The Music Team

Terence Maskell | Conductor and Artistic Director

Terence Maskell has directed The Graduate Choir NZ since its inception in 2001. He gained early choral and musical training from Emeritus Professor Peter Godfrey and Anthony Jennings at the University of Auckland and Holy Trinity Cathedral. In 2001 he won a Woolf Fisher Fellowship Award for excellence in choral pedagogy, enabling him to visit noted choral institutions and conductors in North America and Europe. In 2005 he delivered a keynote address at the ABCD convention in Guildford, UK – where The Graduate Choir NZ was the featured guest choir.

In 2014 Terence Maskell received a Local Heroes Medal (Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year) for his contribution to music training and direction – particularly among young singers. He continues to develop choral programmes in several Auckland schools, establishing firm national and international reputations for fine choral singing. His award-winning choirs have recorded for television, radio and CD, and he has been guest conductor, accompanist (piano and organ), soloist, adjudicator, choral arranger and clinician throughout New Zealand.

Chris Artley | Composer and Accompanist

Chris is a composer, music educator, accompanist, jazz pianist and member of The Graduate Choir NZ, where he is also the repetiteur pianist. He has won first prize in twenty international composing competitions with over 70 choral works published by Helbling Verlag (Austria), PanaMusica (Japan), Royal School of Church Music (England) and SOUNZ (New Zealand).

The Graduate Choir NZ has performed many of these works, most notable among which was the Missa Brevis for choir and orchestra, which received a standing ovation at its première (2018). His works have been performed by ensembles worldwide, including the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Amadeus Choir of Toronto, Metropolitan Chorus of Tokyo, Voices New Zealand and the New Zealand Youth Choir.