Friday 1 August, 2025:
Serenade to Music - Toi Toi Opera’s 6th Birthday Soirée
Join us & our remarkable patron Patrick Power ONZM as we celebrate Toi Toi Opera’s wonderful first six years. An exquisite evening of opera brought to you by our incredibly talented all-local cast of opera singers, répétiteurs, & creatives.
Featuring highlights from seasons past, a sneak peek of seasons yet to come, & a rare performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ shimmering ‘Serenade to Music’, this sumptuous evening of musical delights is not to be missed!
Cake & jazz by ‘After Five’ will follow in the Atrium, with cash bar available.
All proceeds of the evening to support our forthcoming opera seasons.
Date, Time, & Venue: Friday 1 August, 7.30pm. The Philip Carter Family Concert Hall, The Piano: Centre for Music and the Arts, 156 Armagh Street, Christchurch The opening of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ ‘Serenade to Music’, recorded live during our final rehearsal on 31.07.2025.
Conductor Mark Hodgkinson, répétiteur Jeremy Woodside, with singers (L to R) Emma Gilkison, Katherine Doig, Erin Connelly-Whyte, Margot Button, David Moseley, Nigel Withington, Will Lynch, Alex Robinson, William O’Brien, Oscar Kersey, John Bayne, Thomas Woodfield, Karyn Taylor-Moore, Nicole Davey, and Emily-Jane Stockman. Video © Toi Toi Opera 2025 Programme
Please Consider Making a Donation
Toi Toi Opera is a charitable trust, run by three volunteer directors donating their services free of charge, and striving towards providing fair pay for all of the artists involved in our casts, musical and creative teams, and technical crews.
Your donations are critical to helping us to enable more Cantabrians to experience the thrill of live opera. Our donee organisation status with Inland Revenue means that individuals may be able to claim a 33.33% tax credit for donations over $5.
Thank you for being here, and for helping to nurture your local operatic artists!
Gallery
All of the photographs in the gallery below were taken on 1 August 2025 during Toi Toi Opera's Serenade to Music at The Piano.
Photographs © Gary Easterbrook for Toi Toi Opera 2025
Katherine Doig (centre) and ladies perform highlights from 'Suor Angelica'
Margot Button sings the Agnus Dei from Vaughan Williams' 'Dona Nobis Pacem'
Jeremy Woodside
Jamie Hart, David Moseley and Alex Robinson perform highlights from John Davies' 'Goldie B. Locks & The Three Singing Bears'
Alison Holden
Emma Summers, Thomas Woodfield, and Elizabeth Ellison perform highlights from John Davies' 'The Billy Goats Gruff'
The men perform the Priests' Chorus from 'The Magic Flute'
Patrick Power sings 'Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön' from 'The Magic Flute' accompanied by Jeremy Woodside
Patrick Power
Will Lynch, Karyn Taylor-Moore, Nigel Salsbury, and Elizabeth Ellison perform the Opening Chorus of Philip Norman's 'A Christmas Carol'
Warwick Shillito and Jamie Hart perform the Charity Collector from Philip Norman's 'A Christmas Carol'
Nicole Davey, Oscar Kersey, Warwick Shillito, Emily-Jane Stockman, and Jamie Hart perform the Ghosts' Warning from Philip Norman's 'A Christmas Carol'
Nicole Davey and Will Lynch lead the company in Sondheim's 'Sunday'
Nicole Davey and company
Jeremy Woodside and Erin Connelly-Whyte perform 'Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß' (F. Lehár)
Erin Connelly-Whyte
Alison Holden and William O'Brien perform 'Wie schön ist doch die Musik' (R. Strauss)
Jeremy Woodside and Emma Gilkison perform extracts from Barber's 'Knoxville: Summer of 1915'
Matthew Oswin, Nigel Withington, Alex Robinson, and Emma Gilkison perform the Opening Trio from Bernstein's 'Trouble in Tahiti'
John Bayne performs 'There's a Law' from Bernstein's 'Trouble in Tahiti'
Elizabeth Ellison performs 'There is a Garden' from Bernstein's 'Trouble in Tahiti' accompanied by Matthew Oswin
Elizabeth Ellison
The company performs 'Serenade to Music' by Ralph Vaughan Williams, conducted by Mark Hodgkinson and accompanied by Jeremy Woodside
'Serenade to Music' by Ralph Vaughan Williams
'Serenade to Music' by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Curtain Call
After Five performing a fabulous jazz set to top-off the evening (featuring Emma Summers on vocals, Glyn MacDonald on piano, and Dave Pitt on upright bass)
After Five performing a fabulous jazz set to top-off the evening (featuring Emma Summers on vocals, Glyn MacDonald on piano, and Dave Pitt on upright bass)
After Five performing a fabulous jazz set to top-off the evening (featuring Emma Summers on vocals, Glyn MacDonald on piano, and Dave Pitt on upright bass)
Toi Toi Opera co-founders, directors, board members, and patron, with one of our littlest stars, cutting one of the spectacular birthday cakes made for us by the wonderful Fiona Taylor. (Julian Anderson our fellow board member was sadly unable to attend and perform due to illness).
Saturday 2 August, 2025:
An Afternoon Masterclass with Patrick Power, ONZM
Toi Toi Opera’s Patron - Patrick Power, ONZM
Photographs © Wei Li Jiang for Toi Toi Opera
Toi Toi Opera presents an afternoon opera masterclass with Patrick Power ONZM, tenor. We are absolutely thrilled to welcome our patron, Patrick, back to Ōtautahi Christchurch as part of Toi Toi Opera's 6th birthday celebrations, which includes this very special opportunity for a public masterclass.
Five early-career opera singers from Waitaha Canterbury will have the opportunity to perform on the stage of The Philip Carter Family Concert Hall, accompanied by the immensely talented répétiteur Jeremy Woodside, and to receive feedback from one of Aotearoa's most successful opera singers and most insightful voice teachers.
We are delighted to announce that the young singers working with Patrick are sopranos Elizabeth Ellison, Emily-Jane Stockman, and Erin Connelly-Whyte, tenor David Moseley, and bass William O'Brien.
We welcome voice students, teachers, and opera lovers alike to come and observe this very special afternoon.
A donation/koha to help cover the cost of this free event is appreciated.
Date, Time, & Venue: Saturday 2 August, 2pm. The Philip Carter Family Concert Hall, The Piano: Centre for Music and the Arts, 156 Armagh Street, Christchurch.Programme
We are deeply grateful to Patrick and Jeremy for contributing their time, and also to The Piano's Emerging Artist Fund for subsidising our venue cost, to allow these singers to learn under concert conditions.
Pictured here following a wonderful masterclass on 2 August, L-R: Patrick Power (Patron), Jeremy Woodside (Répétiteur), David Moseley, Emily-Jane Stockman, Erin Connelly-Whyte, Elizabeth Ellison, William O’Brien, and Margot Button (Artistic Director).
Photograph © Katherine Doig for Toi Toi Opera 2025