A conductor, trombonist and violinist, Owen Clarke has a wealth of experience in professional, amateur and youth music. Hailing from New Zealand he moved to Australia in 2015 after a sixteen-year career as the Director of Music for the Royal New Zealand Air Force and Navy bands. Since settling in Queensland, Owen has been in demand as an adjudicator, conductor, clinician and teacher. He has taught at schools as diverse as Brisbane Girls Grammar School, the Aboriginal Academy in Coen, Cape York, and his current role as Director of Performing Arts at All Saints Anglican School on the Gold Coast. Owen is in demand as an adjudicator and he undertakes workshops and adjudicates at music festivals throughout New Zealand and in Australia including the KBB Festival, Eisteddfods and workshops, and the NZCT Chamber Music Contest.

Owen has a varied career: He has recorded and produced five CDs with the Royal New Zealand Air Force and Navy Bands, formed a Military Band in East Timor, travelled six times to Gallipoli to perform on ANZAC Day and has been an announcer on the classical music radio station 4MBS in Brisbane. He has conducted orchestras and bands ranging from the Auckland Philharmonia and Christchurch Symphony, the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Orchestra, the Queensland Youth Band and the Gold Coast Philharmonic. He is also resident conductor of the Rockhampton Symphony Orchestra.

David Squire has been Music Director of the renowned New Zealand Youth Choir since 2011 and is the first alumnus director of the choir. He also directs international award-winning ensembles Voicemale (Westlake Boys High School), Euphony (Kristin School), the Westlake Symphony Orchestra, and the Auckland Youth Choir. Current vice-chair of the New Zealand Association of Choral Directors, he is also a national conducting advisor and tutor, and served as a governance board member of the New Zealand Choral Federation for nine years. He is in demand around the world as a clinician, educator, guest conductor and adjudicator, and is the choral director for the International Schools Choral Music Society based in China.

Dr Lara Hall is the violinist of the New Zealand Chamber Soloists and has toured three continents with the group. She has also given master classes at leading institutions including the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin, Interlochen Arts Academy in the US, Australian National Academy of Music and top Asian conservatories: Yong Siew Toh in Singapore and Shanghai.

Lara’s education included violin study in Dorothy Delay’s Studio, the Negri Violin School, and doctoral study at the University of Michigan with Paul Kantor. She was also the first person to graduate from the University of Auckland in Baroque Violin.

At the age of 25, Lara took on the roles of Concertmaster of Opus Orchestra and Lecturer in Violin and Viola at The University of Waikato, and has taught students at pre-university through to doctoral level. She has also led a range of other orchestras including the Auckland Sinfonietta, Auckland Chamber Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Lara’s discography (on the Atoll and Naxos labels) represents her as a chamber musician, concerto soloist, solo violinist and baroque violinist.

Nick Tipping was born and raised in Wellington in a household full of classical music. Not only were his parents both classical musicians, but his grandfather Peter Godfrey was a well-known choral conductor. Nick grew up singing in choirs and playing in orchestras, and he is a former Barbershop national champion. Nick went on to turn his passion for music into a career – he played bass professionally across Aotearoa with everyone from the Rodger Fox Big Band to the NZSO and has performed on stages the length and breadth of NZ as a jazz musician. Nick played bass on the first five seasons of TV show Dancing with the Stars and he lived, studied and worked in Las Vegas for two years. He currently plays with composer Ross Harris’s klezmer band The Kugels. Nick has a PhD in Musicology, looking at the NZ jazz scene and his band The Jac won Best Jazz Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards in 2021.