Support the Waikato-based opera training programme that launches New Zealand singers into international careers.

Te Pae Kokako - The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio (TANZOS) is a unique 18-month immersive programme that prepares up to five exceptionally promising singers for a professional vocal career.

This is the only national opera studio in New Zealand providing an international-level programme.

Dame Malvina Major has said of Te Pae Kōkako TANZOS: “I feel that my life’s work has culminated in this programme right here in New Zealand. I dreamed of this twenty years ago.”

The TANZOS Dame Malvina Major Legacy Fund was established thanks to a founding donation from The Sir William and Ladi Judi Gallagher Foundation, for the purpose of providing TANZOS with resilient support for its operations.  

ABOVE: TANZOS singer Ridge Ponini performing at the Sydney Eisteddfodd Opera Prize.

Housed at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts as part of The University of Waikato, and developed and led since its founding in 2022 by soprano Madeleine Pierard, Te Pae Kōkako TANZOS has enjoyed remarkable success in its mission to vault the nation’s emerging opera singers into international professional careers.

Just one notable example is tenor Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, a 2023 graduate, who joined the Jette Parker Artists Programme at The Royal Opera Covent Garden in London directly from Te Pae Kōkako TANZOS, the first New Zealander to successfully audition there without having first trained outside of New Zealand.

Te Pae Kōkako, means ‘the perch of the Kōkako’, where it gathers in strength before taking flight. The name was gifted by Professor Tom Roa as Te Mata Ahurangi of The University of Waikato, referencing the Ngāti Apakura tale of their tupuna, Pikirangi, who had a pet kōkako he trained to sing a song full of meaning for his iwi.

The TANZOS Dame Malvina Major Legacy Fund will generate investment income as part of Momentum Waikato’s endowment portfolio, which will then be used to make grants to support Te Pae Kōkako TANZOS’ operations.

Donations to the new Fund, via the links on the top right, are therefore the best way for opera fans everywhere to provide growing and ongoing support to New Zealand’s opera singers following in the footsteps of Dame Malvina Major into an international career.