Faamanu is a proud Samoan/Kiwi baritone from Flaxmere, Hastings, who has completed his Honors degree in Classical Vocal Performance at the University of Waikato under the tutelage of Kristin Darragh. He is now studying under Nikki Li Hartliep as a 2025 Te Pae Kōkako TANZOS Artist.

In 2016, Faamanu successfully auditioned for a youth group called Project Prima Volta (PPV) and has since worked both onstage and backstage with Festival Opera through PPV. Faamanu is also a part of an Operatic quartet called ‘Alofa’ made up of himself and his 3 brothers who perform regularly around the country a variety of corporate events.

Faamanu was a recipient of the TAPA scholarship award in 2021 and 2022 and was also a recipient of the prestigious Blues Awards for both those years, which highlights students who excel in the Arts.

Faamanu was selected to take part in the New Zealand Opera School in 2022, 2023, 2024 and has been invited back for 2025.

Faamanu has been involved in many mainstage operas including Festival Opera’s La Traviata (2019), Madama Butterfly (2017), La Boheme (2016), Carmen (2018) and The Cunning Little Vixen (2022), Project Prima Volta’s production of Dido and Aeneas (2016), Simone’ in The University of Waikato’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Faamanu was also in the ensemble for NZOpera’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice or (m)Orpheus. and NZ Opera on stage for their performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Il Trovatore and Die tote Stadt and more recently for Rigoletto and Tristan und Isolde. Faamanu was also involved in NZ Opera's ‘Opera in schools’ tour where they visited 33 schools across the country performing ‘The sleeping beauty’ by Respighi to more than 10,000 students and has been invited back to perform the role of Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love, by Donizetti

for the 2025 schools' tour.

Reports from our Artists

Niamh Bentley

Faamanu Fonoti-Fuimaono

Tomairangi Henare

Taylor Wallbank

Jordan Fonoti-Fuimaono

Jasmine Jessen

Samuel McKeever

Ridge Ponini

Rhiannon Cooper

Alfred Fonoti-Fuimaono

Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono

Sarah Mileham