About us
TOBY GEE is a UK-born counter-tenor, who moved to Wellington in 2013. After a choral scholarship at Queens’ College, Cambridge, Toby sang as a lay clerk in Southwark Cathedral in London. He has sung with many choirs, specialising in Renaissance and Baroque music, with whom he has performed at latitudes ranging from Norway to New Zealand and recorded various CDs. Choirs include the Cambridge Taverner Choir for some 15 years, and A Cappella Portuguesa in Oxford.
Solos include Handel Messiah, Giulio Cesare, Solomon, Didymus in Theodora, David in Saul; the Bad Angel in the first productions of Cuthman’s Journey by Geoffrey Hanson; the alto solos in Bach’s B Minor Mass, St John Passion, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, Vivaldi Stabat Mater, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, some 50 Bach cantatas; and songs by Dowland and others.
He has extensive experience of 20th century and contemporary music, including works by Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Andrew Smith, Antonia Barnett-McIntosh. He was a solo singer and conductor in the first performances of Julian Allwood’s Charades at the Battersea Arts Centre Opera Festival in London.
Open-air impromptu performance locations include the South Patagonian Ice Cap, the highest summit of the Pyrenees, and diverse parts of the European Alps and Himalayas.
RICHARD TAYLOR is a familiar figure in the Wellington choral music scene, and has sung with some of New Zealand's finest ensembles, such as The Tudor Consort and Baroque Voices (with whom he toured through Chamber Music NZ in 2008), as well as both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Cathedral Choirs. He has performed regularly as a soloist, particularly in music of Bach [Magnificat, 'Ein Feste Burg', Mass in B Minor, Christmas Oratorio]. From 2010 to late 2012, Richard lived in England, taking up a Lay Clerk position at Durham Cathedral with Director of Music James Lancelot. There he sang eight services a week, along with concerts, recordings, and tours to Holland, France and Scotland. He was also a regular member of Musica Deo Sacra - a week-long festival of church music at Tewkesbury Abbey - where he sang with members of prestigious groups such as The Sixteen and The Hilliard Ensemble.
JULIAN CHU-TAN began his musical tuition as a chorister at Christchurch Cathedral and later moved to Wellington to study Performance Voice at the New Zealand School of Music, Te Koki. Whilst studying under Richard Greager and James Clayton, he also became a Choral Scholar at Sacred Heart Cathedral, directed by Michael Fletcher. Here he featured regularly as a soloist. He joined Aurora IV in 2017, and continues to sing in various other choirs in Wellington while furthering his legal studies.
SIMON CHRISTIE was a member of De Nieuwe Opera Academie in the Netherlands from 2001-2003 where he performed the roles of Figaro, Papageno and Le fauteil from L’enfant et les sortilèges. He also sang the role of Masetto with Opera Marzimino in Utrecht, and frequently toured the Netherlands in operas by Offenbach and Suppe for Opera Trionfo. He also sang in productions with the De Nederlandse Opera including Götterdämmerung, Norma, L’amour des Trois Orange, Peter Grimes and Samson.In Oratorio, Simon sang throughout Europe as a bass soloist including at the Montedon Festival in France, the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy and the Ljubliana Festival in Slovenia and in Denmark. He also sang Oratorio regularly throughout the Netherlands including Handels Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, Bach’s St Matthew and St John passions, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and a large number of Bach cantatas where he performed regularly with the Noordelijke Bach Consort and the Amsterdam Bach consort.
Recital highlights include singing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, recitals in Stuttgart for the KunstKeller Festival and Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with the randstedelijke begeleidings orkest in Goes. A particular career highlight was performing Des Knaben Wunderhorn for the ex-French President, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, at his residence in the Loire Valley, France.
Since returning to New Zealand in 2010, Simon sings actively as an Oratorio soloist with Choirs. Highlights include the bass soloist in Brahms Requiem with the Tudor Consort, Jesus in the Schutz St Matthew Passion with the Tudor Consort, Jesus in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Bach Choir, Mendelssohns Elijah with Kapiti Chorale, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle with Nota Bene and Dvoraks Stabat Mater with the Kapiti Chorale ands Palmerston North Renaissance singers
Simon has also sung with Days Bay Opera performing Don Alfonso from Mozarts Cosi fan Tutte, Il Commendatore from Strauss Der Rosenkavalier and Sylvano from Cavalli’s La Calisto.
