Te Kanawa
Te Kanawa House is named after Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, a New Zealand soprano who has experienced a highly successful international opera career since 1968.
House Leader: Mr Paul Percival
Deputy House Leader: Mrs Kate Kingsley
House Captains: Olivia Pokorny and Adam Choong
House charity: Child Cancer Foundation
Te Kanawa was one of the original Whānau houses and was open to students in 1982. It was not officially opened until 1987 by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa on her return from London.
The foundation House Leader was Miss S Miller 1980-1986. Since then the House Leaders have been Mr G Thomson 1986–1987, Mr K Allison 1987-1989, Mr F Silke 1989-2006, Mr D Norris 2007 - 2019. Mr P Percival is now the House Leader, starting in 2020.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has been a very important role model in the shaping of the values of Te Kanawa House. We have been lucky to have her return on a couple of occasions and speak at assemblies to inspire the students with her outstanding career, passion for music and drive to be the best.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Born 6 March 1944 in Gisborne, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. The Māori soprano, Kiri Te Kanawa, is the adopted daughter of an Irish mother and Māori father. After winning the John Court Aria Prize and the Mobil Song Quest, Kiri shot to stardom in New Zealand and was accepted without audition to study at the London Opera Centre in 1965. Kiri Te Kanawa came to international attention singing the role of Xenia in Boris Godunov and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Te Kanawa has been overwhelmed with honours. She was created a Dame Commander of The Order of the British Empire in 1982, invested as a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1990 and awarded the prestigious Order of New Zealand in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours List. She has also received honorary degrees from the following universities in the UK: Cambridge, Dundee, Durham, Nottingham, Oxford, Sunderland, Warwick as well as these universities worldwide: Chicago, Auckland and Waikato as well as being honorary fellow of Somerville College, Oxford and Wolfson College, Cambridge. She is also patron of Ringmer Community College, a school in the South-East of England.
