Dr Karen Grylls CNZM founded Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir in 1998 and the choir has achieved great acclaim internationally in performance and recording. She is Associate Professor in Choral Conducting at the University of Auckland and is Artistic Director of the Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust, the managing body for the NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ.  Dr Grylls was Conductor and Artistic Director of the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1989 to 2011, and Artistic Director of Toronto’s Exultate Chamber Choir from 2011 to 2013.

A graduate of both Otago and Auckland Universities, Karen studied post-graduate Conducting and Music Theory at the University of Washington, Seattle, for four years. In 1985 she returned to NZ to teach at the University of Auckland and take up the directorship of the Auckland Dorian Choir.

As a result of her musical directorship, the New Zealand Youth Choir has enjoyed notable international successes including: the Silver Rosebowl in the “Let the Peoples Sing” radio competition in 1992, “Choir of the World” at the 1999 International Eisteddfod in Llangollen and the “Grand Prix Slovakia” also in 1999.

With equal success Voices New Zealand won first and second placings in the mixed choir section of the Tolosa International Choral Competition in October 1998. With these choirs, she has won further prizes and accolades in Gorizia 2004, and Llangollen and Cantonigros, Spain in 2007.

In 1996 Auckland University honoured her with a Distinguished Teaching Award in Music and in 2023 she became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for her services to choral music. She is also the recipient of the KBB Citation from the Composers’ Association of New Zealand and the Lilburn Trust Citation for services to New Zealand music. TOWER Voices CD  Spirit of the Land took the 2006 Tui Award for  Best Classical Album, and the CD Voice of the Soul was a finalist in the 2013 Vodafone NZ Music awards.

Karen is much in demand as an adjudicator for competitions worldwide, including the 48th International competition in Tolosa, the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, Bavaria, and The World Choir Games in Xiamen, China. She is sought internationally as a choral clinician and regularly conducts masterclasses and workshops in Wales, England, North America, Canada and Australia.

Acclaimed international pianist, Bernadette Harvey, was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2000 by then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, for her contribution to Australian Music. Bernadette has won many accolades since her first medal in a Sydney Eisteddfod at the age of two and a half, including the ABC ‘Young Performer of the Year’ in 1987.

As guest artist since 2009 at the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival in Tucson, Arizona, she has worked with such artists as the Tokyo Quartet, the Dover Quartet, the Miró Quartet, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Ani Kavafian, Joseph Lin, Axel Strauss, Antonio Lysy, Paul Coletti, Alan Vogel and David Schifrin. She presented the world premiere of Pierre Jalbert’s Piano Quintet with the Jupiter Quartet, which she subsequently recorded in 2019 for the Canadian label Marquis. She also appeared with the Tokyo Quartet and the Shanghai Quartet in the premiere of Carl Vine’s Piano Quintet, Fantasia in 2013. She and the Shanghai Quartet later presented the Australian premiere of the Bright Sheng Piano Quintet, Dance Capriccio. She now joins her husband, Peter Rejto, as Co-Artistic director of the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival.

Ms Harvey is renowned for championing new solo piano works, many of which are recorded on the Tall Poppies label. She has established an ongoing commissioning project – “the Sonata Project”- the aims of which are to challenge composers to reflect on their attitudes towards this traditional art form and to compose a substantial new work within its generous boundaries. The first three sonatas were composed by three young Australian women – Jane Stanley, Aristea Melos and Melody Eötvos. A subsequent sonata, ‘Ode’ by Peggy Polias – a reflection on the apocalyptic nature of war, was premiered at her performance/collaboration with the British artist Cornelia Parker’s (CBE RA) installation ‘War Room’ at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in January 2020 for the Sydney Festival.

Bernadette’s playing has been described by one reviewer as: “Gifted with a rare physical control of the instrument and intellectual and interpretative qualities to match…dispatched with a Horowitz-like virtuosity…blisteringly virtuosic…It drew me to the edge of my seat.” (Neville Cohn, West Australian).

