Concert III - November 23/24, Tauranga & Waihi

G. F. Handel - Messiah, HWV 56 (1741)

The Scholars’ highly anticipated annual collaboration with our friends at NZBarok is a highlight of the festive season. Messiah is a musical drama based on Biblical texts describing the fortelling, coming, crucifixion, resurrection, and ultimate victory of Jesus. Handel’s setting spans quiet intimacy, cosmic drama, human hatred, profound grief, and transformative celebration, peaking in the mighty Hallelujah chorus and the transcendent final Amen fugue.

With both the Scholars and NZ Barok being specialists in music of the baroque period, we bring Handel’s much-loved work to life in authentic ways. Each year’s performance is always fresh, with new things for both audiences and musicians alike to find each time we encounter Handel’s incredible timeless masterpiece. Building on the enormous success of previous years’ performances and featuring an amazing lineup of international soloists, our 2024 Messiah promises to be yet another dazzling concert experience.

Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy this remarkable performance in 2024, as in 2025, the Scholars look to mix things up a bit and pause our Messiah tradition to instead explore Bach’s mighty Christmas Oratorio. Watch this festive space!!!!

SOLOISTS

Gina Sanders - SOPRANO

BMus(Auck), FTCL(voice), BA, BMus Hons(Qld), ATCL(piano), AIRMT(NZ)

Gina is an accomplished artist on the operatic stage and concert platform, having studied, performed, taught, recorded and adjudicated in Europe, UK, Asia, Australasia and the USA. She continues to tour nationally and internationally having completed 17 international tours in the past 22 years to the UK, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Reently returned from her Summer European Concert Tour, she has accepted invitations to perform in a Winter series in Germany, including the celebrated Neujahrskonzert in Stuttgart. She has performed over 65 operatic and oratorio roles, and has appeared as a soloist with every major choral society, orchestra and opera company in NZ in addition to being a RNZ Concert studio artist. She has taken leading roles in world premières Germany, Italy, Singapore and Australasia and in addition to her own four CDs, she has featured in many other recordings. Gina is a Teaching Fellow at Waikato University in Voice and Languages and examines for the New Zealand Music Examination Board and at various universities. She has a great love of sharing her knowledge and abilites with others and has developed numerous pedagogical courses and events in several languages.

Charlotte McDonald - Alto

Charlotte McDonald hails from Waiuku, and is currently studying towards her Graduate Certificate at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Australia, under the tutelage of Lisa Gasteen AO.  She is an alumna of the University of Waikato where she completed her BMus(Hons), under the tutelage of Gina Sanders, and alongside her tertiary studies also obtained her Trinity College London LTCL Singing Diploma (Distinction). Charlotte’s recent performances include; New Zealand Opera (Fanny Price - cover Mansfield Park, Chorus Le comte Ory), Bach Musica (Requiem Schumann), Edgecumbe Choir (Seven Last Words Haydn), Waikato University Opera (Zita Gianni Schicchi). She has competed in various competitions around New Zealand, winning several awards including nominations to the PACANZ Nationals. Charlotte enjoys participating in a wide variety of community events, and is a Trustee and Treasurer of the Clevedon Valley Music Foundation Trust. Charlotte is very excited to be performing back home, in her first Messiah with Scholars Baroque Aotearoa.

IAIN TETLEY - Tenor

Iain developed his passion for singing in England, gaining his music degree at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Since coming to New Zealand, he has performed solo many times with Auckland's leading choirs, and was a member of the specialist chamber choir Musica Sacra for fifteen years.

Career highlights include singing in an octet for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; as the Evangelist in Bach's St Matthew Passion with City Choir Dunedin, Bach Musica and Auckland Choral; as the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion with City Choir Dunedin; and as the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with Auckland Choral. He has also sung solo in excerpts of Handel’s Solomon alongside world-renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl.

Iain’s degree specialised in Conducting, and he has directed several choirs, including South Auckland Choral, the Franklin Community Choir, Cantorum and Cantando (Hamilton). Amongst many concerts as conductor, he has combined three choirs, full orchestra and eight soloists in Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, conducted Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and concerts of opera choruses and 1930s swing music.

In 2018 Iain moved to Whanganui, where he has conducted Schola Sacra Choir since 2019, and the Whanganui Collegiate School Chapel Choir since 2021. On stage, he performed as the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera last year, and as Mr Bumble in Oliver! last month, with Amdram Whanganui.

Jonathan Eyers - Bass

Jonathan is a baritone from the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, and has trained at the National Opera Studio (NOS) and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and the University of Waikato.

Operatic experience includes Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Nevill Holt Festival), Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia (Charles Court Opera),  Fiorello Il barbiere di Siviglia, Perückenmacher and Harlekin (cover) Ariadne auf Naxos (Garsington Opera), Ernie (cover) It’s a Wonderful Life (English National Opera), Pilgrim Curlew RIver (Aldeburgh Festival), Don Lopes L’isola d’Alcina and Bonafede Il mondo della luna (Bampton Classical Opera), Owen Hart Dead Man Walking, Ben The Telephone, Tancredi Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Simon in Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune, Der Zar in Weill’s Der Zar lässt sich photographieren, Pierrot in Smyth’s Fête Galante (Guildhall School of Music and Drama), Crook Candide (London Symphony Orchestra/Barbican), Schaunard La boheme (Berlin Italian Opera), and Billy in Ross Harris’ Brass Poppies (NZ Opera).

Jonathan was awarded Third Prize at the 2024 Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition. He is an Oxford Song Young Artist, a City Music Foundation Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, and a founding member of Whānau Voices. He has performed at the Oxford International Song, London Song, Aldeburgh, Glasperlenspiel, and Edinburgh International Festivals. Passionate about contemporary music, Jonathan has recently premiered new song works by Emily Hazrati, Nathan Williamson, and Luka Venter, and recently recordedThe Cloud, a new work for baritone and string quartet by Daniel Davis, at Wigmore Hall.

SINGERS WANTED

Tauranga’s Premiere Chamber Choir are auditioning singers 

The Scholars Baroque Aotearoa are a chamber choir dedicated to informed performances of period music (often baroque) with an emphasis on stylistic excellence and superior choral sound. 

The Scholars have availability for TENORS and BASSES to join them for 2023.  

The choir seeks singers with previous choral experience.  Although not a requirement, the ability to read music at sight is an asset.  

The choir also offers several scholarships for all voices of $1,000 on an annual basis which are available to high school, polytechnic or university students. Scholarship recipients are expected to be pursuing some form of study in music (e.g. private tuition, secondary/tertiary study; voice or other instrument/s). This is a golden opportunity for good musicians who have fine voices, the commitment to be part of a close-knit team, and a desire to develop first class sight-reading skills.

For more information about the Scholars Baroque Aotearoa, please go to our Scholarships page.

To make further inquiries, arrange an audition, or for more information about choral scholarships, please contact the Artistic & Musical Director at scholars@scholarsbaroque.com