Robert Wiremu

Robert Spencer Wiremu (16 September 1970 – 18 July 2026) was a New Zealand composer, baritone singer, music educator and choral director.

Life and career Wiremu was born on 16 September 1970 of Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou and Tūwharetoa descent and spent his childhood in Whanganui and Flaxmere, Hastings. His parents, Rauhina and Robert Williams, were both musical and his father had played the horn in the band at Rātana Pā. After completing his music degree he moved to Auckland in 1993 to study singing with Beatrice Webster at the university. He also taught music at Westlake Girls High School.

From the 1990s Wiremu was involved with the Opera in the Pā an arts event held at Rotowhio Marae, Te Puia, Rotorua. He became musical director of the event.

In 2012 Te Papa museum in Wellington acquired the artwork He Korero Purakau mo te Awanui o te Motu: story of a New Zealand river by Michael Parakōwhai. It is a Steinway grand piano painted red and carved. Wiremu was invited to play it in a series of performances at Te Papa.

His composing and arranging was influenced by his Māori heritage. He collaborated with Māori language promoter Pānia Papa to create Toiere, a work that combines arias from classical music, Māori waiata and the Māori language. Papa translated the lyrics of arias by Bizet, Rossini, Mozart, Offenbach and Verdi into Māori and Wiremu arranged the music. The waiata included a new one Te Iere Tōiri which was written to honour Dame Kiri te Kanawa. Toiere was performed at the Auckland Arts Festival in 2025.

Wiremu's work Te Kai a Te Rangatira set to music speeches by Māori leaders: Rose Pere, Moana Jackson, Ricky Houghton, Te Puea Hērangi, Āpirana Ngata, and Whina Cooper. Written for baritone and chamber ensemble it was commissioned for the IO Festival Kaitaia.

In 2023 Wiremu wrote Reimagining Mozart which commemorated the Erebus disaster when an Air New Zealand aircraft crashed into Mt Erebus in 1979. Wiremu imagined that a passenger on the plane might have had a Walkman playing Mozart's Requiem at the time of impact and the sounds of music floated away over Antarctica. He joined the board of SOUNZ in 2022, becoming co-chair in 2024.

Wiremu died on 18 July 2026, at the age of 55.