Baritone Faamanu Fonoti-Fuimaono is a proud Samoan–Kiwi artist from Flaxmere, Hastings. He is currently completing a Master of Music in Advanced Opera Studies at the University of Waikato as a member of Te Pae Kōkako: The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio (TANZOS), studying under Nikki‑Li Hartliep. Faamanu began singing in church and later joined Project Prima Volta, where he gained experience both onstage and backstage with Festival Opera. He also performs widely with his brothers as part of the operatic quartet Alofa, appearing at events throughout Aotearoa.
Faamanu is a two‑time recipient of the TAPA Scholarship Award and the University of Waikato Blues Award, and has attended the New Zealand Opera School annually from 2022 to 2026. His operatic credits include roles in New Zealand Opera’s Rigoletto and Festival Opera’s La traviata, Carmen, Madama Butterfly, and La bohème. He has appeared as Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Harasta in The Cunning Little Vixen, and Simone in Gianni Schicchi, and has sung in the ensemble for Orfeo ed Euridice. With New Zealand Opera he has also performed in semi‑staged productions of Requiem, Il trovatore, Die tote Stadt, and Tristan und Isolde.
Touring nationally with NZ Opera’s Opera in Schools programme, Faamanu has performed The Sleeping Beauty (2023) and The Elixir of Love (2025), reaching more than 10,000 students. A finalist in the 2025 North Shore Beacroft Aria and New Zealand Aria competitions, he looks forward to upcoming engagements including Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. In September 2026 he will begin further study at the Royal College of Music in London on a full‑tuition scholarship.