Solos include Handel Messiah, Giulio Cesare, Solomon, Didymus in Theodora, David in Saul; the Bad Angel in the first productions of Cuthman’s Journey by Geoffrey Hanson; the alto solos in Bach’s B Minor Mass, St John Passion, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, Vivaldi Stabat Mater, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, some 50 Bach cantatas; and songs by Dowland and others.
He has extensive experience of 20th century and contemporary music, including works by Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, Andrew Smith, Antonia Barnett-McIntosh. He was a solo singer and conductor in the first performances of Julian Allwood’s Charades at the Battersea Arts Centre Opera Festival in London.
Open-air impromptu performance locations include the South Patagonian Ice Cap, the highest summit of the Pyrenees, and diverse parts of the European Alps and Himalayas.
RICHARD TAYLOR is a familiar figure in the Wellington choral music scene, and has sung with some of New Zealand's finest ensembles, such as The Tudor Consort and Baroque Voices (with whom he toured through Chamber Music NZ in 2008), as well as both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Cathedral Choirs. He has performed regularly as a soloist, particularly in music of Bach [Magnificat, 'Ein Feste Burg', Mass in B Minor, Christmas Oratorio]. From 2010 to late 2012, Richard lived in England, taking up a Lay Clerk position at Durham Cathedral with Director of Music James Lancelot. There he sang eight services a week, along with concerts, recordings, and tours to Holland, France and Scotland. He was also a regular member of Musica Deo Sacra - a week-long festival of church music at Tewkesbury Abbey - where he sang with members of prestigious groups such as The Sixteen and The Hilliard Ensemble.
JULIAN CHU-TAN began his musical tuition as a chorister at Christchurch Cathedral and later moved to Wellington to study Performance Voice at the New Zealand School of Music, Te Koki. Whilst studying under Richard Greager and James Clayton, he also became a Choral Scholar at Sacred Heart Cathedral, directed by Michael Fletcher. Here he featured regularly as a soloist. He joined Aurora IV in 2017, and continues to sing in various other choirs in Wellington while furthering his legal studies.
SIMON CHRISTIE was a member of De Nieuwe Opera Academie in the Netherlands from 2001-2003 where he performed the roles of Figaro, Papageno and Le fauteil from L’enfant et les sortilèges. He also sang the role of Masetto with Opera Marzimino in Utrecht, and frequently toured the Netherlands in operas by Offenbach and Suppe for Opera Trionfo. He also sang in productions with the De Nederlandse Opera including Götterdämmerung, Norma, L’amour des Trois Orange, Peter Grimes and Samson.In Oratorio, Simon sang throughout Europe as a bass soloist including at the Montedon Festival in France, the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy and the Ljubliana Festival in Slovenia and in Denmark. He also sang Oratorio regularly throughout the Netherlands including Handels Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, Bach’s St Matthew and St John passions, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and a large number of Bach cantatas where he performed regularly with the Noordelijke Bach Consort and the Amsterdam Bach consort.
Recital highlights include singing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, recitals in Stuttgart for the KunstKeller Festival and Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with the randstedelijke begeleidings orkest in Goes. A particular career highlight was performing Des Knaben Wunderhorn for the ex-French President, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, at his residence in the Loire Valley, France.
Since returning to New Zealand in 2010, Simon sings actively as an Oratorio soloist with Choirs. Highlights include the bass soloist in Brahms Requiem with the Tudor Consort, Jesus in the Schutz St Matthew Passion with the Tudor Consort, Jesus in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Bach Choir, Mendelssohns Elijah with Kapiti Chorale, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle with Nota Bene and Dvoraks Stabat Mater with the Kapiti Chorale ands Palmerston North Renaissance singers
Simon has also sung with Days Bay Opera performing Don Alfonso from Mozarts Cosi fan Tutte, Il Commendatore from Strauss Der Rosenkavalier and Sylvano from Cavalli’s La Calisto.