TENORS
Rock Tenors is a collective of vocalists who have appeared nationally in smash hit musicals including We Will Rock You, Jersey Boys, Grease - The Arena Spectacular, Phantom of the Opera, WICKED, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and many more!
Their vocal ability crosses multiple music genres from opera to musical theatre and contemporary rock to thrash metal allowing them to reinvent the standard rock vocal arrangements with harmonic complexity that creates an incredibly immersive, exciting and nostalgic rock experience!
The Rock Tenors are supported by the very best professional session musicians who collectively have performed, recorded and toured with multiple award winning international artists and continue to lend their talent to a long list of bands around New Zealand.
Luke is thrilled to be back on stage with the Rock Tenors as one of the founding members.
Luke was most recently cast as Galileo in the 2022 season of ‘We Will Rock You’ and as Fiyero in both the Dunedin and Invercargill productions of ‘Wicked’.
Luke has also been a featured artist in the DSO’s ‘All You Need is Love’ a tribute to The Beatles and has performed for DKCM in shows such as Rock to Motown, The Midtown Boys & The Naughty Horror-Ball.
Other credits include ‘Les Miserables' 'Grease the Arena Spectacular' ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert' and 'The Highlights'.
As a songwriter, and guitarist with 30 years of performing under his belt, Justin is no stranger to an audience. His band, local metal stalwarts "Freakshow 57", released their 30th anniversary album, Trial by Swarm, in 2022.
In 2021 Justin performed in his first musical since high school, joining the acclaimed Musical Theatre Dunedin production of Les Misérables in the roles of Grantaire/Brujon/Ensemble. He returned to the stage in 2022 as one of the Rock Tenors, who enjoyed an extremely successful season at Dunedin's Mayfair Theatre.
In 2023, Justin was cast as Four Season, Nick Massi, in the Musical Theatre Dunedin production of Jersey Boys, an experience he describes as "transformative".
Justin is beyond excited to be returning to the Rock Tenor family for its 2023 season, saying: "Rock Tenor audiences are unlike any other. We are all at the show for the same reason: to have a good time, connect, and celebrate this legendary music in a new way. What could be better?”.
An original member of the Rock Tenors, Greg trained at Toi Whakaari: The New Zealand Drama School (2004) and since has been involved with numerous theatre companies throughout New Zealand.
Performance highlights include:
Jerry, The Full Monty (2008), with Taieri Musical: Jesus, Jesus Christ Superstar (2001) and Mr Banks, Mary Poppins (2017), and with Musical Theatre Dunedin: Beast, Beauty and the Beast (2006); Engineer, Miss Saigon (2010); Joseph, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (2012), Edna, Hairspray (2013); Tick, Priscilla (2018); The Wizard, Wicked (2019); The Narrator, Blood Brothers (2019), Javert, Les Misérables (2021) and Tommy DeVito, Jersey Boys (2023).
James’ experience on the stage covers many musical theatre and opera classics.
A versatile performer, his roles have ranged from “The Phantom” in Dunedin Musical Theatre’s production of The Phantom of the Opera, through music hall and oratorio, to “Scrooge” in Opera Otago’s production of Philip Norman’s A Christmas Carol.
In 2021 he hit the stage (sometimes literally) as Jean Valjean in Musical Theatre Dunedin's 2021 production of Les Miserables.
Other career highlights include “Chris” in Miss Saigon, “Mark” in Rent, and the dual role of "Samuel Marsden/King George" in the Opera Otago premier of Anthony Richie's This other Eden.
James also performs in corporate entertainment for DKCM.
Ben is excited to be joining the team for the second round of Rock Tenors.
Ben is studying Music and Psychology at Otago University.
Previous musical theatre credits include: Galileo in Invercargill Musical Theatre’s “We Will Rock You” (2022), Edward Lyons in Taieri Musical Society’s “Blood Brothers” (2019), Sky in Musical Theatre Oamaru’s “Mamma Mia” (2018), ensemble in Musical Theatre Dunedin’s “Les Mis” (2021), “Priscilla: Queen of the Desert” (2018), “Wicked” (2019), ensemble in Taieri Musical’s “Ovation” (2018).
