Dr Te Oti Rakena

Dr Te Oti Rakena is currently the Head of Vocal Studies (Classical) and Associate Dean (Equity) in the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries at The University of Auckland. An established performer in both opera and musical theatre, his published research centres on non-western vocal performance and studio pedagogy. He has presented internationally at BERA (2007), EERA (2007, 2008, 2009), and ISME Bologna (2008) and Performa (2009).

He was recently invited to participate in the performance strand of the Brown University 2010 BIARI Institute, Toward a Global Humanities.

He participated in the Ministry of Education Teaching and Learning Initiative two year research project "Success for All", and is currently involved in “Te Ara Kakena”, an international collaborative research project with the University of Melbourne, The University of Texas in Austin and the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada. The project explores graduate students experience of supervision in studio.

He has also received a two-year research grant for a project, "The Loss of the Pacific Quality: The Colonised Māori Voice" that looks at the influence of kiwi English on the Māori sung voice.

Teaching and research interests
The Scholarship of Studio Teaching and Learning
Voice pedagogy
Performance Research

Awards and prizes
2010 University of Auckland Excellence in Teaching (Innovation)
2008, 2010 University of Auckland Excellence in Equity Award
2010 University of Auckland Excellence in Teaching (Innovation)

Current research

• Te Ara Kakena (the rising pathway): Quality teaching in Postgraduate studies
• Tuvalu: The Pacific Project. A series of Pacific-themed collaborative research projects focused on sustaining indigenous knowledge.

The Impact of the Spoken Voice on the Sung Voice: The Colonised Māori Voice

Abstract
The project, The Loss of the Pacific Quality: the Colonised Māori Voice, is focused on decolonising the Māori sung voice by bringing together information from the area of socio-linguistics and information from the voice science area, in particular the singing pedagogy literature. The project is interested in the voice practices and qualities of the wider South Pacific community and investigating the loss of the aesthetic value of some of these vocal qualities. In the spirit of historically informed practice the object of the project is to inform and reconnect Māori with the purpose of these performative practices at a vocal function level and discuss why they have been replaced by more western derived aesthetic choices.

Future Research
A Creative Research Performance project that explores Technology, Memory and Experience
Te Oti Rakena with Mark Harvey (Dance Studies, NICAI)

In the performance we will present a fire and brimstone negotiation of memory shaped by our histories as Pakeha/NZ European and Māori, through technological mediations. We will present choreographic and operatic actions fuelled by our politically and technologically charged memories of colonization – analogue and digital – from community land conflicts to fast food and cannibalism. In the workshop we invite people to negotiate their memories in an embodied virtual space. On a mat that interweaves Tikanga Māori and European protocols, participants will be invited to contribute their cultural perspectives and genealogies to a performative dialogue that responds to provocations set up through an avatar.

Tuvalu: Pacific Project
Two research projects concerned with sustaining indigenous knowledge are in the development stage. A 2011 Old Songs Workshop to be held in Tuvalu, and a project with the Tuvalu Radio Music Archives.

DMA (Voice Performance), The University of Texas (Austin)
Master of Music (Voice), New England Music Conservatory
Bachelor of Music (Violin), The University of Auckland

Dr Te Oti Rakena
Associate Dean Equity
Coordinator of Vocal Studies (Classical), The School of Music
National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries

Phone: +64 9 373 7599, ext: 85856
Email: t.rakena@auckland.ac.nz