Creative Director

One of Splore’s original photographers and installation artists, Serena Stevenson utilises many different tools in her art making practice; still and moving imagery, sound, music, and performance. A common thread in all her work, whether it’s photography, a staged event or participatory installation art, is to invite people to connect through art making. 

In 2004 Serena exhibition ‘Moko Art of Nature’ was acquired by the De Young Museum in San Francisco, and in 2009 her exhibition ‘Face Value’ toured extensively across Australia and Aotearoa and was acquired by the Scottish National Museum for permanent exhibition.

With 20 + years experience, her approach has always been collaborative and often innovative, using new tools like social media in its emergent phase, or experimenting with where and how art can be exhibited, in some cases utilising street art and even commercial advertising spaces so that she can connect directly with diverse communities.

Serena has worked with many of New Zealand's most successful musicians and made multimedia work for Q Theatre, Oxfam, Auckland City Mission, Auckland Live and more.

Composer & Musician

Michael Hodgson is known as one of the founders of modern Aotearoa Electronica, starting his journey in Christchurch with experimental group Tinnitus.

Throughout the 90s he continued to develop his audio visual path specialising in live AV performance work and sound design. In 2003 he began a long and fruitful relationship with Mike Mizrahi working on many of his shows around the world, whilst continuing to explore creative underground shows.

Now after almost 30 years of International touring and as one half of Pitch Black and his own solo project Misled Convoy he is an acclaimed AV artist commissioned by local and international producers alike.

Composer & Musician

Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant is Taiwan-born multi-disciplinary artist based in Aotearoa. She is well-known as the front-wahine of Pōneke psych-pop trio KITA.

Nikita is a jazz trained vocalist and guitarist who studied at the school of music, simultaneously working on her love for acting in film and theatre.

She was recently the lead in Aotearoa's biggest Stage spectacle WOW as The Dream Maker, and her recent screen work includes Avatar 2: Way of the Water, and NZ drama series Far North.  She is currently finishing her most ambitious work to date, a 4-part 4-genre film that she has produced, written, directed and performed in.

As a musician she draws from her Taiwanese and Aotearoa ancestry to compose and perform lyric-driven and infectious soul pop, with guitar based grooves.

Composer & Musician

Paddy Free is one of New Zealand's most respected electronic musicians. Recording and performing internationally as one half of celebrated duo Pitch Black he has also forged a career as a solo artist, composer and music producer.

Pitch Black have been at the forefront of New Zealand electronica, renowned for their mind-blowing multimedia live performances and six sonically cutting-edge albums. Since 1996 Pitch Black have played all over New Zealand and Australia, and toured the UK, Europe, Japan and the USA. Their compositions have been featured in many international films and TV programs including Whale Rider, CSI:Miami and True Blood.

As a composer and music producer Paddy Free has  written music for film, theatre, dance, television and multimedia art, as well as acting as producer and engineer for many world-renowned artists, including; Crowded House, Killing Joke, Salmonella Dub, Kora, The Adults, Neil Finn, Oceania, Moana and The Tribe, and the Auckland Philharmonia and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras, to name only a few.

Composer & Musician

Ed Zuccollo is a widely respected keyboard artist having worked with Black Seeds, Trinity Roots, Troy Kingi and L.A.B. He also has his own solo career as Zuke, with an album out December 2024 and is  part of the band KITA with Nikita Tu-Bryant.

Ed’s distinct sound, coupled with his knowledge and experience of vintage keyboard instruments, synthesisers and effects make him versatile and unique in the performance and session recording industry.

Ed has designed multiple courses on electronic music production and recording and been invited to teach masterclasses. His undeniable skill on the 70s Minimoog synthesizer is a pleasure to watch and in his solo shows he employs a range of instrumentation including a variety of rare and wonderful keyboard instruments with the ultimate aim of guiding the listener into a meaningful personal experience.

Composer & Musician

Dylan C has been a fixture on the New Zealand festival circuit for years, performing at every Splore at Tapapakanga since 2006. He is known for curating bass-driven DJ sets with a deeply emotive style.

From sunrise sessions at Lucky Star and legendary party sets at Crystal Palace to the witching hour at Wendy’s Wellness and closing out the main stage in 2023 alongside Ed Zuccollo, the sets are always a unique journey.

For Three Days In February, Dylan C will debut a new musical offering: a series of meditative mood pieces performed on baritone guitar with live loops and effects.

Strings Quartet

Led by Joella Pinto (violin) and Martin Roberts (cello), the Arcus Quartet was formed in 2014 with Hanny Lee (violin) and Julie Park (viola), and has since grown to accommodate a larger roster of other fantastic musicians.

All are classically-trained musicians and graduates from the University of Auckland (NZ), the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto, Canada), the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK), and the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen (Trossingen, Germany).

The quartet has collectively performed across Aotearoa, from Kerikeri to Invercargill, as well as in 4 continents within multiple ensembles such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen.

Samoan born NZ composer/ conductor 

Dr Opeloge Ah Sam has worked with Choirs for Christmas in the Park, NZ Music Awards, Adele and more.

In Samoa he has helped the Samoan Police Band and often gives lectures and workshops at the National University of Samoa. Opeloge composed the very first original Samoan Opera called "Aua e te tagi" which was performed in 2005 with leading Samoan/Tongan tenor Ben Makisi. He was also the composer / arranger and conductor behind the first ever fully orchestral concert of Pasifika music in 2013 with the Manukau Symphony Orchestra and a 300 voice choir.

Opeloge recently received a Highly Commended Award at Compose Aotearoa with his new piece "Pie Jesu” and at the World Choir Games he conducted the Kaitaia Community Voices to winning SILVER and the Marcellin College Voices to winning GOLD.

Opeloge's work explores music and identity through the fusion of music performance, dance, language, emotions and styles. This year, his Samoan-Jazz fusion piece "Say I" premiered at the Louis Armstrong Centre for Jazz in New York. His upcoming work 'Musika Collective' is being performed at the Mangere Arts Centre in November. Currently he is preparing to record some new works in-studio and you might find him living out his childhood fantasy of becoming a drummer at the odd gig around Auckland.

Te Reo Advisor, academic, musician and composer of mōteatea from Ngati Whanaunga

Te Ahukaramū Royal is a composer and performer of music and story and a researcher and teacher of indigenous knowledge including mātauranga Māori and iwi histories and traditions. He also advises and leads projects and people, particularly to do with the ‘creative potential’ of the indigenous Māori dimension of Aotearoa-New Zealand.

He has composed music for chamber and orchestra groups, for choirs, as well as written popular song/waiata. In 2007, he composed Dance for piano, strings and percussion first performed by the Waikato University Orchestra in 2011 and then again in 2014 by the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Duluth, Minnesota, USA. In 2019, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra performed his work entitled Rā te rongo kōrero for kapa haka and orchestra, a response to the Christchurch Mosque Shootings.

He was a Professor of Indigenous Development at the University of Auckland 2009-2014 and has been: a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2011-2014, Resident, Rockefeller Study and Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy, 2004, and Senior Scholar, Fulbright New Zealand, 2001.