Other Choirs

This page contains links to Wellington and other New Zealand choirs and to some useful music sites.

The Festival Singers of Wellington is a member of the New Zealand Choral Federation www.nzcf.org.nz

Please email us if you would like to update details about your choir or to add new choirs to the list.

Note: Email addresses on this page have been invalidated by the insertion of “[at]” in place of the “@” symbol.  Please replace [at] with @  to send an email.

The Wellington Choral Scene
Who’s who, what’s what and when it is all happening

• Cantoris
• Capital Choir
• Capital Harmony Chorus
  Sweet Adelines chorus (Ladies’ Barbershop)
• Gale Force Gospel Choir, meets Mondays 6pm St Andrews on the Terrace Hall, Wellington. A cappella, no auditions, learning by ear https://www.galeforcegospel.org.nz/
• Harbour Capital Chorus
  (Barbershop)
• The Hutt Valley Singers
  Previously the Upper Hutt Choral Society, its music library dates back to the original Upper Hutt Male Choir, founded in 1933.
  • Secretary: Don McLeod
  • Conductor: Joanne Roeloffs
• Hutt Valley Community choir meets Tuesdays 7pm Knox Church Hall, High St, Lower Hutt. A cappella, no auditions, learning by ear http://huttvalleycommunitychoir.weebly.com/
• Kapiti Gospel Choir, meets Thursdays 7pm Paraparaumu Baptist Church, Ruapehu St, Paraparaumu.  A cappella, no auditions, learning by ear https://kapitigospel.wixsite.com/home
• Lleisiau Gymreig – Welsh Voices
• Nota Bene
  Established 2005. Most singers are former New Zealand Youth Choir and many are past or present members of Voices New Zealand. No web site yet, but the choir can be contacted by email
• The Orpheus Choir
• Sacred Heart Cathedral Choirs
• Serbian Chorus
  (Vox Serbicus) – Srpsko Pevacko Drustvo New Zealand
• Southern Harmony Barbershop Quartet
• St Paul’s Cathedral Choirs
• The Tudor Consort
  For 15 years The Tudor Consort has been at the forefront of early choral performance in New Zealand
• Varsity Voices
  Contact: The Secretary – The New Zealand School of Music’s Chamber Choir
• Wellington Community Choir
  Wellington Community Choir practise at Te Whaea in John Street, Newtown. Their musical director is Lala Simpson and their piano accompanist Andrea Robinson. Rehearsals are Wednesdays at 7pm during school terms.
  For more information email  Pip Bennett: pip@bennettfamily.co.nz
• Wellington Male Voice Choir
• Wellington Youth Choir
  A choir of about 40 singers aged 18-25, mostly tertiary students or young people in the workforce.
  • Administrator: Greg Maxted
  • Email: wellingtonyouthchoir[at]gmail.com
  • Postal Address: PO Box 10031, Wellington, NZ

NZ Choral Federation – Auckland
Contains contact details for all NZCF – Auckland choirs

• Auckland Anglican Cathedral of the Holy Trinity
• Auckland Catholic Music Schola
  Specialises in liturgical performance of the traditional music of the church, especially Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. It sings for Sunday Mass at St John the Baptist in Parnell approximately twice a month. New members are welcome in all voice parts; regular practices are 6.15-7.30 pm each Wednesday at St John’s.
• Auckland Chamber Choir
  Run through the University of Auckland, is holding auditions in the week 19-23 February. Rehearsals are held 6.30-9.00 on Tuesday evenings. Singers do not have to be University students. Preferably aged 18yrs+. Musical Director: Dr. Karen Grylls. Further information is available from Megan Flint
• Auckland Choral Society
• Auckland Welsh Choir
  Musical Director: Diana Rhodes
• Auckland Youth Choir
• Bach Musica New Zealand
  (the “performance” name of the Auckland Bach Cantata Society)
• City of Sails Chorus
  A barbershop chorus.
• The Graduate Choir, New Zealand.
  Directed by Terence Maskell, this mixed-voice choir is known for the warmth and breadth of its sound, accomplished presentation of varied repertoire,  programming which is accessible and universal in appeal, and the unique cultural blend of its singers.
• Music Association of Auckland Inc.
  A Chinese Choir of up to 70 members.
• Musica Sacra
• North Shore Camerata
  A mixed choir of around 30 voices with the primary objective of promoting choral singing on the Auckland North Shore.
• North Shore City 100 Voice Choir
• V8 Vocal Ensemble
  Auckland’s premier 8-voice a cappella ensemble – and another Gold Medal winner in the inaugural Classic Sing Grand Prix, 2003.
  Contact them by email
• Viva Voce

Bay of Plenty Choirs

• The Edgecumbe Choir
  Celebrating 50 years in 2007, this choir draws its members from all over the Eastern Bay of Plenty. It also shares with Festival Singers an association with our former Musical Director, Rita Paczian.
• Tauranga Civic Choir
  Silver award winners at the inaugural Classic Sing Grand Prix, Rotorua 2003. Musical Director: Jeremy Whimster

Hamilton Choirs

• Cantamus Male Choir and Cantamus Women’s Choir
  • Musical director of both Cantamus choirs: Anne Connolly
• Hamilton Civic Choir

Nelson Choirs

• Christ Church Cathedral Choir
  Contact: Sue Ledingham
• The Nelson Male Voice Choir
  Contact: Iain Campbell
• Polyhymnos Chamber Choir
  Contact: Chris Burcin This choir is run as a course through the Nelson School of Music

Christchurch Choirs

• Canterbury Plainsmen Barbershop Chorus
• Cantores
• Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament
• Cecilian Singers
• Christchurch City Choir
• Christchurch Liedertafel Male Choir
• Christchurch members of the NZ National Youth Choir & Voices New Zealand
  Contact: Brigitte Murray
• Jubilate Singers

