haere mai! This is SongFest’25!

SONGFest’25! is a brilliant three-day showcase of the best young singing talent from Ōtepoti Dunedin and all over the South.

Formerly the Green Island Jr Vocal Competition, the Festival has a long and proud history of over 75 years.

Now revamped and rebranded, it will be held at a new convenient inner-city location, the state-of-the-art Castle 1 Lecture Theatre at Otago University.

The Festival’s broad range of song categories & styles is sure to appeal to every young singer:

• CONTEMPORARY

• WAIATA

• POP

• CLASSICAL

• MUSICAL THEATRE

And more!

SONGFest’25! Adjudicators:

We are excited to announce that this year we have TWO outstanding judges, Claire Barton and Arlie McCormick! Both are very well known to the Dunedin singing community. Claire, who began her singing career competing in our festival as a young girl, brings a wealth of international experience especially in the Classical tradition. And Arlie, with a massive background in musical theatre, will judge the Contemporary classes.

We’ll be announcing our Waiata judge very shortly, so watch this space!!

BIOS:

Claire Barton (mezzo-soprano) was born and bred in Dunedin and is a graduate of both the University of Otago and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London). She started taking singing lessons at the age of 11 and a few months later competed in her first singing competition (organised by the Green Island Competitions Society). At the end of the same year she was part of the children’s chorus of Tosca in her first production with Opera Otago. From Otago University she has a MusB (Hons) and later an MMus specialising in performance voice, under the tutelage of Isabel Cunningham. In the last year of her honours degree she was a finalist in the 2007 Lexus Song Quest, runner-up in the Christchurch Aria Contest and the New Zealand Aria Contest, and in the space of just over six weeks, won the ODT Aria, the Nelson Sealord Aria and the Wellington Regional Aria. She was runner-up in the New Zealand aria contest once again in 2010. After completing her study at Otago, she spent a year as an Emerging Artist with New Zealand Opera for 2008-9.

In 2011, she moved to the UK to begin study for a Postgraduate Artist Diploma in Performance Voice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she enjoyed experimenting with different performance styles including Renaissance music, improvisation and post-modern works. Her activities while based in the UK included taking part in a performance of English choral works in the palace of El Escorial in Spain, performing in Paul Bunyan with British Youth Opera, producing and stage managing a season of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and singing in productions with Oxbridge Opera Company and Blackheath Halls Opera.

She returned home to New Zealand in 2014 with her five-month-old daughter, and for the next seven years worked as a singer in opera in Dunedin and further afield in oratorio and concert performances in the South Island, while maintaining a small but busy studio of private singing students. She was convenor of the Junior Vocal Section for the Dunedin Performing Arts Competitions Society for four years and is a former member of the executive of Opera Otago and the national council of NEWZATS. She is also a member of the committee of The Little Box of Operas. She is currently combining performing, teaching and occasional adjudicating with writing a PhD on the lives and careers of women singers and singing teachers in Dunedin in the second half of the 20th century.

Claire sang her first professional role with Opera Otago in 2006 in Salieri’s Falstaff, and has worked regularly with them since. She recently performed the role of Francesca Cuzzoni in their production of An Enchantment of Nightingales, written by John Drummond. She was the winner of an OSTA for Best Supporting Female in a Play or Musical in 2015 (with Musical Theatre Dunedin) and 2022 (with West Otago Theatrical Society), in both cases for the role of Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera. Other roles in Opera and Musical Theatre include: Proserpina in Orfeo; Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance (Opera Otago), Mrs Partlet, The Sorcerer (Oxbridge Opera Company), The Sorceress, Dido and Aeneas and Julia Child, Bon Appetit (The Little Box of Operas). She has appeared as alto soloist in oratorios including Vivaldi’s Gloria, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah.  She recently performed the alto solos in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with soprano Caroline Burchell, under the aegis of The Little Box of Operas.

Arlie McCormick is a highly accomplished vocalist, educator, and theatre professional based in Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand. Holding a Master’s Degree in Vocal Pedagogy from Griffith University, Brisbane, Arlie has been a significant contributor to the New Zealand singing community for nearly nine years. Currently, she serves as a Senior Professional Practice Fellow at the University of Otago, teaching Contemporary and Musical Theatre Voice to Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Performing Arts students.

Her passion also extends beyond academia. As the President of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing (He Wai Kōmako), Arlie travels extensively throughout Aotearoa, conducting workshops and masterclasses, sharing her innovative teaching methods. Arlie’s own performance history is equally impressive, boasting leading roles in numerous productions including Calamity Jane, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, The Boy from Oz, and Next to Normal. She also achieved an OSTA Award for her performance as the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins.

In addition to this, Arlie's theatrical experience encompasses both on-stage and off-stage roles. She has served as Vocal Director for Musical Theatre Dunedin for productions such as Jersey Boys, and has co-founded local theatre company, Pop Up Productions, producing Heathers the Musical and Spring Awakening. Prior to relocating to Dunedin, she was a member of the acclaimed cabaret quartet, Babushka, touring extensively throughout Australia, performing at prestigious festivals including the Wonderland Festival, Brisbane Cabaret Festival, and Adelaide Fringe Festival.

Her recent achievements include a guest spot with the legendary Jackie Clarke in her DIVA show, and the creation of her one-woman show, "What's It All About Arlie?" – An Evening of Burt Bacharach and Friends, at Dunedin's Regent Theatre and in November 2024 Arlie also assumed the roles of both Vocal Director and Soloist for the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra's (DSO) ABBA show and will be a featured Soloist in their upcoming Simply The Best concert in November 2025.

Arlie is excited about adjudicating SONGfest’25! and can’t wait to see the talent in Ōtepoti.