Joan Kennaway receives a standing ovation as she arrives with husband Rick and great-grandchildren Poppy and Violet Wilde at Opera in the Garden in 2017. It was held in the ASB Stadium due to rain. PHOTO / JOHN STONE
Joan Kennaway receives a standing ovation as she arrives with husband Rick and great-grandchildren Poppy and Violet Wilde at Opera in the Garden in 2017. It was held in the ASB Stadium due to rain. PHOTO / JOHN STONE
When it came to putting on a fabulous musical show few did it better than the late, loved Joan Kennaway (QSM). Because of Joan, Northland has a strong opera scene, has produced many an award winning musical theatre and turned out more than its share of acclaimed singers and vocal teachers.
It's also because of Joan and her husband Rick that the annual Opera in the Garden has been held at their Glenbervie home for 22 years, starring the talents of her students, friends and music colleagues, including Opera North and its junior group called Joan's Tweeters.
She died in February this year.
Next weekend her loved ones (Team Kennaway) and colleagues will stage another show in Whangārei to ensure her life's work goes on.
Aptly, the event is called Because of Joan, and will culminate in the launch of the Joan Kennaway Scholarship fund. The fund will be administered through Opera North to assist young singers reach potential and advance their careers.
Along with the Opera North Chorus, a compelling array of talent coming together to celebrate her extraordinary life and achievements includes Helen Medlyn and pianist Penny Dodd, Hayden Tee, Kawiti Waetford, Sophie Sparrow, Luke Bird and Emma Couper. Also on the list of stars are Maia Amosa, Joel Amosa, Shaan Kloe and John McDonald. The concert is at Capitaine Bougainville Theatre, Forum North Whangarei, on June 16, tickets available at Ticketec.
Hayden is mooooo-ving ahead, thanks to Joan The first word Hayden Tee uttered on stage was 'mooooo'.
Hayden Tee is often performing in Australia.
That was as a teenager when he made his stage debut in Otamatea Repertory's Showboat in the cameo role Rubberface.
Joan Kennaway was the person who first recognised Tee's voice when she was his singing teacher at that theatre. Next week, he will be the headline performer at Because of Joan. Tee is now an international musical theatre star who has played Javert, a lead role in Les Miserables on tours, on Broadway in New York and the West End in London.
Other overseas performances include Cinderella's prince/wolf in Into the Woods, King Arthur in Camelot, Freddy Einsford Hill in My Fair Lady, Captain Hook/Mr Darling in Peter Pan and Jack in the musical version of The Importance of Being Earnest, Being Earnest.
Javert took his name to the top, and there are few roles in musical theatre as hard-assed as the scary and steadfast police officer in Les Mis — which shows Tee's performance range to a tee.
He is equally happy camping it up, like in the dual roles of Lana and Lea in the new Sydney production of Australian musical Only Heaven Knows.
"Lana is incredibly effeminate and quite grand," Tee has said. "He's unashamedly homosexual, especially for the 40s and 50s, and very funny. He deals with things with humour and avoids realness.
"I don't think I've ever played a character that's quite so close to home which is, at times, a little terrifying.
"It's very much a story that I relate to, about a young person coming to Sydney." Back in his teens, after appearing in several Otamatea Repertory productions, Tee joined the Northland Youth Theatre in Whangārei. At 16 he moved from Maungaturoto to Auckland and two years later began studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.
He has performed many times in Australia and lived there off and on, which naturally means the Aussies try to claim him. But next week, he will be home.
Jill of all Trades is revved up to return Helen Medlyn — opera singer, musical theatre performer, comic and cabaret chanteuse and Harley Davidson rider.
Opera in the Garden guest performer Helen Medlyn back in the early 2000s.
She's a self-described Jill of all Trades, having been a jazz chanteuse, dancer, actress, musical theatre performer, narrator, classical concert singer, voice-over artist, opera diva and cabaret entertainer. Sometimes, she quips, all in the same performance.
When she's not headlining operas and musicals, the soprano diva works part-time at Harley Davidson's Auckland parts department.
