International opera and Broadway star Ravil Atlas came to New Zealand in 2009 after a  long and varied professional career which included starring roles in more than seventy  international opera productions, and ten years in long-running Broadway productions Les  Miserables (Valjean) and Phantom of the Opera (Piangi). His credits also include numerous  concerts appearances, regional US professional musical theatre, professional choral work  with Grammy award-wining ensemble Chanticleer, and three years at Teatro all Scala in  Milan, Italy. 

Since his retirement from full-time performing in 2007, Ravil has set his sights on research  and training other performers. He began as Course Leader for musical theatre studies at  Newcastle College in the UK. Since moving to New Zealand he has taught at many of the  country’s major arts institutions including the Universities of Otago and Canterbury,  NASDA, National Singing School, and even made a mentoring appearance in the  nationally televised choir competition The Naked Choir.  

In addition to his singing knowledge, Ravil is a highly acclaimed conductor and stage  director with numerous credits in Christchurch including The Christchurch Symphony  Orchestra (Chorus Master), The Court Theatre, Showbiz Christchurch, North Canterbury  Musical Society, and Repertory Theatre. Of particular note is Ravil’s work with young and  developing singers through the Burnside High School Specialist Music Programme,  multiple Big Sing gold medals and YSIH National championships, his professional choir  Atlas Voices, and most recently with New Zealand Opera.

New Zealand soprano Amanda Atlas embarked on her international career in  1999, spending ten years singing leading roles for various opera companies and  orchestras in the US and Europe. Role highlights include Rose Maurrant (Street  Scene), Clara (Sondheim’s Passion), Julie Jordan (Carousel), Side by Side by  Sondheim, and many and varied operatic roles from the operas of Verdi (Amelia,  Alice, Desdemona), Puccini (Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Suor Angelica, Mimi, and  Musetta), Mascgani, and Poulenc. 

Amanda is now based in New Zealand and Australia. Recent operatic  engagements include Magda Sorel (The Consul) in New York, leading roles with  New Zealand Opera and the NZSO, Melbourne’s CitiOpera, and 2016 also saw  her make her Opera Australia debut singing Siegrune in their internationally  acclaimed Ring Cycle. She is known for her ability to crossover into musical  theatre repertoire, with a recent review exclaiming ‘Amanda Atlas sang and acted  like it was the last time she was ever going to take the stage. Nothing was left in the  wings, her soul was laid bare, and her vocal mastery and embodiment of the  character was out of this world’. 

In concert she has recently performed as soprano soloist with the Symphony  Orchestra of India, and highlights in around New Zealand in recent seasons  include the soprano solo in Verdi’s Requiem with the CSO, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for Wellington Opera, Poulenc’s one-woman opera The Human Voice with New Zealand Opera, singing Norma Desmond’s songs in concert with Showbiz, Bruckner’s F minor Mass with the APO, Strauss’ Four Last Songs, and  Mahler’s Second Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Verdi’s Requiem with the CSO.  Amanda maintains a busy concert and operatic career throughout New Zealand, and balances that with a busy teaching studio and running Greenstone Academy.