The Lexus Song Quest (formerly known as the Mobil Song Quest) is a biennial opera singing competition, held in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

since 1956. The competition is managed and presented by Tāwhiri, which also runs the

New Zealand Festival of the Arts Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts is a multi-arts biennial festival based in Wellington New Zealand that started in 1986. Previous names are the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, New Zealand International Arts Festival, New ...

. Winners include the sopranos

Dame Malvina Major Dame Malvina Lorraine Major (born 28 January 1943) is a New Zealand opera soprano. Early life and family Major was born in Hamilton on 28 January 1943, the daughter of Vincent and Eva Major. She grew up in a large musical family, and as a chil ...

and

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". On 1 December ...

, both of whom were trained by

Dame Sister Mary Leo Dame Sister Mary Leo Niccol (3 April 18955 May 1989) was a New Zealand religious sister who is best known for training some of the world's finest sopranos, including Mina Foley, Dames Malvina Major, Kiri Te Kanawa, Mona Ross and Heather Begg. ...

. Other winners include Phillip Rhodes,

Jonathan Lemalu Jonathan Fa'afetai Lemalu (born 1976) is a New Zealand bass baritone opera singer. Born to Samoan parents who had emigrated to New Zealand, he was educated in Dunedin. His first singing teacher was Honor McKellar, who began teaching him while h ...

and

Sol3 Mio SOL3 MIO (stylised as SOLΞ MIO) is a New Zealand musical trio consisting of Moses Mackay, Pene Pati and Amitai Pati. Of Samoan descent and classically trained, Moses is a baritone, and the Pati brothers are operatic tenors. Albums and tour ...

's Amitai Pati.

History

First held in 1956, the Mobil Song Quest began as a radio contest. 1324 entries were made, with contestants recording a song at their local

BCNZ The New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) was a publicly owned company of the New Zealand Government founded in 1962. The Broadcasting Act 1976 then reformed NZBC as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand (BCNZ). The corporation was ...

radio station. The recorded works were then broadcaster in shows over 19 weeks. Originally the quest featured contestants who performed songs in a variety of styles, such as

country and western A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, or d ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

and classical. Only more recently has the contest been primarily for opera singers, with the influence of Auckland opera singing teacher

and the success of her students helping to shape the contest into a more prestigious singing competition. From its beginning, the Song Quest was sponsored and run by Mobil Oil New Zealand. However, in 2004 the oil company passed the competition on to the New Zealand Festival of the Arts Trust. Mobil withdrew as the naming-rights sponsor, with

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota, Toyota Motor Corporation. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked amon ...

stepping in to that role.

Past winners

References

External links

* {{Authority Control Music of New Zealand Lexus Recurring events established in 1956 Opera competitions Early career awards