocal symphonic works, and is an established jazz, cabaret and Broadway singer.
She regularly appears with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Vector Wellington Sinfonia, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, NBR New Zealand Opera and the Auckland Theatre Company,
Overseas, Helen has worked with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Choir, Chandos Symphony Orchestra (UK), Eugene Symphony Orchestra (USA) and Malaysian Philharmonik Orchestra, as well as Opera Australia, State Opera of South Australia, Queensland Opera and the English National Opera.
Martin Lee: Cor Anglais
Martin completed his undergraduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne in 1988, where he studied under Jeffrey Crellin. Following that, Martin studied with the English oboist, Anthony Camden, and completed his studies with Emanuel Abbuhl in Rotterdam.
Martin was Principal Oboe in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, from 1995 until 2008. During that time he regularly appeared as a soloist in New Zealand with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra and the Dunedin Sinfonia.
In 2008, Martin took up the position of Principal Cor Anglais in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
John Thomson: Violin
John Thomson grew up in Auckland where he began his violin studies. He has recently returned to New Zealand after twenty-five years in the USA, where he most recently was violin professor at the University of South Dakota, and violinist in the Rawlins Piano Trio. Thomson has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout New Zealand and the USA, made appearances before dignitaries such as Queen Elizabeth II and former President George Bush, and has served as concertmaster for several orchestras. In the last year, he has performed in the USA, Latin America, and Austria. Critics have praised him as a “stellar soloist” with “brilliant technique and appealing cantabile” and have called his playing a “rare treat.” Other press reviews state: “The audience was in awe of Thomson’s performance”,
“Thomson’s performance of Wieniawski was a highlight of the season”, and mentioned “the highest classical style.” Italian violinist Franco Gulli wrote to Thomson after a performance “I have admired your remarkable facility in performing the music of Paganini.” After a recent recital in Seoul, Korea, a reviewer wrote: “his playing was full of great sonority combined with a tender sweetness that tugged at the audience’s heart.” Thomson has published his arrangement of some music of the romantic Norwegian violin virtuoso, Ole Bull (this arrangement was praised by the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin as an “excellent arrangement”) and has written articles on the music of Tartini, Viotti and Joachim.
He is also considered to be an expert on Gypsy violin music (the topic of his final doctoral dissertation.) . Thomson has enjoyed a variety of musical experiences, including the standard classical repertoire, but also frequently accompanying many celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, and Bernadette Peters, and acting the part of musicalcharacters in Hollywood movies. In addition to his performances on violin, he plays baroque violin, viola d’amore, and viola. In 2005, he became the first to record on the violotta, an unusual German instrument developed around 1880.
Sally Kim: Cello
Sally Kim is 15 years old, and attends Westlake Girls High School. She started playing cello when she was 4 years old and got her grade 8 in cello at the age of 13. Sally was the winner of the Chamber music Competition in Auckland district finals in 2010, and was one of the National finalists in the Chamber Music Competition in 2009 and 2010. Also, she was the winner of the junior section in the Tauranga Chamber Music Contest for two years in a row – 2009 and 2010. As in solo cellist, she won the Harmony Club Scholarship in 2010, and was the youngest competitor in the competition which ranged from 14~25 years old. She was the winner of 1st prize in String section of the West Auckland competition in 2008.
Stella Kim: Violin
Stella Kim is 17 years old, and attends Westlake Girls High School where she is the concertmaster of both Westlake Symphony Orchestra and Westlake Chamber orchestra. She passed her Performer’s Certificate with distinction in 2008. She was the winner of the West Auckland Performing Arts Competitions String Section in 2007 and 2008 and the North Shore Performing Arts Competitions string section in 2008. Also, she was the winner of the North Shore Harmony Club Scholarship in 2009. Her Chamber group received a 1st prize in the junior section in the Tauranga Chamber Music contest in 2009 and 2010. She was one of the National Finalists in Chamber Music Contest in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and 2010. Also she was one of the finalists in the APO Young Performer Competition in 2009 and 2010.
Alexandra Vincent: Oboe
Alexandra began playing the oboe when she was eleven years old. She gained a Bachelor of Music (Honours) majoring in performance at the University of Auckland in 2007. After taking a few years off from formal study, she returned to undertake the Masters of Music in Advanced Performance at the University of Waikato in 2010 under the tutelage of Martin Lee. Alexandra is a past member of the National Youth Orchestra and represented New Zealand as an advanced student in the Ruapehu International Oboe Summer School earlier this year, participating in master classes with Diana Dougherty and Gordon Hunt. While studying at the University of Auckland, she was actively involved in the Saint Matthew in the City Chamber Orchestra as both the principal oboe, and later as a committee member. Alexandra is delighted to be able to return and play as a soloist.
