Join the Aotearoa Academy Choir in their final performance of 2025!

In their third and final course this year, the Academy Choir will show off their skills and hard work as NZ’s top choral academy for young singers.

Choral canon works from near and far will transport you across the globe, learning about different cultures and various choral techniques that co-Music Directors Rowan and Elise have been teaching the choir. The MD’s and their commitment to up-skilling our young singers into mighty choristers culminates in this end-of-year performance.

We end the concert with a special nod and farewell to Rowan Johnston, who has successfully applied to be the next Music Director of the New Zealand Youth Choir. Rowan’s skill and knowledge as a choral conductor has bee invaluable to the Academy Choir over the last three years, and we will miss him dearly!

About Co-Music Director Elise Bradley MNZM

A passionate musician, award-winning conductor, and internationally respected educator, adjudicator and clinician, Elise Bradley served for many years as the Head of Department Music at Westlake Girls’ High School in Auckland, New Zealand. She founded and conducted the school’s renowned treble choir, Key Cygnetures from 1991-2007, and directed the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir from 2001-2007, both of which won numerous national and international awards. She was also a soloist and member of New Zealand’s National Chamber Choir, Voices New Zealand from 1998 – 2010. In January 2018, Ms. Bradley was named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM), an honour awarded in recognition of her services to Music.

Find out more here

About Co-Music Director Rowan Johnston

Rowan is a freelance choral conductor and clinician who has recently relocated with his whānau from Auckland to Wellington. He has just finished as Musical Director for the Auckland Youth Choir, Director of Choirs at Holy Trinity Cathedral Auckland and Musical Director of the internationally acclaimed school choir Choralation from Westlake Girls and Boys High Schools. Rowan is also an Associate Conductor for Voices NZ Chamber Choir and a National Choral Mentor for the New Zealand Choral Federation.

Along with being recently appointed to the Aotearoa NZ Academy Choir co-Directorship, he also begins this year conducting the Wellington Youth Choir, Seraphim at Chilton St James School and the Scots College Chamber Choir. He is a regular guest conductor at the Gondwana National Choral School in Australia and is in much demand as a conductor, adjudicator and clinician nationally and internationally. Under his leadership, Choralation was placed 1^st in the Mixed Choir category at the Summa Cum Laude International Music Festival in Vienna, Austria.

As a singer, Rowan is a member of the Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir.