2025 Whakatipu Music Festival
Our Kiwi vocalists return home: Austin Haynes and Felicity Tomkins
In the lead up to our 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival we will be introducing you to each of our selected young and emerging artists who will take the stage alongside five internationally renowned classical musicians this Easter.
About Austin:
Austin Haynes is a countertenor, poet, translator and researcher originally from Kā Muriwai/Arrowtown. He grew up between there and Narrm/Melbourne. In 2019 he moved to Oxford to study a BA and a Masters in Medieval and Renaissance Literature where he appeared as a soloist with groups including Instruments of Time and Truth, Oxford Bach Soloists, New Chamber Opera and the Selene Consort.
Austin was the 2022 winner of the Herald Sun Aria competition in Melbourne and also won the 2022 City of Kingston Aria prize. In 2024, he came third in the Lexus Song Quest and was a finalist in the NZ Aria, where he won the first prizes for Māori Song and Oratorio. Austin’s music studies have been supported by the Isla Baring Prize from the Tait Trust and the Tait White Loewenthal Memorial Prize. He has performed in masterclasses with artists such as Joyce DiDonato, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Emma Kirkby, James Conlon, and Laurence Cummings.
Austin made his professional debut in 2023 as Liang Shanbo in Richard Mills’ The Butterfly Lovers in Singapore. Other recent roles have included Aeneas in Pepusch’s Death of Dido, and the Spirit in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. In Australia, he has performed as a soloist with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and the Evergreen Ensemble, and at home in Aotearoa he has soloed with groups including Auckland Opera Studio, Opera in the Pā, and Waiata in the Woolshed.
Austin is now studying a PhD on the history of the translation of songs and literature between English and te reo Māori. This work is supported by a Wellington Doctoral Scholarship. He is also a poet and translator, winning the 2023 takahē journal’sMonica Taylor Poetry Prize. Currently, he is working on a project to translate all 154 of Shakespeare’s sonnets into te reo Māori.
See Austin perform at Opening Night, Next Gen 2, Urbane, Musical Smorgasbord and Rejoice!
About Felicity:
New Zealand soprano Felicity Tomkins completed her Artist Diploma (Opera) at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in the US in 2023, under the tutelage of tenor Stuart Skelton. She is currently based between Australasia and overseas in the UK/Europe.
Felicity was named the winner of the centenary 2024 Herald Sun Aria Competition with Melbourne Opera in 2024. She was also awarded first prize at another prestigious Australasia competition, the 2024 Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship, and was named winner of the 2023 Lockwood NZ Aria, and awarded third prize in the 2023 JSRB Bel Canto Award. She made her Wigmore Hall debut as a finalist in the Elizabeth Connell Prize in 2023 and was an Opera Studio Artist at the AIMS Graz programme in Austria, where she was awarded the Audience Prize in their Meistersinger Competition.
Her recent performance highlights include; Auckland Opera Studio/Manukau Symphony Orchestra (Cio-Cio-San Madama Butterfly), Cincinnati Opera (Military Wife/Soprano 1 The Knock), CCM Opera (Madame Lidoine Dialogues des Carmélites, Jeannette L’amant Anonyme, Mahler Symphony No. 4), NZ Opera (Countess Almaviva-cover Le nozze di Figaro), Festival Opera NZ (Nedda-cover Pagliacci).
Felicity is an alumna of the University of Waikato (MMus/BMus(Hons)/BSc), the NZ Opera School, and the SGCNZ YSC Globe Theatre London company (2014). She has been a Circle100 Scholar, Dame Malvina Major Foundation Arts Excellence Scholar, Kiwi Music and Kia Ora Foundation Patricia Pratt Scholar, and an International Opera Awards Foundation Scholar. Whakatipu Festival audiences are promised a musical treat from her appearances.
See Felicity perform at Opening Night, Next Gen 2, Musical Smorgasbord and Rejoice!
Introducing Next Gen 2:
Felicity and Austin will both perform at Next Gen 2!
To view the rest of our programme and find tickets for our other concerts, visit the Whakatipu Music Festival programme page.
Austin is looking forward to debuting new repertoire, including a new Scarlatti Aria. “I’m so excited to return to the Whakatipu and reunite with old friends, with some wonderful music making,” he says.
Felicity finds the opportunity to collaborate with so many artists is wonderful. “It’s fantastic to build new artistic partnerships with musical discoveries that hopefully lead beyond the festival, across Aotearoa or further.”
The concert opens with performances that demonstrate the accomplishments of pupils of Queenstown-based piano teacher Kinga Krupa. It’s then your chance to hear outstanding clarinettist Marlon Sullivan showcase the versatility of the clarinet before he leaves for the prestigious music school Kunstuniveritat in Austria. Demanding virtuosity from both clarinet and piano, this sonata is will delight and engage you with its Straussian influences and sparkling interplay between the instruments.
The “Wanderer Fantasy” is among the most often played yet technically and musically highly challenging of Schubert’s works. It’s testament to the skill of pianist Willian Sun that this performance will draw out all the dramatic contrasts, jaunty airs and gentle melodies with which Schubert imbued this solo piano work.
The second half of the programme, with renowned New Zealand choral composer David Hamilton’s Shine out, fair sun, also takes us back to the Baroque era with works from Scarlatti, Monteverdi and finally Bach’s stately and at times exuberant Brandenburg Concerto No 3 composed for the then-unusual combination of three violins, three violas, three cellos and basso continuo. Performed by members of the Central Otago Community Orchestra and Festival artists, these performances perfectly reflect the Festival’s ethos of weaving together community musicians alongside New Zealand’s leading artists and international luminaries.
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Felicity Tomkins, Soprano
Austin Haynes, Countertenor
Julian Smiles, Cello
Marlon Sullivan, Clarinet
William Sun and Stephen De Pledge, Piano
Euan Safey, Reuben Brown and Esther Oh, Conductor
Young Artist Choir
Piano Students of Kinga Krupa
Member of the Central Otago Community Orchestra
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Egon Kornauth (1891 – 1959): Clarinet Sonata in F Minor Op 5
I Leidenschaftlich bewegt (Allegro con brio)
II Gemütliches Tanzzeitmaß (Molto commodo) – Trio
III Ruhig Gehend (Andante espressivo)
VI Entschlossen (Allegro energico, alla marcia)
Schubert (1797 -1828): Fantasie in C Major, Op 159, (Wanderer Fantasy)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725): Dormi, o fulmine di Guerra
Monteverdi (1597 – 1643): Pur ti miro
Morley (1557 – 1602): April is in my mistress’ face
Arcadelt (1507-1568): Il bianco e dolce cigno
David Hamilton (b. 1955): Shine out, fair sun
Bach (1685-1750): Brandenburg Concerto No 3 in G Major, BWV 1048
1. Allegro moderato
2. Adagio
3. Allegro
Buy tickets for NEXT GEN TWO
