Recent St Paul’s Collegiate School graduate, Jonathan Eyers, placed first at the University of Waikato’s Aria contest last Friday 31 May 2013.
St Paul’s Director of Vocal Performance, Francis Cowan, says it is a wonderful achievement for a first year voice student. He explained that Jonathan competed against third year and postgraduate music students.
Jonathan’s achievement follows a string of recent successes with his music career. Late last year, before graduating from St Paul’s, Jonathan was awarded one of five first place prizes at the New Zealand Aria Competition in Rotorua.
Since graduating from St Paul’s, Jonathan has joined the New Zealand Youth Choir. During his first rehearsal with the choir he was elected as soloist for the choir’s upcoming recordings; an unheard of achievement for someone Jonathan’s age.
At current, Jonathan is a Hillary Scholar studying a Bachelor of Music (Performance Voice) at the University of Waikato. He has been singing for nine years and hopes to be an opera singer on the international stage, either in Europe or the United States.
In addition to university and working towards his dream of becoming an opera singer Jonathan is the cathedral scholar as St Peter’s Cathedral Hamilton.
