Talented pair to perform at St Andrew’s
Range of classics on offer for audience
Taupō musical talent Fergus Byett returns to play at the St Andrew’s Midday Concert on April 12, joined by musical colleague and vocalist Isabella Reid.
The pair have impressive musical credentials; both were winners in the postgraduate and undergraduate Bach Competitions respectively at the University of Waikato in 2023, leading to their pairing up for a combined concert in Auckland and Taupō .
Reid’s specialities are classical, choral music and musical theatre. At the age of 12, she was accepted into the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir, where she sang for six years.
Last year, she started a new journey in the New Zealand Youth Choir and will be continuing her third year of university doing a Bachelor of Music in Classical Performance as a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar.
Reid also uses her musical talents in the community. She is a member of the Waikato Youth Choir and sings regularly in rest homes and churches.
She is a choir assistant at Tron Songsters, a children’s choir in Hamilton and teaches piano and voice.
In the last year, Reid has received the Most Promising Under 21 Singer accolade at the New Zealand Aria, placed third in the NZ Aria under 21 award and received the Mona Ross Award for adjudicator’s choice of the best singer under 21 in the senior vocal, amongst other awards at the Hamilton Competitions.
She performs regularly and has held two sold-out concerts at the Dr John Gallagher Concert Chamber.
Byett moved from Taupō to Hamilton in 2019 to study Classical Performance (Piano) at the University of Waikato Conservatorium of Music.
He gained first-class honours under the tutelage of Katherine Austin, and in 2023 he completed his Masters under Dr Rae de Lisle.
In 2023, he won the Concerto Competition, Bach Competition and Chamber Music Competition at the University of Waikato, as well as both
Concerto and Recital classes at the Hamilton Competitions.
Byett’s choral and instrumental compositions have won national competitions, including the Compose Aotearoa! Competition and the OCT Composition Competition.
He is currently a 2024 Young Composer
in Residence with the Auckland Youth Choir and a founding Artistic Director of the Waikato Youth Choir.
Byett plays the organ for the St Peter’s Cathedral Singers in Hamilton, and he also sings with the St Peter’s Cathedral Choir.
The pair will perform a combination of musical items at the April 12 concert, including Debussy’s Estampes and L’aˆme e´vapore´e, from Deux Romances; Silent Moon by Ralph Vaughan Williams; the familiar Ave Maria by Gomez; Fre´de´ric Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp Major and Die Mainacht