Bernadette has performed extensively for Musica Viva Australia. She has toured nationally with cellist Jian Wang and the Goldner Quartet and many others. Her 2022 tour with Harry Bennetts and Miles Mullin-Chivers received high critical praise and featured the world premiere of a stunning new piano trio by Australian composer, Donald Hollier. Bernadette has recorded most of the solo piano music of Ross Edwards, one of Australia’s most well-known and loved composers, who wrote his first piano sonata for her and a shorter two movement work, Sea Star Fantasy. She will be performing his Piano Concerto in September 2024 with the North Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Bernadette has recently joined the Streeton Trio with Emma Jardine, violin and Rachel Siu, cello and the group has already received high praise for its performances in several chamber music festivals in NSW.

Dr. Harvey has a DMA from Eastman and is Senior Lecturer in piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Julian has occupied many of the most prestigious positions in the Australian classical music scene. He was for several years principal cellist with the ACO and has performed frequently as guest principal cello with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

In 1991 he was invited to join the Australia Ensemble, the University of New South Wales’ acclaimed resident chamber music ensemble, and in 1995 formed the highly successful Goldner String Quartet with ensemble colleagues Dene Olding, Irina Morozova and Dimity Hall.

These two groups continue to be regarded as representing the pinnacle of chamber music in the country, and the Goldner Quartet in particular has established an international reputation with rave reviews of their recordings and performances in the UK. Julian is also frequently heard as a soloist and has performed concertos with the Melbourne and Canberra Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and several community orchestras in Sydney.

He has also performed as a soloist at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and the Huntington Estate Music Festival, and premiered solo works by Australian composers such as Mark Isaacs, Carl Vine and Ross Edwards.

As a well-respected teacher, Julian draws on his many years of experience as a performer at the highest level, as well as his studies with Nelson Cooke, one of the most significant teachers in Australia, and with Janos Starker at Indiana University.

Ioana Cristina Goicea is one of the outstanding violinists of her generation. She won First Prize at the 2017 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, with critics praising her passionate performance and describing her as “a new star in the musical firmament.” In 2018 she won First Prize at the German Music Competition in Bonn and was a laureate of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. In 2019 she became a prize winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. She is also the winner of the J. Brahms International Competition (2013) and laureate of the ”Fritz Kreisler” International Violin Competition Vienna (2014).

Ms. Goicea has performed as a soloist at renowned venues in Europe, Asia, America, New Zealand and Australia, among them the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, St Martin-in-the-Fields London, the Melbourne Recital Centre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Bozar Brussels, Meistersingerhalle Nürnberg, the Shanghai Concert Hall, the Athenaeum Bucharest, Townhall Auckland.

In addition to her career as a soloist, the young violinist is also an avid chamber musician.

Ioana Cristina Goicea was born into a family of musicians in Bucharest in 1992. She studied with Mariana Sirbu, Petru Munteanu and Krzysztof Wegrzyn at the Universities of Music Leipzig, Rostock and Hannover.

She plays a J.B. Vuillaume violin, on loan from a generous private donour as well as a modern violin by Jürgen Manthey (Leipizig, 2021).

Ioana Cristina lives in Vienna and holds a Professorship at the University of Music and Performing Arts since 2020.

New Zealand pianist Stephen De Pledge won the Gold Medal at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and subsequently spent two years as a Junior Fellow at the Royal College of Music. He then continued his studies in Paris with Yvonne Loriod.

After winning the NFMS Young Concert Artist Award he made his debuts in the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and St John’s Smith Square in London, and broadcast for BBC Radio 3 and BBC2 television.  His concerto performances have included appearances with the Philharmonia, Bournemouth Symphony, New London, BBC Scottish Symphony and all the major New Zealand orchestras.  His solo performances in recent seasons have taken him to Cologne, Paris and New York, as well as throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Stephen has given recitals with many musicians, including Dame Felicity Lott, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Viktoria Mullova, Raphael Wallfisch, Alan Hacker and Rivka Golani, and given chamber performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, Chamber Domaine and the Scottish Ensemble.  His extensive discography includes works by Bliss, Barber, Messiaen, Shostakovich, Brahms, Mussorgsky and Prokofiev.  He takes a particular interest in contemporary music and has worked with a great number of composers, making world premiere recordings for Arvo Pärt, Henryk Gorecki and Ned Rorem.

In addition to his performing schedule Stephen De Pledge is Head of Piano at the School of Music, University of Auckland.