REVIEWS
Saturday 19 October 2019
TAONGA MOANA – A LOVE LETTER TO THE OCEAN
A review of our Napier show from the Hook NZ
Standing on Marine Parade before this concert, a calm green/blue sea, gulls and a dark-lined horizon, I wondered how on earth a wholeness could be created out of the great risotto of influences identified in the programme notes. From sea serpents, whales, Mother Theresa, Māori, Finnish, Indonesian cultures, waka made of human bones, and so much more. […]
READ MOREMonday 22 July 2019
Classical review: Heartwarming treat for a bleak winter day
Review of 'Follow the Star' in Dunedin, from the Otago Daily Times
ST Paul’s Cathedral was the venue for Voices New Zealand’s midwinter Yulefest recital entitled ‘‘Follow the Star’’.
We hear so much about the country’s top sports teams, but I was delighted to review Saturday’s Dunedin performance by one of New Zealand’s international award winning choirs.
READ MOREFriday 27 April 2018
Classical Review: A new ANZAC symphonic work revealing the tragedy of the survivors
NBR Weekend Review, By John Daly-Peoples
Last week the Auckland Philharmonia premiered FACE, a new work commissioned from Ross Harris. The piece was inspired by the story of Sir Harold Gillies, the New Zealander who became the father of plastic surgery and who, along with several other New Zealand surgeons treated the disfiguring facial injuries sustained by soldiers during World War I.
READ MOREMonday 23 April 2018
Classical review: Enigma concert fills the house
Reviewer: William Dart, NZ Herald
The APO and VOICES NZ perform NZ composer Ross Harris’s new work, Face.
“One sensed justifiable pride when Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra CEO Barbara Glaser announced the Enigma concert had drawn a full house and, best of all, the programme included a major commission, shared with the BBC, ” writes William Dart.
READ MORETuesday 13 March 2018
The King’s Singers rule supreme
VOICES NZ & The King's Singers in concert
“The King’s Singers sextet were good-humoured, supremely talented, effortlessly accomplished, confident and gracious. Voices New Zealand was impeccably supportive, balancing the sextet and reinforcing the climax of the chosen works. The two groups were complementary, symphonious – superb.
It was a refined, inspiring, entertaining evening – a precise, crystalline, perfect concert.”- Stephen Gibbs
READ MORESaturday 25 November 2017
5/5 ‘a rich and reverberant mix, immaculately balanced and paced’
NZ Herald’s William Dart reviews the latest VOICES CD, ‘Requiem for the fallen’
READ MOREThursday 5 October 2017
A commission to be thoroughly proud of – The Unusual Silence
The commissioning of challenging new work is essential in a genre that can at times feel safely, beautifully two-dimensional, and The Unusual Silence is a commission Grylls and Voices New Zealand can be thoroughly proud of.
READ MORETuesday 3 October 2017
NZ Herald review: The Unusual Silence concert
Voices NZ Chamber Choir led by the world-renowned conductor Karen Grylls
The Unusual Silence, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir’s WWI commemoration, was a powerful and reverberant experience in the marble halls of Auckland Museum.
READ MOREMonday 7 August 2017
Baroque Voices Concert
Reviewed by William Dart
….the 24 singers of Voices NZ Chamber Choir displaying the vocal heft of three times that number….
READ MOREMonday 20 March 2017
A dramatic staging of PASSIO
Sunday 27 March 2016
Middle C – Sounds and Sweet Airs: Songs of Shakespeare Review
"The entire performance was characterised by captivating finesse, and did honour to Shakespeare."
Festival presents Shakespeare songs from two choirs in admirable literary and musical contexts.
READ MORESunday 13 March 2016
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (soprano) with Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir directed by Karen Grylls and Terence Dennis (piano)
Reviewed by John Button, Dominion Post
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs with Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir at the Michael Fowler Centre, March 13 2016, reviewed by John Button of the Dominion Post.
READ MOREWednesday 25 March 2015
Peter Hoar: APO Child of Our Time review
Peter reviews the Auckland Festival production of Tippet’s Child of Our Time performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Voices NZ and the NZ Youth Choir.
READ MOREWednesday 25 March 2015
Auckland Arts Festival review: A Child of our time, Auckland Town Hall
In festival’s homegrown highlight, orchestra and voices give rich offering of oratorio’s message of peace.
READ MORESunday 22 March 2015
Choristers revel in celebration of light
In a nutshell, as the Festival brochure put it, Ata Reira promised an evening of award-winning choirs, majestic voices and Te Reo Maori in song. Both separately and together, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir delivered all this in a choral celebration of light … and much more.
READ MOREMonday 9 February 2015
Voice of the Soul
“..a fascinating and lovingly prepared programme which made a strong and delightful impression..”
READ MOREWednesday 31 December 2014
Voices NZ Melbourne Concert Review
The audience in St Paul’s Cathedral was treated to a wonderful night of choral music inspired by the idea of the Magnificat.
READ MOREMonday 20 October 2014
Requiem for the Fallen: Review
“Stunningly impressive and emotionally draining” – Brenda Harwood
READ MOREFriday 28 February 2014
VOICES at NZ Arts Festival, NZ Herald Review
"Voices NZ and Grylls are a potent team.."
There was an air of ritual about Requiem for the Fallen, the major music commission of the New Zealand Arts Festival.
READ MOREClassical review: Magic Midwinter Yulefest With Voices New Zealand
Review of 'Follow the Star' in Auckland, by Clare Martin from Radio13
There was magic spun from Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir led by distinguished conductor Karen Grylls in their concert at St Matthew-in-the-City in Auckland, NZ last night. A midwinter Yulefest celebrating Christmas with music from both northern and southern hemispheres including a significant number of NZ composers. The theme for the selection was Follow the Star, the North Star leading the Wise Men to the nativity and the stars of our very own star cluster Matariki.
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