In May this year, NZCF Chair, Juliet Dreaver, completes her third three-year term on the Board and will retire at the 2022 AGM. Current Board member Toby Gee will also step down at the AGM, and Kim Cunningham, who was co-opted to the Board in 2021 rather than elected, is now standing for formal election. Warwick Harvey, David Squire, Robert Wiremu, Pete Rainey and Megan Hurnard will continue as Board members. There are now three vacancies to be filled.

We have received four nominations for the three positions available and will therefore be holding an election. The four board nominees are Kim Cunningham, Peter de Blois, Igelese Ete and Karen Grylls and biographical information on each candidate is at the bottom of this page.

Votes for the 2022 Governance Board elections will close at midnight on 22 April 2022. 

Eligibility to vote

• Personal/ACD members are entitled to one vote each. Member choirs are entitled to one vote for the first 25 singing members and a further vote for each subsequent 25 members (or part thereof), up to a maximum of four votes.
• Only current financial members and Life Members may vote.

Process

• Tick the check box alongside the names of the candidates you wish to vote for.
• You may vote for up to THREE candidates.
• Complete the membership information at the bottom of the form.
• Email your completed voting paper to the NZCF’s independent scrutineer,
  Andrew Matangi (Lawyer) at elections@nzcf.org.nz,  or
• post your completed voting paper to Andrew Matangi,
  NZCF Elections, 18 Cashmere Avenue, Khandallah, Wellington 6035
• Based on the Constitution, voting papers must be posted, emailed or delivered to the scrutineer by Friday 22 April 2022 to be counted for this election.

Counting the votes

The NZCF’s scrutineer will open the envelopes and emails, count the votes and report the result to NZCF. Votes will not be counted if you vote for more than three candidates, if you (or the choir on whose behalf you are voting) are not a financial member for this year, if your vote is unclear, or if your vote is not posted, emailed or delivered by 22 April 2022.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE 2022 NZCF GOVERNANCE BOARD VOTING PAPERS

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Kim Cunningham

I have really enjoyed my time to date on the NZCF Governance Board, as Finance and Legal portfolio holder. I see the work NZCF is doing as crucial to building and growing diverse choral membership throughout New Zealand. I have been hugely impressed by the wide range of activities and initiatives run and supported by NZCF. I would love to continue working with this fantastic organisation and the other members of the NZCF Governance Board.

I love music/singing and I have been part of a choir since the early days of primary school. I was lucky enough to be part of a fantastic high school choir with a talented musical director, which further cemented my enjoyment of singing in a choir. Following high school I went on to sing with the North Shore Youth Choir and University Singers. I have recently joined a newly formed women’s chamber choir in Auckland called Luminata Voices which has been a fantastic reintroduction to the choral scene, after having some time away.

In my professional life I am a Director at EY (Ernst& Young) focused on providing advice to clients around mergers, acquisitions and capital restructuring.  I am also a mum to two children (9 and 11), so I am especially thrilled to work with an organisation which brings choral singing into schools and to youth, as I believe choral singing is hugely beneficial in children’s development for so many reasons (not least of which is the joy it brings!).

Peter de Blois

Originally from Dunedin, I have a degree in Voice and diploma in Organ and have held organist/choir director positions at five NZ cathedrals.

In the 1990s I sang in the Ely Cathedral Choir, England, and, upon returning to NZ, was appointed Director of Music at Sacred Heart Cathedral, Wellington. I have been a member and Assistant Conductor of The Tudor Consort and performed with Baroque Voices. A former tenor in the NZ Youth Choir, I served as its Assistant Conductor, and was a member of Voices New Zealand. For 10 years, I was Director of Music at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral and was awarded an honorary diploma for services to church music through my work with adult and children’s choirs. I have directed the Auckland Dorian Choir, Nota Bene, Bach Choir of Wellington, Wellington Youth Choir, and co-founded the Nelson Youth Choir. I have served as chair/committee member of the RSCM Otago/Southland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland branches. I also spent eight years as a Music Examiner for Trinity College London.

In 2012 I re-trained as a teacher and taught in Wellington, Porirua, and the UK. Currently HOD Music at Southland Girls’ High School, I direct Sanguine our Year 9-13 all-comers choir, and co-direct our premier choir, Femme. I intend re-establishing the Invercargill Youth Choir.

I will bring to the board much-needed geographical balance, experience in church music, and a real desire in working with the NZCF to be more all-encompassing and reflect the changing environment of choral music in Aotearoa.

Dr Igelese Ete

Igelese’s formative choral experiences include singing in his church choir from an early age and performing with the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1986-1992.

Following a BMus in Performance and a Master’s in Composition, Igelese was the first Creative Fellow of Pacific Music at Auckland University’s School of Creative and Performing Arts, where he was the coordinator of the Bachelor of Pacific Performing Arts Degree from 2001-2004, then Lecturer & Convener of Pacific Music & Dance.

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, and from 2011-2020 he was Head of Performing Arts at the Oceania Centre for Arts Culture and Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, in Fiji.

With extensive conducting, composition, and teaching experience, Igelese was the NZ Choirmaster for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, working with composer Howard Shore and director Sir Peter Jackson. In 2016 he was contracted as ‘choirmaster’ & music/choral consultant for Disney’s Moana featuring his Pasifika Voices choir from the University of the South Pacific.

Igelese is now Associate Dean, Pacific and an Associate Professor at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington. He has recently completed his PhD in Music.

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

Karen started life in the Wairarapa and went to school in small town NZ. Undergraduate study at Otago University, secondary teacher training in Christchurch, a position as music teacher at Southland Girls’ High School, and postgraduate study at the University of Auckland were all preparation for doctoral study in the USA which followed in the early eighties.

She is currently Associate Professor in Choral Conducting at the University of Auckland. She conducted the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1989 to 2011, founded Voices NZ in 1998 and is currently CANZ’s Artistic Director of three internationally acclaimed national choirs. From 2011 to 2013, Karen was also Artistic Director of Toronto’s Exultate Chamber Choir.

Karen brings a wealth of national and international experience as a performer, adjudicator, and clinician. Her prior memberships of the IFCM Board (2005-2008) and NZCF board as a founder member (2007-2014), coupled with the many university leadership roles she has held, give her the unique combination of choral and governance experience that is relevant to a position on the NZCF board. 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. Her wish to pay it forward in the spirit of the treaty lies at the heart of her desire to contribute to governance in NZCF.

Ka mua, ka muri
(“Walking backwards into the future” – the idea we should look to the past to inform the future)