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Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is an internationally acclaimed opera singer, celebrated for her lyric soprano voice and extensive career in classical music.
Rolex has proudly supported New Zealander opera soprano Kiri Te Kanawa since welcoming her to the Rolex Family in the arts in 1976.
The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation is a major co-presenting partner for the 2024 Lexus Song Quest. Dame Kiri herself won the Mobil Song Quest in 1965.
In October 2006, she released an exciting new album (EMI label) in collaboration with composer Karl Jenkins, entitled Kiri Sings Karl.
Kiri Te Kanawa, born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron on March 6, 1944, in Gisborne, New Zealand, is a renowned opera singer. Adopted as an infant, she began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano before developing into a lyric soprano. Early in her career, she achieved recognition in New Zealand, including being runner-up in the 1963 Mobil Song Quest and winning the same competition in 1965. This victory provided her with a grant to study in London. In New Zealand, her recording of the “Nuns’ Chorus” from the operetta Casanova earned her the first gold record produced in the country.
Her international career began notably in 1971. After studying at the London Opera Centre, she made her Royal Opera House debut. That same year, she had a significant appearance as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Santa Fe Opera. Her performance was widely praised and led to an international sensation when she repeated the role at Covent Garden in December 1971. She continued to perform across major opera houses globally, including the Opéra National de Lyon, San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, and La Scala. Her repertoire focused on the works of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, and Richard Strauss, often cast in aristocratic roles. She was seen by an estimated 600 million people worldwide when she performed Handel’s “Let the bright Seraphim” at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
Throughout her career, Te Kanawa recorded extensively, with three albums charting in Australia’s top forty in the mid-1980s. She participated in Leonard Bernstein’s acclaimed 1984 recording of West Side Story, starring as Maria, which won a Grammy Award. She also premiered the theme song “World in Union” at the 1991 Rugby World Cup, reaching No.4 on the UK Singles Chart. Later in her career, she appeared predominantly in concerts and recitals, making her last public performance in 2016. She officially announced her retirement in 2017 to focus on mentoring young opera singers through the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. In 2021, she permanently returned to New Zealand.
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