Kiri Te Kanawa

Kiri Te Kanawa gained legendary status almost overnight after her sensational début as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1971. From then, she moved rapidly into the front rank of international opera, and has become one of the most famous sopranos in the world.

She is a familiar figure in the leading opera houses of the world, for instance, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan, the Chicago Lyric Opera, Paris Opera and Sydney Opera House. Her natural serenity and vocal beauty have joined with the world's major orchestral ensembles - Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony and the Boston Symphony under the baton of such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Georg Solti.

Dame Kiri has released a number of distinguished CD and video recordings both inside and outside the operatic field including the complete The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca, La Traviata, Der Rosenkavalier, Bernstein's only recording of West Side Story, the notably successful Songs of the Auvergne, and so on. In October 2006 released an exciting new album (EMI label) in collaboration with composer Karl Jenkins, entitled Kiri Sings Karl.

Kiri Te Kanawa was born in New Zealand, and carries the exotic blood of native Maori aristocracy. By the time she was twenty she had won the major vocal prizes available in the South Pacific, and had also started her recording career - unusual for a prima donna in any era.

Created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1982, Kiri Te Kanawa has been conferred with honorary degrees from numerous renowned universities around the globe. In the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours List, she was awarded the prestigious Order of New Zealand. Also, Dame Kiri is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.

Dame Kiri was invited to various Gala concerts, for example the wedding of HRH Prince Charles in St Paul's Cathedral, at which she faced one of the largest direct telecast audience of any singer in history with estimated number of over 600 million people; and a tribute to the Queen at the Opening Ceremony of the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March 2006.

Not only does she continue to perform in concert halls and arenas throughout the world, she also keeps on devoting her experience and expertise to organising and appearing at further concerts and Galas to raise funds for The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation and the UK based Friends of the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.