2024 Cadenza & Finale Adjudicators

With The Big Sing regionals approaching and many choirs setting their sights on selection for our area Cadenza festivals and National Finale, we're delighted to announce our Cadenza and Finale adjudicators.
 

Cadenza Adjudicator

Dr. Tuilagi Igelese Ete is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean: Pacific at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington. Dr. Ete's journey in choral music began with his involvement as organist, chorister and director for his Samoan church choir from a young age as well as performing with the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1986 to 1992.

He holds a BMus in Performance and a Master’s (Hons) in Composition, and he completed his PhD focusing on 'Samoan musical structures, instrumentation, and Koniseti.' Dr. Ete was the first Creative Fellow of Pacific Music at Auckland University’s School of Creative and Performing Arts. From 2011 to 2020, he served as the Head of Performing Arts at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji. He’s honoured to be a part of the international panel of adjudicators for the World Choir Games ‘24.

With a wealth of experience in conducting, composition, and teaching, Dr. Ete served as the NZ Choirmaster for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. He also contributed as a choirmaster and music/choral consultant for Disney’s Moana.
 

Finale Adjudicators

Paul Holley OAM is a conductor and music educator with over 30 years of teaching and conducting experience. He is the Artistic Director of Voices of Birralee, a community youth and children’s choir organisation based in Brisbane. He conducts two of the signature choirs, the Birralee Blokes and Resonance of Birralee, award-winning ensembles who have toured nationally and internationally, made numerous recordings, performed with professional artists and supported community events. 

Paul is the Artistic Director of the Pemulwuy! National Male Voice Festival, a triennial festival that draws together males of all ages to sing together and build community. He is also the co-conductor of the national youth choir Gondwana Chorale which has toured the USA, UK and the Baltics and most recently NZ in 2023. In addition to these roles, Paul is a workshop presenter, choral clinician, guest conductor and mentor to younger conductors. He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in January 2016 for his services to choral music.

 

Auahi Kore adjudicator Toni Huata is a Māori songstress, actor, performer, director and producer. Hailing from Hastings, she was surrounded by an eclectic array of influences including the Anglican church, choir, tap dancing, musical theatre and Mäori cultural performance. She affiliates to Ngāti Kahungunu and Rongowhakaata iwi, and is also of Lebanese, German, Scandinavian and Irish decent.

Toni graduated in music at Whitireia Polytechnic, then toured throughout NZ for four years in Jim Moriarty's Te Rakau Hua o Te Wao Tapu theatre company. In 2019, she was the inaugural appointment to the role of Kaihautū Puoro Māori | Director of Māori Music at SOUNZ. She has released seven albums, the most recent of which is Te Rerenga (The Journey).

 

Henrietta Hunkin-Tagaloa was born and raised in Wellington and represents the villages of Faleula and Apia (Samoa), and Mutulau (Niue). With over 20 years’ experience in the barbershop craft, Henrietta has won many national quartet and chorus championships and represented NZ on the international stage since 2005. She is a certified Singing Judge in the Australasian Guild of Barbershop Judges, coaches barbershop quartets and choirs around the country, and acts as a mentor for NZCF in the Mana Pasifika outreach programme. She is also a member of Signature Choir who recently filled Spark Arena in Auckland, a first for a Pacific community choir.

Henrietta is the founder and Co-Director of Pacific Connection who competed in their first barbershop competition in 2022, won with the highest score in NZ history, and went on to place eighth in the world in 2023. She is the Vice President of Barbershop Harmony NZ, and holds a BA in Music Studies from Victoria University of Wellington. She is a mother of two (6 & 1) and is the Pacific Director at Tū Ora Compass Health.
 

Michael Stewart is at the forefront of choral conducting in New Zealand, as well as being one of the country’s leading concert organists. He is Organist and Director of Music at the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul, Music Director of The Tudor Consort, and Deputy Music Director of the New Zealand Youth Choir.

Michael has led critically acclaimed performances of Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt and J S Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and St Matthew Passion with The Tudor Consort, and has prepared both The Tudor Consort and Voices New Zealand for performances with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

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To learn more The Big Sing, Cadenza and Finale, and to find dates for 2024, click here. 

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