Yumeka Hildreth - Despina (The Three Little Pigs)

Yumeka is a Japanese New Zealander, born and raised in Ōtautahi Christchurch. She began her post-secondary music studies at the New Zealand School of Music studying with soprano Jenny Wollerman, and at the UVic School of Music in Canada with Canadian soprano Susan Young. She has since regularly performed in concert halls, and in masterclasses with renowned artists in New Zealand and Canada.

She has performed as a soloist in premieres of SOUNZ works, and recently, with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra for Reuben de Lautour and Mahina-Ina Kingi-Kaui’s Te Reo Ki Ōtākaro. Her operatic and oratorio roles include Laetitia in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Handel’s Messiah, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the Christchurch Arts Festival. In Vancouver, she performed with the CBC award-winning Christchurch Cathedral Choir under director and composer Rupert Lang.

Yumeka recently returned from performing in Quebec where she studied with renowned Canadian soprano Wendy Nielsen and German bass-baritone Christian Immler at the Académie Orford Musique. She is currently studying towards a Masters at the University of Canterbury with Aotearoa NZ soprano Zara Ballara, and teaches voice privately and at the Christchurch School of Music.

In December 2023, she made her Toi Toi Opera debut, playing Martha Cratchit and singing as part of the ghostly chorus of their season of Philip Norman’s A Christmas Carol.