TANZOS 2025 eNews, Issue #1: Including Upcoming events and Alumni news!

A Word from our Chair in Opera...

Welcome to our first TANZOS eNews of 2025!

Our eNews is going to look a bit different this year. Our artists and alumni are involved in so many projects and performances in addition to their work at TANZOS and we want to be able to celebrate everything they do, and to make sure you all get a chance to see them in action wherever you are. 

We have now entered our third year and the 2025/26 TANZOS artists have been working hard since classes started on March 10, in particular with their teacher, Nikki Li Hartliep.  A lot has also been happening behind the scenes, including the appointment of our Advisory Board and a new Programme Coordinator, Scott Bezett. Scott joins us from Otago University and has already made a wonderfully positive impact. A talented tenor himself, Scott says, “It is such a joy to be joining TANZOS in this role for 2025. I have admired the programme from afar since its inception and am really excited to be on board to support the development of New Zealand’s next crop of operatic talent.” 

We hope you can join us for our first Lunchtime Recital of the year on April 9th. The singers will be joined on stage by Thomas Johnson, pianist and coach for Opera Australia and the Sydney Conservatorium and prior to that, Music Staff and stellvertretender Chordirektor for Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Germany.  We will be advertising all our future performances very soon, so please do check our Events Page for up-to-date performance listings. 

TANZOS is going from strength-to-strength and your support is so valuable and evident in our work every day. 

Noho ora mai,

Madeleine Pierard

Te Pae Kōkako Director and Dame Malvina Major Chair in Opera - University of Waikato

What we are up to...

It has been a busy start to the year for our artists on the ground in Kirikiriroa Hamilton. The artists’ weekly schedule is centered around their lessons with our wonderful TANZOS Head Vocal Teacher, Nikki Li Hartliep, while also encompassing various essential skills for the modern opera singer, including repertoire coaching with national and international guest coaches, stagecraft and recitative workshops, German and Italian language lessons, and musical context sessions. Alongside these core sessions, our artists have also engaged in a resilience training programme of guest workshops, including Feldenkrais, stage combat, and the art of covering a role, for example.  

We were delighted to welcome our first international guest for 2025 when we were joined by acclaimed Australian voice teacher and coach, Donna Balson, during our orientation week. We have since been involved in masterclasses with visiting French baritone, André Heyboer, and British song repertoire specialist, Ian Tindale, as well as had a coaching week with Wellington pianist, Catherine Norton. We are now looking forward to welcoming to TANZOS Thomas Victor Johnson, formerly of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, and currently répétiteur for Opera Australia. Thomas will be the first of our resident coaches for 2025 and will perform with our TANZOS artists in our University of Waikato Lunchtime Recital on April 9. We will be hosting more international guest coaches later this year, so what this space!

Before our programme began for 2025, our TANZOS artists had already had a busy start to the year, with most of our artists spending the first two weeks of January in sunny Whanganui at the New Zealand Opera School. Our singers were featured artists at recitals throughout Whanganui Opera Week and wowed audiences in the sold-out final performance at the Royal Whanganui Opera House. To top off the fortnight, we were delighted to see Jordan Fonoti-Fuimaono awarded the school’s premier award, the Dame Malvina Major Foundation Scholarship.  

Some of our artists barely had time to catch their breath before heading to Napier for Festival Opera’s double-bill of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Tomairang iHenare (Aeneas and Simone) and Jordan Fonoti-Fuimaono (Sailor and Rinuccio) starred across both shows, while Samuel McKeever took on the title role in Gianni Schicchi. TANZOS alumna, Katherine Winitana, also starred across both productions, as the Sorceress and Lauretta.

Closer to home, Jasmine Jessen, Samuel McKeever and Jordan Fonoti-Fuimaono gave outstanding performances in the Hamilton Arts Festival | Toi Ora Ki Kirikiriroa as soloists in Carmina Burana with Hamilton City Brass and the Festival Chorus. The Arts Festival also saw some of our artists performing Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love with Opus Orchestra. These performances formed part of an ongoing nationwide Opera in Schools initiative, led by New Zealand Opera and featuring many of our artists. Sarah Mileham and Tomairangi Henare concluded their performances of the show in mid-March while Niamh Bentley, Jordan Fonoti-Fuimaono, and Faamanu Fonoti-Fuimaono begin their tour as the production heads to Te Wai Pounamu / the South Island.  

The Opera in Schools tour will not be Jordan’s first appearance down south in 2025. Jordan made his Christchurch Symphony Orchestra debut in March performing Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings as part of the CSO’s first Lamb & Hayward Curator’s Series concert for 2025. By all accounts, the sold-out Canterbury audience were blown away by the performance – ka rawe, Jordan! You can see a snippet of Jordan’s performance here. 

Upcoming Performances...

TANZOS Artists Lunchtime Recital with Thomas Victor Johnson (Opera Australia), Wednesday April 9, 1pm, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts. Tickets are available here or at the door. 

Tauranga Civic Choir present ‘Songs of Earth, Sea and Sky’. Samuel McKeever sings C.V. Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet. Saturday April 12, 4pm, St. Peters in the City, Tauranga.  

Cantando Choir present Mozart’s Requiem. Edward Smith sings as the bass soloist. Saturday 12 April, 7pm, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts.

New Zealand Opera present Mansfield Park. Sarah Mileham sings as Maria Bertram and is joined by alumni Cecilia Yufan Zhang (2023) as Julia Bertram and Taylor Wallbank (2023-24)as Henry Crawford. April 1-3 in The Arts Centre, Ōtautahi Christchurch and 5-6 April in Hanover Hall, Ōtepoti Dunedin. 

Alumni News...

We are thrilled to announce that Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono (2023) has been accepted for the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. The programme boasts such prestigious alumni as Joyce DiDonato, Thomas Hampson, Nadine Sierra, and New Zealanders Simon O’Neill, Pene and Amitai Pati, and Amina Edris. There will be more exciting news about Emmanuel to come!

Cecilia Yufan Zhang (2023) has recently been performing as Cherubino in the Royal College of Music’s production of Le nozze di Figaro where she was praised for her “wonderfully energetic performance” (The Guardian) and "her characterisation of the flirty, hormonal teenage boy” (OperaNow). Cecilia will be making her long-awaited return to New Zealand shores for New Zealand Opera’s Mansfield Park in April. 

We are excited to announce that Taylor Wallbank (2023/24) will be heading to Italy in the middle of 2025 to take up a position with Fondazione Mascarade Opera (Florence) as a 2025-2027 artist. Before departing, Taylor will reprise his role of Henry Crawford in New Zealand Opera’s Mansfield Park in April.  

Katherine Winitana (2023/24) and Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono (2023) were recently involved in a very special concert as part of Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki | Auckland Arts Festival. Toiere, directed by Kawiti Waetford and music director Robert Wiremu, was “a meeting place where Western operatic traditions intertwine with Aotearoa’s linguistic and cultural heritage.” The sold-out performance in the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber blended operatic arias with Te Reo Māori in a magical night of waiata for all.  

If you know of anyone who might be interested in hearing more about Te Pae Kōkako - The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio, please ask them to contact tepaekokako@waikato.ac.nz to be added to our mailing list.