Meet Our New Music DIrector
The North Shore Male Choir are delighted to announce the appointment of Margot Button as Music Director.
Margot began her singing career with a performance of “Bessie the Black Cat” in Thora Lewin’s piano studio at the age of 5. The fate of Bessie in verse four was hugely traumatic and the performance ended in a flood of tears.
However, as a budding mezzo soprano she was not deterred by this tragedy and went on to complete her GPC in Opera Performance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee School of Music. The ‘Bessie’ experience ultimately proving invaluable as a mezzo’s onstage lot is rarely a happy one.
Margot has appeared extensively in opera, oratorio and recital in New Zealand, Australia, England, and the USA and recorded for radio, television, and film. She worked as a professional musician, arts manager and educator in the United States for 19 years before returning to New Zealand in 2010.
Margot is a former director of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony Opera for Harvard University and the Annals of Improbable Research, Executive Director of the Vergennes Opera House, and Artistic Director for the Barre Opera House, and manager and arts-educator for Brown Bag Opera in Boston. She was also on the teaching faculties of St. Michael’s College, the Flynn Theatre of the Performing Arts, and the Monteverdi Music Schools and guest lectured for the Opera Departments of the Boston Conservatory at the Berklee School of Music and the Longy School of Music.
Since returning to New Zealand Margot has been in demand as a vocal soloist. She is an artist teacher at the University of Auckland’s School of Music, a choral conductor, coach and vocal teacher at Takapuna Grammar and Diocesan School for Girls, and the Artistic Director and a Co-Founder of Otautahi’s (Canterbury) Toi Toi Opera.
She also maintains a private teaching studio in central Auckland. Prior to her move to Tāmaki Makaurau Margot ran a large professional voice studio and was an Artist-in-Residence at The Piano in Christchurch. She worked with the senior college choirs at St Andrews College and is a former conductor of the ARA Community Jazz Choir.
Margot regularly adjudicates regional vocal competitions and is an examiner for university vocal performance programs. She is also member of Voices New Zealand and the NZ Opera Chorus.
Margot studied voice with Lorraine Nubar, NYC, Elisabeth Phinney, Boston Conservatory at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA, Prof. Rae Woodland of the Royal College of Music in England, and Emily Mair and Luisa Shanahan, New Zealand. She has been very fortunate to coach with notable artists including Dalton Baldwin, Phyllis Curtain, Dame Janet Baker, and Warren Jones.
Margot is working with the choir on a new program for our upcoming concert to raise funds for Harbour Hospice on 25th May. Click here for more information.