Dunedin Choirs

• Cantores in Ecclesia
• City of Dunedin Choir
• Knox Church Choir
• The Otago Camerata
  Specialising in medieval, renaissance and baroque styles and performance practice
• Royal Dunedin Male Choir

Otago Choirs

• Central Otago Regional Choir
  This 50-member choir was formed at the beginning of 2005. Conductor: John Buchanan
• Viva Cantata
  Director: Tonya Southall – Formerly the Peregrine Singers, Queenstown, currently recruiting new members (26/9/05)
• Wanaka Singers
  Director: John Buchanan

National Choirs

• The National Male Choir of New Zealand
  A choir of 90 choristers available to perform within New Zealand and Overseas.
  • Musical Director – Angie Creswell
  • Secretary – Barbara Lischner
• Tower New Zealand Youth Choir
  Choir of the World, Llangollen, 1999
• Tower Voices New Zealand
  Formed in 1998 as a nationally selected chamber choir of the highest calibre.

School Choirs

• Waikato Secondary Schools Choir
  A vibrant new youth choir!

Other interesting music sites

• Song Leaders Network Aotearoa a great source for finding other choirs, song leaders, workshops etc https://www.songleaders.org.nz/

• SOUNZ The Centre for New Zealand Music
  The essential “one-stop shop” for all New Zealand music.
• Composers Association of New Zealand
• New Zealand Music Resources
  This is just one section of IndexNZ – a search engine and web directory for New Zealand.

• The New Zealand Opera Society
   Webmastered by former Festival Singers musical director Mark Leicester, this site has just been re-launched as an online community, inviting people to contribute online via a blog.

• The New Zealand Association of Barbershop Singers
  This site has a list of web and email addresses for Barbershop Choruses and Quartets in New Zealand
• Sweet Adelines New Zealand
  Ladies’ Barbershop – info and links to Sweet Adelines throughout New Zealand
• Christchurch Schools Music Festival
  Christchurch Town Hall. This 6-day festival involving the massed choirs of most Christchurch Primary and Intermediate Schools in October each year has been running since 1939.
• New Rieger Organ in Christchurch
  The installation of a new civic organ is always an exciting event!
• Australian Music Centre
  Our friends across the Tasman.
• Charter Travel
  Customised tours in the British Isles for singing groups where every tour is unique because every group is unique.
• Choir Tours
  Richardson & Gray is a U.K. based tour operator that specializes in arranging European itneraries for choirs.
• MelodyMusic
  Choir Tours and Concert promotion. UK-based; specializes in overseas choirs visiting the UK, and UK choirs travelling overseas.
• The Hymns and Carols of Christmas
  The goal is to have the largest collection of public domain Christmas hymns and carols ever published in the English language.
• Music Resources on the World Wide Web
  Compiled by Yale University Music Library
• Mymusicindex.com
  A quick-reference, informational music resource consisting of a collection of related music links.
• Notation Software links
• The Big Site of Music Notation and Engraving
  Includes modern, traditional and early notation, notation software and music fonts.
• Bach Cantata Website
  Includes a comprehensive set of links to J.S. Bach-related sites.
• Bach: libretti
  English translations, with commentaries, of ALL of J.S. Bach’s vocal works.
• Brad Leissa’s excellent Handel site
• Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
  A must for Gilbert and Sullivan fans: all the words and music (in MIDI) with links to score sources of much of G&S, inlcuding Sullivan’s anthems, hymns and Christmas music, plus many other 18th, 19th and Early 20th Century Light Operas.
• Tomás Luis de Victoria
  A comprehensive resource from the Polytechnic University of Valencia on this well-known 16th Century Spanish composer – “the greatest spanish polyphonist of all time”.
• Musica Sancta Jerusalem
  This is a commercial site, but it offers a unique collection of CDs of all the ancient Christian liturgical traditions represented in Jeruslaem.
• Grove Music Online
  Launched in January 2001. It contains over 47,000 articles from The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.
• ChoralNet
  The site for all matters choral: discussion groups, choral database, etc. The official site of the International Federation for Choral Music
• MUSICA Choral database
• Music and Science Information Computer Archive
  Lots of interesting and authoritative research studies on music and behaviour, including education, child development, psychology, cognitive sciences, neuroscience, clinical medicine, music therapy and allied fields.
• The Royal School of Church Music
• The Music Education Launch site
• New Zealand Society for Music Education site
• NotePerfect
  Affordable, high quality practice CDs for your choir.
• The Silvis Woodshed
  Contains sequenced midi files of the choral parts of over 250 items. Practice your parts!
• Choirmidi
  Another site with midi files of choral parts for practice.
• Spanish early music
  Some really nice Renaissance and Baroque midi files
• Australasian Performing Right Association
• American Choral Directors’ Association
• Music and Vision
  A marvelous electronic magazine for all serious musicians. Well worth visiting!
• Suryagita Cox – Alexander Voice Works
  Wellington based Alexander Technique, voice, singing and presentation skills coach.
  email: info[at]alexandervoiceworks.co.nz

General Information about New Zealand

• IndexNZ
  The search engine and web directory for New Zealand
• mkiwi.com
  New Zealand links and resources site
• Pipers’ New Zealand Pages
  Why a firm of Patent Attorneys would want to compile a list of New Zealand web sites I will never know – but they’ve made a superb job of it!
• Te Puna Web Directory
  A directory to New Zealand and Pacific Island web sites compiled by the NZ National Library – it picks up where Ara Nui left off
• Wellington Community Mall
  Guide to many businesses, services and organisations in Wellington

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The list on this page is copyright of Tom Lumb 1998-2009.
Maintained by Festival Singers since 2009.