Original Rock Tenor member, Steve was originally from Christchurch and heavily involved in musical theatre and choral productions in his younger years, with noteable performances at the Christchurch Basilica, and four years being selected in the special choir for the Christchurch Schools Music Festival.
Musical theatre performances include Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Robert Hyman's, Hackback. Les Miserables and Jersey Boys.
Being a product of the 80' and 90's in New Zealand, Steve's musical influences include Queen, Bon Jovi, Metallica, Kiss, and Nirvana, just to name a few absolutely legendary artist's. This early exposure and Steve's belting vocal range are sure to provide an enthralling and entertaining performance in Rock Tenors.
MUSICIANS
Che Long is a UK Born guitarist, who has spent the last 30 years playing, touring and recording with bands covering many genres including Funk, Latin, Blues, Country, Irish folk, RnB and Rock.
He currently resides in Dunedin and teaches guitar and ukelele at various schools across Dunedin.
Che performs regularly across the city in various bands/projects such as The Plus Ones, Niche and The Funk Foundation.
Recent show highlights have included DKCM’s Mayfair season of Rock to Motown as well as the 2022 season of Rock Tenors and 2023 Musical Theatre Dunedin production of Jersey Boys.
Michael is delighted to be part of the team to bring Rock Tenors back on stage for The Anthems Tour and to have another opportunity to perform some of the best classic rock songs to enthusiastic audiences.
Michael combines the roles of part-time secondary school music teacher and Director of Music at St Paul’s Cathedral with a busy freelance career arranging, performing and directing in a wide ranging variety of musical genres. He has had extensive involvement in musical theatre - on stage, in the pit, and as Musical Director, including of the recent Regent Theatre productions of Les Miserablés, Highlights and Mary Poppins.
Most recently, Michael performed with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra on keys and backing vocals for the Beatles tribute concert All You Need is Love.
He is a regular member of Funk Foundation, a band well known to Dunedin audiences backing numerous DKCM productions, including Rock to Motown.
Joseph is a self-taught award-winning fingerstyle guitarist. He has won numerous awards throughout New Zealand and Australia, including the overall prize at the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards. In 2016, he was selected to perform at the National Forum of Music in Poland as a top 24 finalist in the International Guitar Masters Competition, where he placed 9th worldwide.
He has performed at various festivals and showcases, including the Melbourne Guitar Show and the International Showcase in Tamworth, Australia. In 2023, he was recruited as a guitarist for the Musical Theatre Dunedin production of Jersey Boys. So far, the highlight of his career was being able to perform with Grammy nominated guitarist, Tommy Emmanuel, who has been recognised as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Joseph recently graduated with a Bachelor of Music endorsed in performance, a Bachelor of Science majoring in Neuroscience, and is currently undertaking a Master of Science in Neuroscience. Joseph also has a strong presence online, with over 240,000 streams on Spotify, and close to half a million views on YouTube.
He is absolutely thrilled to be joining the Rock Tenors this season.
On low-end duties playing bass we have Sam Healey
After a ten year stint in Australia playing in major festivals, tours and local venues all over the country he's back and digging deep in to the Aotearoa music scene.
You can see his classic bass face on stage in Dunedin with Kāhu Rōpū, Ed and the Shadow Boys, Flying Man, Julian Temple, Dubious Groove and every Thursday at Pequenõs for Jazz night with The Funk Soul brothers.
He also runs a boutique recording studio in Dunedin called Turbine Sound.
Alex joins Rock Tenors as the drummer for the first time in 2023. A music career spanning over 30 years, Alex started out drumming in pipe bands, and by the time he was 21 had travelled all over the world representing first his school, then Otago, then New Zealand and finally the NZ Police Pipe Band.
He got his first taste of playing Rock in his high school years, when his band Terrapin won the Dunedin Smokefree RockQuest two years in a row. Rock became a love affair that would see him through Wellington Jazz School and travelling Europe, culminating in playing for a German covers rock band for two years – to audiences of up to 50,000 at Beer Festivals.
Nowadays you’ll find him playing around the South Island in rockabilly punk band Bulletproof Convertible, and in his hometown Brighton Dunedin as the drummer for TOKE.
Smashing out the Rock Tenors iconic music set, within such a high value theatre style production, is going to be a career highlight.