Ariana Tikao (Kāi Tahu) is a renowned practitioner and composer of taonga puoro based in Ōtautahi Christchurch. She is a New Zealand Arts Laureate who has gained recognition as a soloist with Aotearoa’s principal orchestras and chamber groups including Stroma and the New Zealand String Quartet. Ariana’s music moves between realms, and enables audiences to feel like they are being ‘bundled up in a big feather cloak and transported to another world’.
Ariana’s music career started in 1993 with folk group Pounamu and between 2002-12 she released three critically-acclaimed solo albums. She is currently a member of art music quartet Tararua, and duo Muriwai (with Bob Bickerton). Ariana co-composed with Philip Brownlee the first concerto for taonga puoro Ko te Tātai Whetū based on a mōteatea relating to southern star lore. Manaaki, another co-composition with Brownlee, was commissioned by the New Zealand String Quartet and was a finalist for the 2022 SOUNZ Contemporary Award.
Ariana was a featured singer in John Psathas’ epic international collaboration No Man’s Land; she recently performed in the world premiere of Dame Gillian Whitehead’s opera, Mate Ururoa with US-based Māori baritone David Tahere, Stroma and Wellington Opera. She has also performed with the likes of Marlon Williams, Brooke Singer, and Warren Maxwell (Trinity Roots).
In 2024, Ariana undertook several international projects, including a collaboration with Austrian bass clarinettist Anna Koch, with violist Sophia Acheson at the 49th International Viola Congress in Brazil, and she began a creative fellowship at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, UK. In 2025, Ariana performed with the Rothko Collective in London at the iconic venue, Café OTO, as well as a solo performance at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Ariana is also a published writer and poet.