The New Zealand Youth Choir, composed of a young group of Kiwi singers aged 18-25, has won CHOIR OF THE WORLD at the 2025 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. This follows their massive win at the earlier European Choir Games in Aarhus, Denmark, where they won the Grand Prix of Nations with a score of 97.5 in the Folklore category.
In Wales, New Zealand Youth Choir director David Squire also won “Most Inspiring Conductor”.
Choirs Aotearoa CE Arne Herrmann, who is travelling with the choir, said, “We are so proud of our mahi and our art earning this recognition on a global stage.
“Our waiata are a taonga we have shared with audiences around the world, and the judges called them ‘the true spirit of Aotearoa’. For us, coming from the other side of the world, representing our beautiful country and the people of Aotearoa … this win is just unbelievable.”
The choir last brought the “Choir of the World” award home in 1999.
Squire has taught music in schools for 35 years and in 2011 won a New Zealander of the Year Local Heroes Medal for services to music education. His ensembles have won many awards at local and international music festivals, such as the NZCF Big Sing.
His Rangitoto College mixed-voice chamber choir, The Fundamentals, won the platinum award at the 2008 NZCF Big Sing Finale in Wellington – the first time for a mixed-voice choir. Squire’s upper-voice choir from Kristin School, Euphony, was third in the open female choir competition at the International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales, in 2013.
In 2019, Euphony represented New Zealand at the Budapest International Choral Festival, winning the Youth Choirs of Equal Voices category, coming third in the open Musica Sacra category and was invited to compete for the Grand Prix.
Squire’s Westlake Boys High School lower-voice choir, Voicemale, won the Grand Prix at the 2nd Leonardo da Vinci International Choral Festival in Florence in 2018, and Squire won the award for best conductor at this event.
Squire has been music director of the Westlake Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, and it has won more gold awards at the KBB Music Festival than any other ensemble. In 2014 the orchestra was placed first equal at the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna.
Squire is also the director of the Auckland Youth Choir, Vice-Chair of the New Zealand Association of Choral Directors, is a national conducting advisor and tutor and was a governance board member of the New Zealand Choral Federation for nine years. He completed his undergraduate study at the University of Auckland, with an emphasis on conducting and composition, later graduating with a Master of Music degree with first class honours in choral conducting.
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