Voices NZ choir wows international reviewers and is announced for NZ Festival 2026

Voices New Zealand, our premier chamber choir, has just returned from a stellar international tour with rave reviews from two of Europe’s top specialist music reviewers. Led by Music Director Karen Grylls, who described last month’s international concerts as “a tour of a lifetime, the stuff dreams are made of”, the 24-member chamber choir sang in some of Europe’s most established venues, steeped in the traditions of choral music: in Stockholm, Sweden, in Hamburg, Germany, twice at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and in London. Yet it was the storytelling and sounds of Aotearoa and the South Pacific that the Europeans found so astounding.

“And then, from the other side of the world, a choir arrives and sets new standards with its otherworldly musicality, its honest joy and its authenticity,” wrote esteemed music reviewer Ralf-Thomas Lindner in Neue Musikzeitung of the Hamburg concert, “Voices fully established itself as probably the best and most captivating choir the audience had ever heard: clear voices with an almost unbelievable volume, bell-like sopranos and altos, precision, dynamic range and agility… and finally, a pronunciation of the German lyrics that a native speaker might only have managed with a significantly less pronounced lilt … Goosebumps pure for the full 60 minutes.”

The Voices NZ tour culminated in London in a concert with the BBC Singers at St Martin’s in the Field, Trafalgar Square, and the world premiere of Aotearoa composer Takerei Komene’s Ranginui. Reviewer Richard Morrison from The Times, London awarded the concert four stars, writing, “Here was music that conveyed real insight into the soul of a distant country that shares so much with us yet is so different … A fascinating meeting of two hemispheres …”

“This was the tour of a lifetime for me, the stuff dreams are made of that became a reality,” says Karen Grylls, “Oddly enough, I felt I belonged artistically internationally, much more so than here in New Zealand. And yet, it was the voice of the New Zealand composers and compositions that spoke so loudly, the result of a thirty-six year journey!”

New Zealand audiences will now have the opportunity to experience the lauded international tour programme in Wellington in Ara Hura – A Visionary Journey at the 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts in March. Karen debuted Voices at the 1998 NZ Festival of the Arts, so it’s apt she ends her tenure with this concert. Karen’s career will be celebrated when she directs Voices NZ for the last time, joined by taonga pūoro artist Horomona Horo and a chamber ensemble from the NZSO. The centrepiece of the evening is Robert Wiremu’s Re-imagined Mozart: Erebus, and the programme also features the new BBC Singers commission, Ranginui by Takerei Komene, and Leonie Holmes’ Der Weg. There’ll also be waiata by Ngāpō and Pimia Wehi, an acknowledgement of Karen’s innovative collaborations that have reshaped New Zealand’s choral landscape and brought the national choir outstanding international accolades.

Voices NZ presents Ara Hura – A Visionary Journey
15 March 2026, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington. Tickets from Ticketmaster.
For more information on Voices: Rachel Healy, Publicist, 027 2706105, rachel@rachelhealy.co.nz

MORE ABOUT VOICES NZ FOUNDING DIRECTOR: DR KAREN GRYLLS

In 2023, Karen was recognised in the King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her exceptional contributions to the world of choral music. Karen says that as music director of both the NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ, her highlights have included NZYC being named “Choir of the World” at the 1999 International Music Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, and just a week later the choir winning the “Grand Prix Slovakia” while on an international tour. “In 2004, we took part in the 43rd International Choral Competition in Gorizia, Italy, and at the 2005 NZ Music Awards our CD, Gaude, was a finalist for Best Classical Album,” Karen says. Voices New Zealand made its début at the 1998 New Zealand International Arts Festival and later that year won awards at the Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain.

Karen says she’s particularly proud of winning a 2006 NZ Music Tui Award for Best Classical Disc for Spirit of the Land, the 2016 one-off, sell-out New Zealand Festival gala recital with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the 2018 concerts with The King's Singers, London, at the New Zealand Festival and the Auckland Arts Festival to celebrate the choirs’ respective anniversaries – 50 years for The Kings Singers and 20 for Voices NZ. In collaboration with taonga puoro artist and composer, Horomona Horo, Voices represented New Zealand at the 2011 World Choral Symposium in Patagonia, and in 2018 toured to the UK, France, Germany and Spain.

“The 90s were watershed years for me, when the relationship with Ngāpō and Pimia Wehi,

legendary kapa haka exponents, and the national choirs began. There were joint performances by the NZ Youth Choir and Te Waka Huia at Holy Trinity Cathedral and at the Sydney Opera House during the 1996 World Choral Symposium,” says Karen, “The relationship with Aroha Cassidy-Nanai that followed was one of the most remarkable times for the choir as we were gifted Wehi compositions to perform. The more than 30-year relationship continues today with a new Youth Choir commission from Ngāpō and Pimia’s granddaughter, Tuirina Wehi.”

“Karen’s contribution to our national choirs has been remarkable, and thousands of singers have benefited from her expertise and generosity,” says CANZ Chief Executive, Arne Herrmann, “Her ability to take a sound, a choir, to the next level is second-to-none, and the array of awards her choirs have received is testament to this. Karen’s influence has shaped CANZ into an organisation of excellence with a hunger for quality and musical exploration.”

Karen says she is excited to continue her relationship with Choirs Aotearoa NZ as Artistic Director Emerita; sharing her expertise and experience with the organisation and its people. She’s looking forward to having more time to devote to mentoring and teaching and is passionate about her work with the New Zealand Children’s Choral Academy, of which she is co-artistic director. Karen is also Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, working with young conductors.

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