Duclos

Richard Taylor is one of New Zealand’s most experienced tenors, singing professionally in England, Australia and here in Aotearoa New Zealand. He has performed regularly as a soloist throughout his career, particularly in the music of Bach and Handel.

From 2010 to late 2012, Richard lived in the United Kingdom, taking up a Lay Clerk position at Durham Cathedral, singing eight services a week, along with concerts, recordings, and tours to the Netherlands, Germany, France and Scotland. While in the United Kingdom he also performed regularly at the Musica Deo Sacra festival at Tewkesbury Abbey alongside members of prestigious groups like The Sixteen and The Hilliard
Ensemble.

Richard now lives in Wellington with his family, performing regularly with New Zealand’s finest ensembles and choirs, including The Tudor Consort, Number 8 Choir, and Voices NZ.

A New Zealander of Māori and Samoan extraction, Steven is best known for his arrangements and compositions of Pacific choral music. Tracing his family lineage back to his ancestral lands of the Hokianga in the north of Aotearoa, as well as to the Samoan villages of Sāfune and Sāmauga in Savai’i, and Vailoa (Aleipata) in Upolu, he was greatly influenced by the customs and music of both cultures. In particular his childhood involvement in traditional Samoan church life, through the insistence of his maternal grandparents, meant that music, both religious and cultural, was always a feature of his upbringing.

A graduate of the University of Auckland in vocal performance and choral studies, Steven has arranged and composed music for many notable national choirs including the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir. He currently works as a singing teacher, choral director, language coach (phonology and languages for singers), a professional singer, arranger, and composer in and around New Zealand.

Jono Palmer is a dynamic and enterprising conductor from Auckland, New Zealand. His choirs have won national and international acclaim, including two Gold Medals at the 2015 Grand Prix of Nations in Magdeburg, Germany, and many awards at regional and national festivals of the NZCF Big Sing festival. As a conductor, Jono has been selected for masterclasses at the 2017 World Symposium of Choral Music and the 2017 National Collegiate Choral Organization National Conference. In October 2018, he was a finalist in the inaugural London International Choral Conducting Competition.

He has a particular research interest in choral works inspired by te ao Māori, especially in the influence of colonisation and cultural appropriation on New Zealand choral music, which is the topic of his doctoral dissertation. In 2019, he presented a paper at the national conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization on the performance of kapahaka music by non-Māori choirs, and in 2021 he led a round-table discussion at Indiana University on issues related to the appropriation and cultural borrowing of Indigenous music by Western composers.  

As a singer, Jono has been a member of the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir, the New Zealand Youth Choir, and Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir. Some of his solo engagements have included the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute (Class Act Opera), Superintendent Budd in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring (University of Auckland), a Christmas concert tour with Operatunity, and guest solo performances with the South Auckland Choral Society and Auckland Choral Society. Jono has also performed several times with the Bloomington Bach Cantata Project.

Jono has sung with many of Auckland’s leading choirs including the University of Auckland Chamber Choir, Musica Sacra, Viva Voce, Bach Musica, Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir, V8 Vocal Ensemble, Voices of the Age of Discovery, and Laudamus Vocal Ensemble. At Indiana University, he has performed regularly with the HPI ensemble Concentus, as well as NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, University Singers, the Conductor’s Chorus, and the Singing Hoosiers.

Jono has earned a MM in Choral Conducting from Indiana University, a BMus(hons) in Performance Voice, and a BA in Ancient History from the University of Auckland. He is a doctoral candidate in Choral Conducting at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he is currently writing the doctoral final project document.

Blake is a bass from Auckland, and has been singing with Voices NZ since 2019. He currently also sings with the Auckland Chamber Choir, various smaller ensembles, and is a previous member of the NZ Youth Choir. Between his singing engagements, Blake works as a management/strategy consultant.

Growing up in the suburbs of South Auckland, Keani began singing at a young age, taking part in many cultural singing customs and admiring the voices of roles models in her family and community.  Being of Cook Island descent, her cultural views and passion around Pasifika music has paved the start of her musical journey.  Keani has completed her Bachelor of Music (Honours) majoring in Classical Voice and minoring in Conducting.  Keani is a practicing musician, currently singing with the Auckland Chamber Choir and NZ Opera Chorus as well as being an alumni of the Auckland Youth Choir, New Zealand Secondary Students Choir and New Zealand Youth Choir.  Having recently completed her teaching certificate, she is now working at Takapuna Grammar School as their newly appointed Director of Choirs.