Photo: Morgan Delaney
Herbert Zelenski's going to be going to church a lot over the next year.
The young Wellington tenor will soon take up a 12-month position as a tenor Choral Scholar based at Wells Cathedral in the west of England.
It'll involve singing with the Cathedral Choir eight times a week, including three services on a Sunday, although the Cathedral had Zelenski singing in the wee small hours before he even got the job.
Zelenski was given a test piece to sing live during an online interview at 2am New Zealand time. Perhaps the audition panel thought that if he could sing then, he could sing anytime.
Having passed that test with flying colours, Zelenski will take up his new job in September, once he's completed his other big singing engagement, touring with the National Youth Choir.
Zelenski spoke to RNZ Concert ahead of a farewell concert he's giving in Wellington this weekend where - among other things - he'll sing the song cycle "Taking Off": poems by Brian Turner set to music by Janet Jennings.
While singing is the main activity Zelenski has planned for his time away, he also hopes to gain further experience in the biomedical field which has been his main line of study while at university.
Biomedicine is likely to be his future professional career, but Zelenski loves the idea of being a professional choral singer. His time at Wells will give him a taste of what might be possible.
Wells Cathedral; extra shifts on a Sunday. Photo: 123RF
