Past Seasons

Shakira Quinn

With a long history in music and performance, Shakira Quinn was singing in choirs from the age of 5. She has had the privilege of singing under Dr Raymond White, Sir David Willcocks (Kings College, Cambridge) and was a member of the New Zealand National Youth Choir with Professor Peter Godfrey from 1985 – 1988.

Shakira Quinn' eclectic tastes took her into a multitude of performance genres, including Opera, voiceover for TV and Radio jingles, singing in Rock and Punk bands (although some might have labelled that screaming) Street Theatre, and a Children’s Entertainer with ‘The Aunties.’  She has a degree in Education, and qualifications in Film and Multi-Media.

Shakira Quinn works as an Alternative Therapist and Empath.  In January 2015, she returned to classical music, joining Auckland Choral as an Alto 2.

Alison Miller

Hi, I’m Alison Miller. I have been singing all my life, as both my parents had good voices, and we followed in their footsteps. I’ve sung in both church and community choirs, but when I was a pupil in the EGGS choir, we sang the third chorus part in St Matthew Passion in the Town Hall with Ray Wilson conducting and I was smitten. Years later when we returned to Auckland, and heard Auckland Choral singing Brubeck’s Light in the Wilderness in 1969, I knew I had to belong to this magnificent choir.. I joined in 1970 as a soprano 1, and have been a member since then, with the first concert being Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, with 6 weeks rehearsal time.
Various committee positions have kept me involved, and I was secretary (in those days - a very basic General Manager) for 7 years, before taking on the Librarian’s position. I was very proud to see our daughter Sandy join Choral while she was still at school, and when I joined the alto line I remember her moral support for me as a new alto. Auckland Choral is my life and the members are my music family, which I am very conscious of every time we perform on stage. Unfortunately I have had to take leave on several occasions because of ill health, but one positive to that is I’ve been in the audience to witness the choir’s great presentations from in front of the stage.

Away from choir and family, I take a team of handbell ringers who meet each week in East Auckland.

Ann Whitehouse

I learnt to sing on my mother's knee and have been singing ever since! In school in Wales I sang in small and large choirs in the eisteddfod. As soon as I left school I joined a choral society and have always been a member of one choir or another. I joined Auckland Choral in 2006 and have been on the management committee for the last 2 years. Choral singing has given me opportunities to make and keep wonderful friends, to travel, to see magnificent buildings, to hear all the major works and many new compositions, and to be part of a fabulous music making machine, always striving to improve. I have sung Handel's Messiah in 4 continents, in 2016 clocked up my 70th Messiah, and I still love it. I am also a semi retired speech language therapist and enjoy spending time with my 5 grandchildren.