Cadenza Adjudicator announced
30 Apr 2026
We're delighted to announce Brent Stewart as this year’s Cadenza adjudicator.
Brent will bring significant expertise to the choirs selected for the three Cadenza’s later in the year. He is a leading New Zealand conductor, percussionist and pianist. He is Artistic Director of Opus Orchestra, Music Director of Orpheus Choir Wellington, Assistant Music Director and Pianist of the NZ Secondary Students’ Choir, Orchestra Wellington’s Principal Timpani and Friedlander Foundation Associate Artist with New Zealand Opera.
He has conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Orchestra Wellington, Opus Orchestra, Christchurch, Dunedin and Manukau symphony orchestras, New Zealand Opera and the Royal New Zealand Ballet. Recent highlights include BENEE and Mana Moana with the NZSO, Jonathan Dove’s The Monster in the Maze, and Synthony at Spark Arena, Electric Avenue and Marina Bay, Singapore.
His work includes three separate Tokyo seasons of The Phantom of the Opera, accompanying at the Gisborne International Music and National Concerto competitions, adjudicating The Big Sing Finale and regionals, serving as orchestral session producer on Nickelodeon’s Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, and arranging for New Zealand film Tinā.
Coming up, Brent will conduct the NZSO in a landmark complete-ballet recording, the first commercial project at the restored Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall before opening. He will also conduct Auckland Philharmonia’s Tunes 4 Tamariki and Wairua Harikoa, and The Sleeping Beauty with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland.
As well as adjudicating the three Cadenza Festivals, Brent will get to hear his own arrangement of the English folksong Scarborough Fair many times. He has arranged the set piece to be sung by all Cadenza choirs individually and as a massed item at the gala concerts. Brent's arrangements allow for any choir size and configuration with two and three parts, with and without accompaniment. Click here for more information about Cadenza.