More judges will be added as contracts are signed.

 

 

New Zealand Aria - Open Section - Conal Coad

Conal Coad received his first training in New Zealand and in the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music Opera School before joining Opera Australia‚ with whom he performed a number of roles before leaving for Europe in 1981. He settled in Belgium making his debut with the Opera de Wallonie in La Fanciulla del West. He has since sung with all the major companies of Belgium in the principal bass roles of Il Seraglio‚ The Marriage of Figaro‚ Rigoletto‚ I Vespri Siciliani‚ Nabucco‚ Il Trovatore‚ Lucia di Lammermoor and Lohengrin. In France he has sung in Fidelio at Bordeaux‚ Wurm Luisa Miller at Montpellier and‚ elsewhere in Europe and Israel‚ in Cendrillon‚ L’Elisir d’Amore‚ Rigoletto‚ Semiramide‚ The Marriage of Figaro‚ Aida and L’Italiana in Algeri.

Notable concert engagements include work with all the major Australian orchestras‚ the Israel Philharmonic‚ at the Royal Opera House‚ Covent Garden as well as festivals in France‚ Belgium‚ Germany‚ Holland‚ Australia and New Zealand.

Plans include La Roche Capriccio and Leporello Don Giovanni with Opera Australia.

Recordings include: Mozart Bass Arias (Polygram/ABC Classics)‚ NZ at Covent Garden (Kiwi)‚ Mozart Opera Arias (Polygram/ABC Classics)‚ My Beloved Father.

New Zealand Aria - Open Section - Beverley Bergen

Beverley Bergen was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, and graduated from Otago University in Music and Psychology.

After working as a TV presenter and broadcaster for TVNZ, she won a scholarship to the London Opera Centre to further her studies in singing. She won first prize in the Royal Overseas League competition and then comenced her European career which included major roles with Glyndebourne, Sadlers Wells and Welsh National Opera and concert performances in the UK and Europe.

In 1973, she returned to New Zealand to sing a highly praised Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with the NZ Opera Company and to sing a series of concerts with the NZSO.

She returned to Europe as a member of the Deutsche Opera Berlin and guested at numerous European houses, including Brussels, Munich and Dusseldorf, including solo concert performances with the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra, notably in their Jubilee performances of the Verdi Requiem. She recorded frequently with the RIAS orchestra of Berlin.

On a return to Australasia she was engaged by Opera Australia, the Opera of South Australia, and the NZ Symphony Orchestra. She performed many Australasian premieres including Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mstensk for the Adelaide festival, Strauss’s Capriccio and, Schoenberg’s Erwartung for the Sydney Festival. She toured for the ABC and with the ACO to Holland premiering Barry Cunningham’s Bennelong for the Australian Bicentennary. Her repertoire encompasses over 30 Operas and widely diverse concert works.

Some of the operatic highlighs include La Traviata, La Boheme, Butterfly, Turn of the Screw, Jenufa, Flying Dutchman, Julius Caesar, The Force of Destiny and Die Fledermaus.

Her TV opera performances include The Marriage of Figaro (Channel 4), Pelleas and Melisande and The Gondoliers (BBC), La Boheme and Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole (ABC TV).

She has held teaching appointments at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Wollongong University and York University in the UK and has appeared as a judge on International panels for both composition and performance.

Since retiring from performance, she has created, produced and hosted an eight-part lifestyle series Aria and Pasta for Bravo Channel in the US, interviewing major opera stars across the world. The series has been widely broadcast internationally. She is resident in Sydney.

New Zealand Aria Under 21 - Beatrice Hofer

Born and bred in Switzerland, Beatrice first trained as a primary school teacher, during which time she started taking singing lessons and discovered she had a voice. After graduating in 1986, she was accepted to Bern Conservatoire, where she studied singing for seven years, first with Niklaus Tueller and then with Elisabeth Glauser; studying for both a teaching degree (achieving with excellence), and an advanced study performance degree which included courses in speech and drama, chamber music, Lieder and Ensemble work.

These studies assisted Beatrice in building an extended repertoire ranging from early to modern classical music.

During her studies and up until she immigrated to New Zealand, she was involved in planning and performing many recitals. She created diverse programs with various instrumental combinations, as well as being engaged as a soloist with choirs and orchestras throughout Switzerland.

Whilst building her experience and reputation as a singer, she discovered a love for teaching and now has about 15 years of experience in voice training, both with adults and young developing voices, with groups as well as individuals.

Her teaching greatly benefits from many years of practicing yoga and from Breathing and Kinesiology courses completed at that time.

In 1998 Beatrice and her husband immigrated to New Zealand. Settling in on their farm and having children took up most of her time for a while. She then pursued her own singing again, winning the Hamilton Competition in 2005.

She performs concerts and recitals on a regular basis throughout the Waikato and King Country.

New Zealand Aria Under 21 - Susan Hayday

Susan Hayday, B.Mus., F.T.C.L.[singing], L.R.S.M.[singing], A.T.C.L.[piano], A.I.R.M.T.N.Z.

