Elise Bradley, MNZM

Musical Director

A passionate musician, award-winning conductor, and internationally respected educator, adjudicator and clinician, Elise Bradley was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2018, an honour awarded in recognition of her services to Music.

Elise repatriated home to New Zealand at the end of 2021, after nearly 15 years as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus. During her tenure, the Chorus recorded professionally, commissioned Canadian compositions, collaborated with numerous international and national artists, and represented Toronto on nine international and four national tours.

In addition to her work as Artistic Director of the Toronto Children’s Chorus, Ms. Bradley received many invitations to conduct, adjudicate choirs, and present at conferences around the globe, recently travelling to Turkey to present at the World Choral Symposium in April 2023, and to adjudicate and take clinics in Malaysia in 2023 and in Hong Kong in 2024.

Since her return to New Zealand, Elise has co-founded the company “Choral DirectioNZ”, and the New Zealand Children’s Choral Academy where she conducts the Senior Choir. She is also the Music Director of the Hamilton Civic Choir, Nota Bella Junior Choir at Westlake Girls’ High School, Leonessa Choir at Takapuna Grammar School, the Ficino Primary Choirs, and she co-directs the Choirs Aotearoa Academy Choir with Rowan Johnston.

Francis Cowan

Collaborative Pianist

Francis Cowan studied piano with Ruby Campbell and then Judith Clark at Victoria University. Following completion of his degree in Piano Performance, he trained at Wellington Teachers College where he continued to major in music.

Francis was appointed Director of Music at St Mark’s Church School in 1989.

In 1994, Francis moved to Hamilton inspired by the respected tradition of music at Southwell School. At Southwell, he trained the Boys’ Choir to international standards and devoted himself to achieving the highest possible level in all aspects of the annual Opera. This included designing and painting the sets and overseeing the artistic direction.

In 2009, Francis was appointed Director of Music at St Paul’s Collegiate School expanding his teaching experience into senior Cambridge and NCEA classes.

Following two years splitting time between St Paul’s Collegiate as Director of Vocal Performance and Norah Howell Fellow Piano Accompanist for the University of Waikato, Francis was appointed as full time Head of Collaborative Piano at the University in 2015. He has enjoyed a busy schedule of coaching and accompaniment for voice and instrumental students. He re-joined the team of pianists for the New Zealand Opera School in 2021, and re-joined Hamilton Civic Choir as collaborative pianist in 2025.

Karen Grylls, CNZM

Guest Conductor

Dr Karen Grylls ONZM (1999), CNZM (2023) is an Honorary Associate Professor in Choral Conducting at the University of Auckland. She conducted the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1989 to 2011, founded Voices NZ in 1998 and Artistic Director of three internationally acclaimed national choirs: these two and the NZ Secondary Student’s choir till 2024. From 2011 to 2013, Karen was also Artistic Director of Toronto’s Exultate Chamber Choir.

Her performances with the Youth Choir and Voices NZ have won international competitions and awards: 1992 with NZYC, The Silver Rose Bowl in the BBC Let the Peoples Sing competition, NZYC Choir of the World, Llangollen (1999), 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. Her work with the national choirs in New Zealand has been acknowledged with her appointment as Artistic Director Emerita to Choirs Aotearoa NZ in 2025.At the University of Auckland, Karen established a postgraduate pathway in Conducting at the Masters and Doctoral level. Students from the university are regularly accepted into overseas courses of study and have successfully taken on high-level conducting positions specifically with the national choirs in New Zealand. Many prize-winning conductors from The Big Sing, the national secondary schools choral competition, have studied with her.  Karen received an Auckland University Distinguished Teaching Award in Music (1996), and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 1999, and Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2023, for her services to choral music. She is also the recipient of two national citations for services to New Zealand music.

Karen is much in demand as an adjudicator for competitions and festivals worldwide, most recently in  Bali and Taipei, the 48th International competition in Tolosa, and the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, Bavaria. She is sought after internationally as a choral clinician and regularly conducts international masterclasses and workshops. In August 2019 Karen was a plenary speaker at the Oxford Conducting Institute at the Sydney Conservatorium Conference and in 2022, Karen was a  jury member for the International Tokyo Choir Competition.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic online lecture appearances have included Toronto, Los Angeles, Boston and Montreal. Online lecture appearances also included the Sydney International Series (Gondwana)  In 2025 Karen presented lectures online to Temple University Philadelphia and Nuorten Kuoroliitto Helsinki  and in July, she the International Jury in Bali, and present at the ECA International Singing week at Ghent. 

Soomin Kim

Organ

Soomin Kim is a pianist and organist based in Auckland. She frequently works with singers and in particular enjoyed performing in New Zealand Opera’s recent productions of Mansfield Park. Other recent highlights include Die tote Stadt and Dame Cath Tizard State Memorial with the Auckland Philharmonia, and working on NZO’s Red! as the répétiteur. 

