The New Zealand Youth Choir will put on a trans-Tasman serenade when the Australian Gondwana Chorale joins them for a concert at the TSB Showplace on July 9.

It’s part of a developing relationship between two choirs whose members are drawn from the best young voices in their respective countries.

The New Zealand Youth Choir will put on a trans-Tasman serenade when the Australian Gondwana Chorale joins them for a concert at the TSB Showplace on July 9.

It’s part of a developing relationship between two choirs whose members are drawn from the best young voices in their respective countries.

Last year the NZYC’s international tour included a joint concert with the Gondwana Chorale in Brisbane. This concert gives the NZYC the chance to return the favour for 25 singers from the Australian choir, accompanied by their Principal Guest Conductor, Paul Holley.

The choirs will meet up at Vertical Horizons Camp in Inglewood for a few days of intensive rehearsal before performing.

Audiences for the concert will see a new face on the podium. As part of a bid to develop new talent on the choral scene, the NZYC is trialling two guest conductors during its concerts this year. Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand’s Artistic Director Karen Grylls, who has conducted the Youth Choir since 1989, is leading the search to find a new Music Director.

New Plymouth audiences will see American-born conductor Ravil Atlas lead the choir in a programme of works by Palestrina, Brahms, Schumann, Stanford and Ritchie.

Atlas draws on wide experience ranging from participation in the famous San Francisco chorus Chanticleer, his work with world-renowned choral director Paul Hilliard, over seventy leading tenor roles ranging from Lloyd-Webber to Verdi, and a stint in the chorus of the famed opera house at La Scala, Milan 

It is three years since the NZYC last performed in New Plymouth.