Pari mai ko te Tai Rāwhiti

Pari mai ko te Tai o Mahaanui

Te ara paikea o aku tīpuna

Serenity began violin at age five with the Suzuki Method and viola at fifteen. At the University of Canterbury she studied violin and viola with Jan Tawroscewicz and she was part of the inaugural Graduate Ensemble Programme at Victoria University, studying string quartet with the New Zealand String Quartet.

In 2006 Serenity moved to Austria to undertake further study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She completed her Masters there with Peter Langgartner and postgraduate studies with Thomas Riebl and was a prizewinner in the Lionel Tertis viola competition in Salzburg. While in Austria she was an active chamber and orchestral musician, performing across Europe and the USA with orchestras such as the Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Camerata Salzburg, Deutsche Kammerakadamie Neuss among numerous others.

In 2010 she returned to Christchurch to take up the position of Principal Violist in the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. In 2012 she was Principal Viola of the Aldeburgh World Orchestra, part of the Britten-Pears Festival, which subsequently toured Europe. She has been a soloist with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, including premiering Chris Cree Brown's Viola Concerto in 2016. She continues to be an active chamber musician in NZ, including touring NZ with the New Zealand String Quartet in 2021 and was a festival artist at the At the World’s Edge festival in 2024.