Wellington based soprano Michaela Cadwgan completed her BMus(Hons) in 2020 with First Class Honours under the tutelage of Dr. Margaret Medlyn, Wade Kernot, Dr. Jenny Wollerman and Bruce Greenfield, alongside completing a BA in German and Italian at Victoria University of Wellington.

She is an alumna of the New Zealand Opera School which she attended in January 2020. In 2019 she performed the title role of Suor Angelica in the NZSM Puccini double bill and in recent years, has collaborated as soloist with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO at Te Papa 2020), Wellington Orchestra (Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the New Zealand premiere of Schumann’s Scenes from Faust), Kapiti Concert Orchestra, and is a member of both the New Zealand Opera Chorus and Wellington Opera Chorus. 

Michaela has won the Wellington Regional Aria Competition (2021), and in November of 2022 Michaela was awarded runner-up at The Lockwood New Zealand Aria final. 

Cassandra Doyle is a mezzo-soprano in her final year of a Bachelor of Music (Performance) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, studying voice with Maree Ryan AM. A graduate of the Conservatorium High School, Cassandra has been a recipient of the Patricia Bell Grant, Patricia Long Scholarship and George Henderson Travelling Scholarship, Istituto Italiano di Cultura Award (IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition, 2022) and awarded 2nd Prize in the Sydney International Song Prize (JSRB Foundation, 2022).

Her performed roles include Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck), Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Ino in Semele, Irene in Theodora (Handel) and Madame Frida in Max and Moritz (Draguns). Her concert soloist repertoire includes Requiem Op. 48 (Fauré), Rückert-Lieder (Mahler), Messiah (Handel), Requiem in D minor (Mozart), Ascension Oratorio BWV 11 (J.S. Bach), Magnificat RV. 611 (Vivaldi), Messe di Minuit (Charpentier), Petit Messe Solenelle (Rossini), Stabat Mater (Pergolesi), Requiem Op.9 (Duruflé), Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae(Duranté) and Nelson Mass (Haydn).

Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono is a twenty-five-year-old Samoan tenor from Flaxmere, Hastings.

Emmanuel was part of a youth initiative called “Project Prima Volta” in high school. After learning through PPV, he continued singing at the University of Waikato. He is currently completing his Masters’ at the University of Waikato under the new programme called Te Pae Kōkako – The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio.

Emmanuel attended the New Zealand Opera School in Whanganui in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, where he was awarded the DMMF Award and the Guy and Susie Haddleton Scholarship. Emmanuel won the Lockwood New Zealand Aria Competition and made the Lexus Song Quest Finals winning the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship for Potential. Earlier this year, he won the inaugural Tarling Aria Competition in Auckland.

Emmanuel played the role of Malcolm in New Zealand Opera’s production of Macbeth and also the role of Tupaia in Tim Finn’s Ihitai ‘Avei’a – The Star Navigator.

Ellena is currently studying a Master of Music Studies (Opera Performance) with Dr. Rowena Cowley. In 2023, she will make her role debut as Ottone in  L’incoronazione di Poppea. She has performed the roles of Secrecy, Mopsa and Summer in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. She was an alto scholar at St Stephen’s Uniting Church. Her solo performances include Leonard Bernstein’s song cycle I Hate Music with the Orange Youth Orchestra and an excerpt from Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo in the Spanish Music Festival Encuentros Espanoles 2022. She has been excited to returned home to Orange to perform as the alto soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia with the Orange Symphony Orchestra and Handel’s Messiah with Allegri Singers and Orange Regional Conservatorium. She has also performed as an alto soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Sydney Conservatorium Big Choir and Handel’s Messiah with Radio Community Chest in Sydney’s Town Hall.