Born in Korea, she began learning the piano at the age of six and continued after moving to New Zealand at age 15. She obtained LTCL Piano Recital under the tutelage of Denise Hull in Tauranga, then went on to study at the University of Auckland under Stephen De Pledge. During her studies she was selected as a Haydn Staples Piano Scholar, which involved concerti and chamber music performances with Auckland Phil and coaching from internationally renowned pianists.

Anna Christensen

Harp

Anna Christensen is a graduate of Victoria University, Wellington, and the University of Wales, Cardiff. In 2021 she returned to NZ after more than thirty years working all over the UK as a professional harpist and teacher. She has played with most of the leading orchestras, and accompanied them on international tours to China, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, Romania, and Greece.  Anna has appeared many times at the Royal Albert Hall Proms, as well as playing for West End shows, touring musicals, and for opera and ballet companies.

Her varied career includes outdoor concerts -often in competition with the worst of British weather, midnight performance in a disused telephone exchange, outdoors in a football stadium for the Millennium New Year’s celebrations, on TV for ‘Songs of Praise’, or with the BBC Philharmonic for the Sportsperson of the Year awards, and for numerous weddings in adventurous locations. 

 Damon Herlihy-O’Brien

Cello

Damon Herlihy-O’Brien began playing the cello shortly before his fourth birthday, studying first through the Suzuki Method with Sally-Anne and Anna-Marie Alloway before continuing under baroque specialist James Bush. He now studies with pedagogue James Tennant at the University of Auckland, where he is completing a conjoint Bachelor of Music in Performance Cello and Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

A sought-after soloist and ensemble musician, Damon is Principal Cellist of the Auckland Youth Orchestra, the University of Auckland Symphony Orchestra, and the St Matthew-in-the-City Chamber Orchestra. He performs on a fine Carboni cello generously loaned through the Sir Michael Hill Foundation Instrument Bank.

Damon is preparing for postgraduate conservatory study in Europe in 2026. Alongside his classical work, he performs as a drummer with the heavy-metal band Cyanide Altar and works as a Cello teacher and in disability support. His long-term goal is to unite performance and psychology in a career centred on musicians’ wellbeing and artistic excellence.

Bill Stoneham

Trumpet

Bill Stoneham graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2001. He has played with many professional ensembles within New Zealand, spending a significant time performing with the Band of the Royal New Zealand Navy and the Auckland Philharmonia. Bill has performed as a chamber soloist throughout New Zealand, with concerts as far north as Warkworth and the Auckland town hall, to the Marama Hall recital series in Dunedin. For the past several years Bill has been focusing on music education in Hamilton and the Waikato region and is currently a Performance Fellow at the Conservatorium of Music at Waikato University.

Maria Colvin

Assistant Musical Director

Maria Colvin is a choral and orchestral conductor, flautist, singer, and is the Director of Music at Waikato Diocesan School for Girls. Maria conducts the award winning Dio choir Bel Suono, and formed the Hamilton Festival Choir and Treble Choir for Arts Festival performances with Hamilton City Brass – Jenkin’s “The Armed Man” in 2023  and Tin’s “To Shiver the Sky” with soloists Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono and Elaine Wogan in 2024. Maria has sung in the London Philharmonic Choir, Graduate Choir, Repertoire Choir, Tauranga Civic Choir, Hamilton Civic Choir, and plays in the Hamilton Pops Orchestra, Trust Waikato Symphony, Civic Players and for numerous school and community musical theatre productions.

Hamilton Civic Choir

Sopranos

Amanda Wood
Angela Taverner
Bianca Verdonk*
Charlotte Macklow
Chris Gale
Corinne Law-Schuitemaker
Helen Forlong*
Holly Hampson-Tindale
Jenny Lewy
Jo Arthur
Karen Johnson
Kate Lethbridge
Lis Wilson*
Maria Colvin*
Meryl Nicol
Ocean Daniel
Poppy Lethbridge
Stef Gibson-Muir
Stephanie Heeley
Susan Woodhouse

Altos

Charlotte Falloon*
Diana Scruby
Elizabeth Ordelheide
Esther Termaat
Julie Poot
Laura Duntsch
Lisette Ingram
Liz Carpenter
Liz Phillips*
Mary Raleigh
Stephanie Grinter
Tammy Wong
Tara Jeory
Theresa Guzzo*
Tiffany Sayer
Tracey Hockey

Tenors

Christoph Maubach
Damian Tomic*
Hans van den Dolder*
Iele Ieremia*
John Heritage
Keith Spooner

Basses

Brandon Fletcher-McLaughlin
Chris Glassey
Conall O’Toole
Greg Morton
Harry Neil
Harry Tamblyn
Humphrey Pullon
Isaac Albery*
Jamie Spooner*
Stephen Adams
Tony Antoniadis

*Member not singing in the current concert