PERFORMING ARTS
New staff on our arts team With innovative and exciting programmes well underway for 2019, it is great to welcome the team who are bringing new energy and enthusiasm to the department, creating and co-ordinating projects and managing events. Olwyn Davidson is our new Performing Arts Administrator. She is on the front desk and creates that vital lifeline between itinerants, parents and students. Olwyn has a Diploma in Drama and a background working in theatre and television as both a director and lighting designer/technician. She is loving working here, getting to know the students, their families and the Diocesan community. Lachlan Craig is Performing Arts Coordinator and has come from St Kentigern College where he was Director of Choirs and Strings. Last year he was awarded an Independent School NZ Honours Award for Service to Music. He has a First Class Master’s Degree, is a highly successful freelance tenor, Freemasons NZ Opera artist and Director of Music for the Auckland Youth Choir. In the short time he has been here, he has updated all our systems and created a new website. He is directing choirs, coordinating across choral and instrumental music, is Musical Director for both the Senior and JHS productions, assists with conducting across all the ensembles, and is teaching singing. Rachael Brand comes with an impressive CV after completing a performance and pedagogical degree 62
DIO TODAY
Performing Arts staff, from left to right: Teresa Lauago, Olwyn Davidson, Rachael Brand, Sam Cunningham and Lachlan Craig.
in violin in New Zealand and Germany. She has worked as director in numerous cultural centres in Norway, and on her return to Auckland was Director of Education programmes for the APO, TAPAC and Project Manager at Auckland Museum. Rachael’s role is to manage our internal and external performing arts events, work with the development team on the completion of the new auditorium, oversee marketing and community outreach programmes, produce our shows and coordinate our dance programmes. She has already secured some important collaborative partners and events that will be using our Dio facilities in 2019. Sam Cunningham has recently been appointed as our new Performing Arts Technical Coordinator and manages a wide range of technical requirements within the arts at Dio. He comes from a diverse multi-disciplined background in the creative industries. Through his own business, he has produced shows for Benny Award-winning artist Andy Stankovich, worked closely with promoter Liberty Stage on international touring productions, and is an
experienced recording engineer. Part of Sam’s new role at Dio sees him running regular workshops with students to pass on his technical knowledge and give them an insight into sound and lighting engineering and technology. Teresa Lauago is TIC Dance this year and comes to us with a diverse background in dance and business, having taught both in schools, run her own dance business, and worked in the design and branding industry. Teresa was Curriculum Manager for Dance at Kristin School for five years where she choreographed productions and directed the annual K-13 dance show. Teresa sits on the committee for non-profit arts organisation Northern Dance Network, and is hugely experienced having competed, judged and performed in multiple dance styles over the years. We can confidently say that we have a great team of hugely experienced practitioners heading our programmes for 2019. Everyone is excited to be involved in such a flourishing department, focusing their energies on their new roles.