Lara Hall: Violin
Lara Hall is Lecturer in Violin and Viola at the University of Waikato, and Director of Accelerando, the University of Waikato Junior Music Academy.
Lara has been prominent in the New Zealand music scene from a young age, performing when she was a teenager, as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and appearing at festivals such as the Adam New Zealand Festival of Chamber Music and the Auckland International Chamber Music Festival.
Lara completed her BMus at the University of Auckland, and during that time spent a summer in the Dorothy Delay studio at the Aspen Summer School. She went on to gain her Masters and Doctorate in violin performance at the University of Michigan, studying with Paul Kantor and Yehonatan Berick, and taught as a Graduate Student Instructor. At the same time she was also a faculty member for the pre-University programme Young Strings. On completing her studies Lara toured the US in the Phoenix Trio and the chamber music ensemble Camerata Nordica. She returns periodically to the US to perform.
Lara has led many orchestras including the National Youth Orchestra, Michigan Baroque Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra, and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. She is currently Concertmaster of the Opus Chamber Orchestra, and also a member of the chamber group The New Zealand Chamber Soloists. Lara continues to perform as a concerto soloist. Orchestras she has most recently performed as a soloist with are AK Barok (as a baroque violinist), Opus Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra, Waitakere Symphony Orchestra, and Tauranga Performing Arts Trust Orchestra. Lara was appointed to her current position at the University of Waikato in 2006.
James Tennant: Cello
American cellist, James Tennant, comes to the staff at Waikato University continuing a long and lively career as a concert cellist, teacher and arts instigator. His main teachers have been William Pleeth, Gregor Piatigorsky and Jerome Jelinek, and he has participated in numerous Master Classes with Janos Starker, Leonard Rose and Stephen Kates. He graduated with Distinction from the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan, gaining many awards and prizes for his solo and chamber music performances. While at Michigan, James joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra where he performed under Antal Dorati, Klaus Tennsted, Frubeck de Burgos and Leonard Bernstein, and recorded for Motown with some of the biggest names in American Pop and Rock.
By the age of 30, having lived in the U.S., London and various parts of South America, where he was the cellist of the Trio Mozart, James had performed as soloist and chamber musician in 16 countries. As a teacher he was also on the staff of Albion University (U.S.) Universidad del Cauca and the Conservatorio Nacional de Colombia (Colombia), and had performed as principal cellist with the Flint (U.S.), Orquesta de Camera de Bogota and Sinfonica Nacional de Colombia (Colombia) Orchestras.
Since arriving in New Zealand in 1982, James has established himself as a highly successful and respected performer and teacher. He has performed concertos with the Auckland Philharmonia 4 times (including the Brahms Double Concerrto with the Viennese violinist Karin Adam), the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and the Dunedin Sinfonia among others, as well as with the leading musicians Dene Olding, Diedre Irons, Patrica Wright, Piers Lane, Alexa Still, Michael Houston, Katherine Austin and the New Zealand String Quartet. He has taught at the universities of Auckland and Canterbury, and his students have achieved numerous successes in national and international competions. He has initiated such musical ventures as the Nelson International Chamber Music Festival and Summer School, CadeNZa, the Belli Celli and the Rotorua International Chamber Music Festival. Currently, he is performing with the Ogen Trio and the Tennant-Austin Duo, and is a core member of the recently formed ensemble “The New Zealand Chamber Soloists”. In 2007 James was awarded the Teaching Excellence Award from Waikato University, whose Music Department was recently ranked the number one Music Department in the tertiary sector by the government, based on the university’s PBRF results.
David Kay: Conductor
David Kay is actively involved in the Auckland music scene. He is currently Acting Sub-Principal Horn of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and is a leading teacher of Horn at many North Shore schools. David studied conducting at Auckland University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recently participated in the Symphony Services International Conducting program with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. David made his conducting debut with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 2009 and this year was guest conductor for the contemporary music ensemble 175 East.
David is the Musical Director of the North Shore Junior Orchestra, a post he has held for over eight years, and in 2009 took over as the Musical Director of the North Shore Youth Orchestra. His experience with youth ensembles has seen him leading workshops with various school orchestras as well as the KBB Music Festival.
This is David’s first conducting opportunity with SMCO.
Michael Joel: Conductor
Michael’s conducting training began at Otago University where he completed an Honours degree in conducting. He has taken part in several Masterclasses with such conductors as Heinz Wahlberg, James Judd, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya and has lessons with Jac van Steen in The Netherlands. He has also attended the Dartington International Summer School in England.
He has conducted many of the established orchestras and choirs throughout New Zealand and is equally at home in the orchestral, choral and operatic repertoire. He has worked with the Christchurch Symphony, the Southern Sinfonia, St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, Opera Otago, the City of Dunedin Choir and the National Youth Orchestra.