Medlyn often rides her Dyna Fat Bob to gigs, and has twice ridden solo round the South Island. Riding the shiny fat black bike gives her the kind of rush she experiences on stage, she says.
Medlyn was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit in the 2013 Queen's Birthday honours for her services to the performing arts.
48 Hours: How do you feel about the scholarship dream?
Medlyn: I can't think of a better way to honour Joan and to keep her generosity of spirit alive and well. Throughout her life, she was so passionate about creating performance opportunities and offering financial help for her students to grow as artists — whether it was through Opera North or through Opera in the Garden. Always, her focus was on their future and trying to make their journey ahead a little less daunting, because, as she knew, being a performer for a living is not for the faint-hearted. I think a scholarship fund is a great dream for those closest to Joan to hold on to and make come true ... to keep Joan's dream alive and to help talented young Northland singers to be brave and dare to dream big.
48 Hours: How do you feel about coming to Whangārei again?
Medlyn: I am so looking forward to it and so is Penny Dodd, my longtime pianist and musical collaborator, who will be playing for me. Penny and I have often toured to Northland with various performance companies, so she and I are loving the chance to come back to Whangārei, not only to participate in such a great concert that pays tribute to such a great lady, but to revel being in the winterless north and to call in on a few of our fave Whangārei cafes.
48 Hours: What are your thoughts about Joan and Opera North?
Medlyn: I think what Joan and Rick have achieved thus far with and from Opera North is nothing short of a little miracle.
Along with the amazing Lachie McLean and all the many other incredible musical and theatrical people who threw — and continue to throw — themselves into Opera North, the Kennaways brought a beating heart to opera in the region. To get a venture like that off the ground and to ensure its continuation takes guts and determination. Joan — with outstandingly supportive people beside her and behind her matching her tireless investment of time and talent of hope and hard work — created a real and reachable place for performers, young and not-so-young, to blossom and burst with song.
This is Joan's legacy Kawiti Waetford, protege of both Kennaway and Dame Kiri te Kanawa, is thrilled to perform to help seed a scholarship set up in his first singing teacher's name and memory.
Kawiti Waetford attended by Alisa Dodds (middle) and Emma Couper in Opera in the Garden last year. PHOTO/JOHN STONE
"I hope the unconditional love, support and vocal pedagogy that Joan shared wholeheartedly with her students will be epitomised by the scholarship, and in how it is used," he said.
"Joan was the beating heart of classical music in this community, creating a culture of love, passion and joy in singing and in our Opera North whānau."
Waetford said, for him, that was what the scholarship was all about.
"This is her legacy, left to us all.
"Thanks to anyone supporting this wonderful event and sharing with the wider community Joan Kennaway and the beautiful woman, teacher and singer she was."
Waetford learned more than singing from Kennaway. They were both gracious and eloquent by nature, and had values in common they expressed through music — the love of family, helping others, setting goals, the responsibility of leadership.
In 2012, Waetford was a finalist in the Lexus Song Quest and awarded the inaugural Masterclass Scholarship. He also received the inaugural Dame Kiri Te Kanawa scholarship as the singer judged to have "outstanding potential for an international career".
He gained a bachelor of music with honours at the University of Otago, followed by a master's degree at the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff.
In 2014 Waetford was awarded the Ngarimu VC and 28th Maori Battalion Masters' scholarship.
In 2015, he and Dame Kiri sang together from a ship at Anzac Cove for the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign before they made an emotional pilgrimage to the killing fields of World War I Somme for a TV documentary.
Waetford has performed at the Ngai Tahu Reo Maori Awards, the Christchurch Earthquake Memorial Service and was Master of Ceremonies for the Mana Pounamu Awards for Young Maori High Achievers. He is a past winner of the Rawhiti Ihaka Manaaki section of Nga Manu Korero.
Next week, at Because of Joan, despite his achievements and awards, Waetford will likely be remembering being a small boy taking his first singing lesson with a woman who changed his life.
