40th ANNIVERSARY
CONCERT SERIES

Up next on THE VV calendar:

A VV Mixtape

15 June 2025 at 5pm
Kāhui St David’s, 70 Khyber Pass Road

Every now and then, Viva Voce does a pop concert. And they leave their mark. Long-time fans will have poignant memories of fist pumps and tears, as VV Pops (1995), VV Unplugged (2003), VV Rocks (2014) and VV Jazz (2016) painted the emotional canvas of their lives.

Now comes our latest masterpiece: a metaphorical mixtape that gathers together a varied but captivating collection of popular hits from the past six decades. ‘Varied’ is no exaggeration; there are numbers by (chronologically) the Beatles, Beach Boys, Fourmyula, Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens, Doobie Brothers, Sting, Cyndi Lauper, Guns N’ Roses, Mutton Birds, Spice Girls, Coldplay, Pharrell Williams, Lorde and Bruno Mars. Nor is ‘captivating’ a stretch; all songs are in sparkling and inventive arrangements for skilled choir.

You are warmly invited to the join us for this second event of the choir’s 40th Anniversary celebrations, as we roll out our latest mixtape in the warm atmosphere and acoustics of Kāhui St David’s.

listen

Founded in 1985, VIVA VOCE is an auditioned chamber choir that specialises in the innovative programming and attractive presentation of a huge variety of music, striving always for both excellence and entertainment. The choir has now given over 400 concerts throughout New Zealand and in 2018 was invited to sing in the China International Chorus Festival in Beijing. Viva Voce is often broadcast on Radio New Zealand and is regularly engaged for choral-orchestral collaborations, while its own semi-staged productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Carissimi’s Jephte, Handel’s Solomon and Messiah and Talbot’s Path of Miracles have received critical acclaim.

JOHN ROSSER is the choir’s founder and Musical Director. He was also New Zealand Opera Chorus Master for 23 years and is Immediate Past Chair of the New Zealand Choral Federation, of which he was made a life member in 2018. National Director of both The Big Sing and Sing Aotearoa, John led the NZCF Anthems Project for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. He was Artistic Director of the World Symposium on Choral Music 2020 and will head up New Zealand’s hosting of the 2024 World Choir Games in Auckland.