Chorister Josh Kidd has been scaling vocal heights since last serenading hometown Wairarapa and will next sing under the baton of a world-class conductor.
Kidd is set to sing tenor with the New Zealand Youth Choir on February 26 at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington during the International Arts Festival.
It will be part of the largest ever orchestral and choral polyphonies for Gustav Mahler's Symphony No8 led by world renowned conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Ashkenazy will bring the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra together with the Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, New Zealand Youth Choir, Christchurch City Choir, Orpheus Choir of Wellington, and the Choristers of Wellington Cathedral of St Paul.
Kidd, 19, a former Wairarapa College pupil originally from Eketahuna, last performed in Masterton in 2007 as Joseph in the college production of Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
He is in his second year studying voice at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington and credits his love of the artform in part to piano lessons as a boy with his grandmother Coral Kidd, and to his involvement with school productions.
The productions led to a place in the New Zealand Secondary Schools Choir and ranking as a Grade 7 pianist although he now plays only to accompany himself ''when I'm working out a new tune''.
Kidd is aiming for international vocal study after completing a planned honours year at music school.
He said choral singing was a rewarding experience that means ''you don't have to sing by yourself, although I am a solo singer, and there is just so much technique involved because you need to harmonise with singers alongside you''.
He sings baritone while studying but is comfortable singing second tenor.
Kidd will also this year tour with the choir to South Korea, Shanghai, China, Singapore and Australia but is now preparing to take the stage under Ashkenazy.
''He is very, very skilled and it will be great to see how the best operate. It really is moving up the ladder being able to sing under Ashkenazy.''
The arts festival performance will also feature eight of the world's best solo vocalists including sopranos Annalena Persson, Marina Shaguch and Sara Macliver; mezzos Dagmar Peckova and Bernadette Cullen; tenor Simon O'Neill, baritone Markus Eiche and bass Martin Snell.
