Oscar Kersey as Peter Cratchit, Ghostly Chorus

Born in Leeds, England, before moving to New Zealand at the age of two, Oscar has always had a fascination with the world of classical music and a great love for singing and composing for as long as he can remember. His life as a musician began during his high school years, when he attended the School of Music at Hagley Community College and began taking singing lessons from Margot Button.

From 2019 to 2023, he studied at the University of Canterbury doing a Bachelor of Music, majoring in performance, with teacher Zara Ballara. In 2020 and 2021, he was a member of the university chamber choir Consortia, and sang two major roles in their productions of Handel's Acis and Galatea (as Polyphemus) and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas (as Aeneas). He is currently a member of the Christchurch Youth Choir, the Christchurch City Choir, and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra Chorus, in addition to having sung with the Aotearoa New Zealand Academy Choir in the first year of its existence. Since completing the main part of his degree, he has resumed his lessons with Margot Button, and appears regularly in recitals.

In addition to his singing work, Oscar is also a composer, with his first commissioned composition, the Minuet in D major for Violin Quartet, having its premiere in July 2022, played by Rakuto Kurano and the QUARTZ Violin Quartet. In compositional practice, he seeks to combine what he sees as the best features of each of the historical periods of classical music; for example the lightheartedness of the Classical era, and the powerful strength of the Romantic era.