Susan is a registered teacher of singing, piano and theory, currently teaching in schools and privately. She gained a Bachelor of Music degree from Victoria University, Wellington. Susan studied singing in Wellington and Auckland, and in Melbourne with Dame Joan Hammond, where she won the Footscray and District Eisteddfod Aria competition. She enjoys recital work, and has sung in operas in Auckland and Wellington. She has recorded for Radio N.Z.

Susan enjoys Oratorio work, and this year sang the solo soprano for the Messiah, for the combined Kowhai Singers and Hibiscus Coast choirs performances.

Last year she was the soprano soloist for the North Shore Camerata’s performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria. She was a member of the Auckland Dorian choir under Peter Godfrey, and until recently sang with the Auckland choir Viva Voce. Presently she sings with the Warkworth choir Kowhai Singers, and is musical director for a local choir in Matakana called Matakantata. She enjoys adjudicating frequently at singing competitions.

New Zealand Aria Maori Song - Timua Te Kowhai

Timua Te Kowhai is a New Zealand Maori; her tribal affiliations are: Te Arawa, Tuwharetoa and Ngai Tahu.

Timua is a graduate with her Masters of Music with first class honours in Voice, at Waikato University, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Permanently residing in Rotorua, Timua has won many scholarships to further her musical studies in Voice. She received many scholarships and grants to pursue her musical education in Italy. This led to invitations where she had a two week extensive concert recital in Rome, Sicily and Tuscany, with a special performance for the New Zealand Ambassador, Julie McKenzie and invited guests in Rome. In Sicily Palermo, Timua and her group Canti Maori were the guest of Princess Constanza. All managed by Patricia Hurley Opera Tours.

Further concert recitals followed to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing China.

Timua has performed in all the major cities and Town Halls throughout New Zealand, with the Auckland Philharmonia, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Music, New Zealand String Orchestra, Devonport Chamber Orchestra.

Timua has performed numerous indoor and outdoor concerts, both nationally and internationally. She is a regular performer in ‘Opera In The Pa – Rotorua’.

Timua had the honour and priviledge of singing God Save The Queen, Whakaria Mai and the National Anthem for the National Memorial Service for the Christchurch Earthquake in March 2011. His Royal Highness Prince William, Prime Minister John Keys, Prime Minister Julia Gulliard and many other MP’s were in attendance, with an audience of over 200,000 and broadcast live throughout Australasia.

She has performed a solo waiata Pokarekare Ana to His Royal Highness Prince Andrew on Mokoia Island, Rotorua As a result of Timua’s performance in Christchurch, she was invited to perform at the CCTV Bao Forum Festival in Beijing China two weeks later, to a live audience of 300 million Asians.

She has performed on many occasions with the late Sir Howard Morrison on the Good Morning Breakfast Show, to celebrate his 75th Birthday.

New Zealand Aria Conductor - Tom Woods

Born in Tanzania to Australian parents, Tom Woods grew up in Perth, Western Australia, where he learnt cello and piano and studied conducting with Richard Gill at the West Australian Conservatorium. In 1989, he received a Department of Foreign Affairs scholarship to enable studies in Moscow under Maestro Vladimir Ponkin.

Returning to Australia, Tom joined Opera Australia in 1993, becoming one of the youngest conductors in the company’s history with his debut A Midsummer Night’s Dream at age 23 to critical acclaim. Between 1993 and 1997, Tom was Assistant Conductor for over sixty operas; assisting such maestri as Richard Hickox, Simone Young, Christopher Hogwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Richard Bonynge and Carlo Felice Cillario.

His ongoing relationship with Opera Australia has seen him conduct the world premiere of John Haddock’s Madeline Lee, the Australian premiere of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and works including La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, La traviata, Un ballo in maschera, Carmen, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Fille du Regiment, The Gondoliers and Patience. Tom has conducted for the State Opera of South Australia (Rigoletto, Il barbiere di Siviglia), West Australian Opera (La traviata) and Opera Queensland (The Mikado).

Tom has conducted all the major Australian symphony orchestras and was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Youth Orchestra between 1999 and 2005. He has conducted in Hong Kong and Bangkok and took the London Festival Orchestra on tour to Brunei, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, as well as touring the Sydney Youth Orchestra to Denmark and Sweden. In 2009, he conducted the Osaka Symphoniker in a New Year’s Eve Gala in Biwako Hall.

Tom has frequently conducted The Australian Ballet, Queensland Ballet and Royal New Zealand Ballet in works such as The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Scheherazade, Don Quixote, Peer Gynt, Le Sacre du Printemps and many others. He has also conducted numerous world premieres including John Taverner’s Lament for Jerusalem and Matthew Hindson’s Symphony No. 1.

Since 2007, he has been a frequent visitor to New Zealand, where he is currently Chief Conductor of Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted seasons of The Magic Flute, Aida and Il trovatore for Southern Opera and appeared with the Auckland Philharmonia.

In 2010 and 2011, Tom Woods conducted Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Of Mice and Men for Opera Australia and Albert Herring for Victorian Opera. He returns to OA in 2012 for Madama Butterfly and will conduct concerts in Auckland, Christchurch, Sydney and Germany.