Meet our Artistic Director

Richard Marrett


Richard is well-known for his work throughout the country as a musical director, vocal coach, pianist, arranger and conductor. Previously, he worked as manager of the degree programmes offered by the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art (NASDA) and Ara Music Arts.

His musical direction credits for The Court Theatre include My Fair Lady; South Pacific; The Rocky Horror Show; The Sound of Music; Jerry’s Girls; Oliver!; Guys and Dolls; The Producers; La Cage Aux Folles; I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!; Anything Goes; Cabaret; Side By Side By Sondheim; Grease; End of the Rainbow; Blood Brothers; Mary Poppins; Legally Blonde the Musical; Songs For Nobodies; Chicago; Jesus Christ Superstar; Jersey Boys; Little Shop of Horrors; Rent and Next to Normal.

Further musical direction credits include Mame; The King and I; Sweet Charity; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; West End to Broadway I, II and III; Les Misérables; 42nd Street; Fiddler on the Roof; Annie; Into The Woods; Jesus Christ Superstar; Urinetown; Beauty and the Beast; The Witches of Eastwick; Cats; Curtains; Buddy; Avenue Q; Hair; Spring Awakening; The Phantom of the Opera; Miss Saigon; Mamma Mia!; Hairspray; Ragtime; Evita; Wicked; We Will Rock You; Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Matilda.

Richard’s work with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra has included seasons of Starry Nights and Classical Sparks in Hagley Park and the popular concert productions Oh, Danny Boy; Broadway Broads; Rodgers and Hammerstein; Bernstein and Sondheim; The Magical Music of Disney and The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. He was also responsible for the musical supervision, keyboard programming, tracks and arrangements for several New Zealand touring productions and is often found working as producer and arranger on multiple recording projects.  Richard has been Artistic Director of the popular choir, The Vocal Collective for the past four years.

Fresh from this year’s highlight season conducting My Fair Lady with The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra and Showbiz Christchurch, he will follow the hilarious Something Rotten with the equally fabulous, Kinky Boots.

Facebook Page:  Richard Marrett MD

Meet our Assistant Music Director

Caelan Thomas


Caelan was originally trained as a classical pianist and achieved his ATCL in 2015 before moving into musical theatre, choral, and accompaniment work. He has been involved in musical theatre shows in Kirwee, Halswell, Ashburton, Rangiora, Rolleston and Riccarton, and has worked with The Court Theatre, NASDA, CIMTSS, Blackboard Theatre Collective and the New Zealand Singing School, as well as adjudicating at the South Canterbury Drama League. Caelan is currently Musical Director for the Darfield branch of the Selwyn Community Choir, spent a few months leading the Mid Canterbury Choir in Ashburton and is thoroughly enjoying working as the accompanist for The Vocal Collective.

Caelan is very fond of dark chocolate, post-it notes, sleeping in, bacon, feeding his pets too much, waffles, fluffy socks, and Michael Bublé, and is much less fond of running, traffic, being late, capsicum and mopping.

Meet our Choir Manager

Fiona McCormick


After immigrating to New Zealand from the UK aged 18 months old, Fiona learned dance from the age of 3 and enjoyed singing, especially in choirs, from late primary school on. After leaving school she sang & danced in the chorus of amateur musical theatre productions which lead to an interest in all things theatre. Fiona graduated with a Diploma in Technical Production for Theatre from Te Kura Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: The New Zealand Drama School.

Her love of music and particularly singing led to her becoming a member of The Vocal Collective for a time and she is now delighted to be the Choir Manager.
 

Meet the Choir

Sopranos

Katrina Boxall
Kimberlee Brinkman
Sandie Chamberlain
Rita Clark
Mary Connor
Victoria (Bid) Constanti
Alfonsina De Conno 
Jo Ellis
Sharyn Gousmett
Jude Hunt
Ali Husband
Benedikte Pass
Phillipa Pink
Diana Renwick
Sally Richardson
Sophie Ricketts
Kathryn Ruge
Lucy Ruge
Jacky Sargent
Sharon Smit
Hayley Stevenson
Pip Wilding

Altos

Kim Anderson-Hadley        
Julia Baars
Christine Bishop
Nicole Borland
Cally Burke
Jude Cheal
Anne-Marie           Cotton
Sarah Coursey
Ange Davidson
Therese Coleman
Ruth Hope
Ruth Jardine
Sun Kim
Rosie Laing
Vicki Lewis
Juliet Manning
Olivia Marchant
Brigid McClelland
Nicola McDonald
Kate Page
Lynda Peterson
Ellen Phillips-Collis
Danielle Thompson
Unicia Veer

Tenors

Ed Dempsey
Tom Ellis
Chris Finnie
Calum Fitzwater
Qi Gao
Kate Husband
Blair McHugh
Tim Swift
Qiaomu Xu

Basses

Anthony Berry
Paul Davenport
Robin Densem
Rob Hallinan
Matt Hudson
David Jardine
David Merriman
Shane Morrow
Bryan Peters
John Ruge
Douglas Shields
Liam Tyrell
Eric Wong
Chen Zuo