| 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. After moving to London and studying at the London Opera Centre, she was engaged to sing a Flower Maiden at Covent
Garden. Sir Colin Davis' attention was caught, and the young Kiri Te Kanawa was marked for Mozart's Countess, after first appearing
as Carmen in Britain and New Zealand.
| Kiri Te Kanawa gained legendary status almost overnight after her sensational debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di
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 of this century. At the time of her operatic debut she was already
an experienced concert and recording artist, and equally at home in front of the cameras as on stage. Continuing to
develop as a recitalist, she is now a much sought-after singer in a wide variety of musical contexts.
| She has appeared at venues both vast and intimate including Glyndebourne, Tanglewood, Ravinia, the arena at Verona, the Hollywood Bowl,
the festivals of Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg, the desert outback of Australia. As a soloist at the wedding of HRH Prince Charles in
St Paul's Cathedral in 1981 she faced one of the largest direct telecast audience of any singer in history (estimated to be over 600
million people) and her fame spread fast. 1990 saw another record when, during a tour of Australia and New Zealand, her outdoor concert
in the city of Auckland attracted a crowd of 140,000. As the dawn of the new Millennium began in New Zealand, she sang a special concert
on the beach in Gisborne which was broadcast to 55 countries.
| Created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1982, Kiri Te Kanawa has been conferred with honorary degrees from the Universities in
Oxford, Dundee, Warwick, Auckland, Waikato, Nottingham, Chicago, Durham and Cambridge. She is also an honorary fellow of Somerville College,
Oxford, and Wolfson College, Cambridge, and was invested with the Order of Australia in 1990. In the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours List,
she was awarded the prestigious Order of New Zealand. After twenty-five years at the forefront of musical life, in 1994 Kiri celebrated her
50th birthday, culminating in a spectacular Birthday Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
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