From 2003 until 2006 Michael was on the permanent staff of Canterbury Opera (now Southern Opera) as Music and Development Officer, Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor. In 2003 he conducted performances of Canterbury Opera’s productions of Lakme and La Traviata. In 2004 he conducted the New Zealand premiere season of Count Ory, and early in 2005 he conducted the “work in progress” performance of Jonathan Besser’s new opera, commissioned by Canterbury Opera. He arranged and conducted Dvorak’s Rusalka for a run of sold-out performances by Canterbury Opera Youth in April 2006.
In August 2006 he conducted an enthusiastically received and successful production of Die Fledermaus for Opera Hawke’s Bay. In 2009 he conducted concerts with renowned flute soloist, Alexa Still and the Hawke’s Bay Orchestra, and piano soloist Catherine McKay and the Wellington Chamber Orchestra.
2010 was a busy year for him working with the St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra in Auckland, the Hawke’s Bay Orchestra, Wellington Chamber Orchestra with soloists Alexa Still, Diedre Irons, Gillian Ansell, Tessa Petersen and Heleen Du Plessis.
Peter Walls: Conductor
Peter Walls has been Chief Executive of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra since 2002 and before that served on the orchestra’s board for six years. Before joining NZSO management he taught in the Music School at Victoria University (where he is now Emeritus Professor of Music). He has always maintained a balance between scholarship and performance, initially as a violinist, and latterly as an orchestral, choral, and opera conductor.
He is a former member of the Academy of Ancient Music. He was Music Director of The Tudor Consort between 1990 and 1999, a position he relinquished when he took up a visiting fellowship and the Waynflete Lectureship at Magdalen College, Oxford (he also held a visiting fellowship at Exeter College.) He is currently Music Director of Opus Chamber Orchestra (based in Hamilton).
Rupert D’Cruze: Conductor
Rupert D’Cruze is an exciting new face on the New Zealand music scene. Trained in the great British choral and orchestral traditions he was a boy chorister in the famous Temple Church Choir in London and later Principal Trombonist with the European Community Youth Orchestra.
Amongst his early influences were such eminent figures as Sir George Thalben-Ball, Claudio Abbado and Sir Simon Rattle. Following many years playing in symphony orchestras and working as a respected instrumental and ensemble teacher, he was encouraged to study conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where Sir Colin Davis and George Hurst were powerful mentors. His expertise as a conductor was quickly acknowledged through the award of the Philharmonia Prize in London, second prize in the Hungarian International Conducting Competition, Budapest, and finalist’s prize in the Tokyo International Conducting Competition. He went on to direct the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, the South German Radio Orchestra, the North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy.
D’Cruze’s directorship of the Huddersfield Philharmonic Orchestra similarly brought great critical acclaim – ‘Rupert D’Cruze is taking this orchestra to new heights’ (David Hammond). He is described by composer and Royal Academy of Music professor Timothy Bowers as ‘an outstanding, highly versatile and experienced conductor’.
In his role as Musical Director of the Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra he has built audience numbers, developed a new education programme including the region’s first orchestral conductor training course, and founded the Hamilton Festival Chorus. In recent months he has accepted the Musical Directorship of Auckland Dalewool Brass, one of New Zealand’s most successful brass bands. He is demand as a guest conductor, and as well as several appearances with St Matthews Chamber Orchestr,a he has conducted the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Manukau City Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Choral Society, Opus Orchestra and the Hamilton Civic Choir.
Peter Thomas: Conductor
Peter Thomas is an Auckland-based conductor and music educator, currently Head of Music at Epsom Girls Grammar School where he leads a thriving music programme. He has been appointed to the position of Music Director of the Auckland Symphony Orchestra from the start of 2011. He has previously been the Musical Director of the Auckland Wind Orchestra, University of Auckland Academy Orchestra, North Shore Youth Orchestra and the Auckland Secondary Schools’ Orchestra. In 2010 he conducted the Auckland Youth Orchestra in their mid-year tour programme. Peter has worked as a guest conductor with the St Matthews Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Philharmonia and Northern Sinfonia. His studies and conducting have seen him take part in master classes with the NZSO and APO andmake several excursions to Australia and the United States. He is sought after as a clinician and adjudicator and has presented several pre-concert talks for the Auckland Philharmonia as well as ‘Composer of the Week’ for Radio New Zealand Concert.
Michael McLellan: Conductor
Michael McLellan is familiar to many as the Concertmaster of St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra, a position he has held for some 18 years.
Prior to taking up a QE 2 Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London he studied the violin with the legendary teacher, Heather Smith. He studied conducting with Juan Matteucci and attended master classes with Leonard Hirsh.
The majority of his conducting has been as Musical Director of the Auckland Youth Orchestra, a position he held for twenty-four years. Michael is also a full time Itinerant Teacher of the violin and viola based at Auckland Grammar.
He has conducted St Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra on many occasions and enjoys his involvement with “this vibrant group.”