Introducing our new NZCF Chair
2 June 2022
Last month’s AGM saw the completion of NZCF Chair Juliet Dreaver’s third and final term on the Governance Board and the retirement of fellow Board member Toby Gee. Both were thanked for their service to NZCF and Juliet’s outstanding contribution was recognised with a Life Membership Award.
We are delighted to announce that former Vice Chair Warwick Harvey has been elected as NZCF’s new Chair, and Pete Rainey will serve as Vice Chair. Karen Grylls returns to the Board for a new term, having previously served from 2008 -2014, and we welcome Igelese Ete to his first term on the Governance Board.
Read on for bios of our newest office holders, and for a full list of the 2022 NZCF Governance Board…
Warwick Harvey spent his career in human resources management including time as a Consulting Partner at Deloitte. For 13 years he was Chief Executive of Stratos Limited (now renamed Benestar) a leading provider of workplace wellbeing services.
Warwick has had a lifelong involvement in choirs, including the North Shore Youth Choir, the original University of Auckland Festival Choir conducted by Peter Godfrey which travelled to USA, England and Europe, and the Auckland Dorian Choir. He was on the committee of both the Festival Choir and Dorian Choir. While Chair of the Dorians, Warwick was involved in the establishment of the Auckland Youth Choir and has recently ended his 10-year tenure as their chair. His other governance experience includes National President of the Human Resources Institute of NZ and Board Chair of Barnardos.
Pete Rainey MNZM is an event producer whose company Rockquest Promotions Ltd has been producing music events for over 30 years. He has extensive governance experience, currently as a fourth-term Nelson City Councillor, as well as holding board positions with local arts organisations including the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts. He was awarded the MNZM for services to music in 2013.
Pete was a member of the National Youth Choir and the National Youth Orchestra and continues to be involved in music in Nelson. He currently conducts Chroma Chamber Choir and is a past conductor of the Nelson Civic Choir. Pete is the founding Musical Director of the National Male Choir, continues to play viola and violin, and has also been the artistic director of Opera in the Park in Nelson since 1999.
Dr Igelese Ete is currently Associate Dean, Pacific and an Associate Professor at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington. In 2009, Igelese was awarded the prestigious Creative New Zealand Senior Pacific Artist Award for his contribution to the promotion and performance of Pacific music in New Zealand and the Pacific.
With extensive conducting, composition, and teaching experience, Igelese was the NZ Choirmaster for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Disney’s Moana featuring his Pasifika Voices choir from the University of the South Pacific. Igelese brings to NZCF a love of choral music combined with a passion for the Pacific creative and performing arts and their ability to inspire, empower, educate, and uplift the world.
Dr Karen Grylls ONZM brings a wealth of national and international experience as a performer, adjudicator, and clinician. She brings a unique combination of choral and governance experience to NZCF through her many university leadership roles, as a founding member of the Governance Board (2007-2014), and as a former member of the IFCM Board (2005-2008).
As Artistic Director of Choral Connect and Vice-Chair of the Association of Choral Directors, she is very much at the forefront of the current choral scene. She conducted the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1989 to 2011, founded Voices NZ in 1998, and is currently the Artistic Director of Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand’s three internationally acclaimed national choirs.
NZCF Governance Board 2022:
Warwick Harvey, Chair
Pete Rainey MNZM, Vice-Chair
Kim Cunningham
Dr Igelese Ete
Dr Karen Grylls ONZM
Megan Hurnard
David Squire
Robert Wiremu