Bass baritone Jonathan Fa‘afetai Lemalu is a New Zealander of Samoan descent. Since graduating from London’s Royal College of Music, where he won the gold medal in 2002, he has sung in recitals and opera in London and is fast gaining a world reputation. He is heard here performing Schumann’s ‘Die beiden grenadiere’ in the finals of the 1996 Mobil Song Quest, at the Christchurch Town Hall. In the following three years he won the Australasian trifecta of the 1997 Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship, the 1998 Mobil Song Quest and the 1999 McDonald’s Operatic Aria Contest.

Sound file from Radio New Zealand Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero. Any re-use of this audio is a breach of copyright. To request a copy of the recording, contact Sound Archives Ngā Taonga Kōrero (Mobil Song Quest 1996/Reference number CDR1009).