University Of Waikato Student Selected As One Of The 2025 FAME Emerging Practitioner Award Recipients

The Acorn Foundation and the trustees of the FAME Trust are pleased to announce the selection for the 2025 Emerging Practitioner Award recipient at the University of Waikato. Seven promising students are selected each year from top-rated performing arts schools in New Zealand to receive $10,000.

Musician Emma Jones is this year’s recipient from the University of Waikato. Emma is a highly talented singer, specializing in opera performance. Emma was the University of Waikato’s 2024 Creative and Performing Arts Person of the Year in 2024 and has continued her remarkable success and growth as an artist over the last year. Talented in singing in German, Italian, and Spanish, and with a deep knowledge of music history and theory, Emma is set for excellence in the field of opera performance. She was the winner of the DMMF Waikato Aria Competition and has recently been selected as one of five singers for the 2026 TANZOS MMus in Advanced Opera.

Director of Performance in Voice at the University of Waikato, Kristin Darragh said, “Emma has worked diligently throughout her degree and is making huge strides in her vocal progress. This award will help her enormously to continue her development as she moves into The Aotearoa NZ Opera Studio at the University of Waikato.”

On learning of her receipt of the award, Emma said, “I am thrilled to receive the FAME Emerging Practitioner Award, as it opens up many exciting possibilities for my growth in pursuing my dream of becoming an opera singer. This award will enable me to explore new opportunities, expand my training, and deepen my knowledge to support my craft. I am so grateful for the support of this award as it will help shape the next phase of my artistic journey, allowing me to take on new challenges and further enhance my ability to contribute to New Zealand’s vibrant arts community.”

In 2026, the FAME Emerging Practitioner Award will enable Emma to embark on a course of study at the Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio at the University of Waikato where she will study a Masters of Music in Advanced Opera.

About FAME Trust:

Founded in 2007, the FAME (Fund for Acting and Musical Endeavours) Trust has long provided support for young and mid-career artists, plus funded national organisations like the NZSO, Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, and the NZ School of Dance and local groups such as Opus Orchestra, Youth Philharmonic and BOP Symphonia.

Acorn manages several scholarship and awards programmes for the FAME Trust, including seven Emerging Practitioner Awards this year through the team at Creative Bay of Plenty. Outstanding performing arts institutions, including University of Auckland, University of Waikato, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, University of Otago, Toi Whakaari, NZ School of Dance and Ara Institute of Canterbury will each have a $10,000 award to offer to students who have completed at least their first year of study. These talented students will have a focus in the performing arts in one of the following areas of study:

• Music: instrumentalists, operatic singers, composers, producers, conductors, taonga puoro players
• Contemporary Dance: dancers, choreographers, producers, kapa haka leaders
• Theatre: actors, directors, playwrights, storytellers, theatrical technicians

About Acorn Foundation:

The Acorn Foundation, the Western Bay of Plenty’s local community foundation, enables generous people to make a bigger impact in their communities, by investing donated funds and distributing the returns to causes that matter – forever.

Since 2003, the Acorn Foundation has distributed more than $25M to the Western Bay of Plenty community and beyond, supporting more than 300 local charities and award programmes.

In 2025, the Acorn Foundation gave over $5.1M to 308 local and national charitable organisations, scholarships, and award winners. Scholarships and awards surpassed $840,000 in total, including the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, given annually at the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.

Find out more at: www.acornfoundation.org.nz

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