Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa is an international opera singer, with half a century of experience in the upper echelons of the symphonic and operatic music fields. With a reputation as a luminary within the genre, Kiri is said to have a voice that is:
“mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced”.
Dame Te Kanawa has been constantly and consistently lauded for her breathtaking, angelic vocals. She can hold a high note with a hair-raising balance, intonation and full soprano range. It is no exaggeration to cite Te Kanawa in the absolute global elite of opera singers; the crème de la crème of classical performers.
With a wealth of exciting and awe-inspiring stage appearances to her name, the Kiwi dignitary Dame Te Kanawa has become one of the world’s most treasured performers - achieving 'a level of fame rare for a classical performer’
. Dame Te Kanawa sung Let the Bright Seraphim by Handel for the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981, blowing away 600 million live television viewers the world over.
In 1965, Kiri won the Mobil Song Quest with her performance of “Vissi d’arte” from Puccini’s Tosca. In 1963, she was runner-up to Malvina Major in the same competition. As the winner, she received a grant to study in London. In 1966, she then won the prestigious Australian Melbourne Sun-Aria contest.
In March 1998 Dame Te Kanawa sang at the world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's new song, The Heart is Slow to Learn at The Royal Albert Hall, which was intended to appear in the sequel to The Phantom of the Opera (2004).
Kiri has been to Broadway, paid tribute to Mozart and Tchaikovsky, performed at the Royal Variety Performance 2007, the biggest galas, the BBC Last Night of the Proms, Prom at the Palace, and she brought the cast of Downton Abbey to tears with a performance. There seems to be no limit to Dame Te Kanawa’s success and she is utterly deserving of her reputation as one of the true stars of opera music.
Dame Te Kanawa has appeared in films such as 1976’s Don Giovanni, 1992’s Othello and Die Fledermaus in 1984. She has provided soundtracks to A Room with a View, Doctors and Downton Abbey.
In 1973 Dame Te Kanawa was awarded an OBE for her services to music, before being awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982 for the same.
