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Upcoming Events

CALL FOR SCORES: Trickier Tunes for Tamariki

Opportunity

Call for Scores.

Wellington Branch IRMTNZ. Trickier Tunes for Tamariki.


Wellington Branch IRMTNZ invites submissions of scores for grades 3-5 level violin and cello students


For eligibility, guidelines, terms and conditions, and the link to the submission form, click HERE.

Wellington Branch IRMTNZ is planning to publish Trickier Tunes for Tamariki, a collection of original pieces for violin and for cello submitted by composers from Aotearoa New Zealand. The music is to be appropriate for pupils from grade 3-5 level, duo strings OR solo string with a simple piano accompaniment.

There is a shortage of published solo music for grades 3-5 level by Aotearoa New Zealand composers for instruments other than piano. This project aims to provide more pieces for intermediate level violin or cello students by Aotearoa New Zealand composers.

A payment is available for the composers of the selected pieces, thanks to the generosity of The Stout Trust. We are also grateful to Sunrise Music Trust for funding the final stages of publishing the books.

New deadline for receipt of scores: 11.59 pm (NZT), 19 April 2024

Full details eligibility, guidelines, terms and conditions etc are available HERE.


December 08, 2023 09:00 — April 19, 2024 23:59

Comfortable Classical: A Concert without the Rules!

Concert

A concert without the rules!
Enjoy the sounds of an orchestra up close and personal in this relaxed and cosy concert, guided by our fabulous host. Fun for the young and young at heart!

Move to the music, relax on a cushion, or maybe draw what you hear? With familiar tunes and fun new sounds, Comfortable Classical is for first-time concert goers, regular listeners, whānau and anyone who wants to experience classical music in a friendly and relaxed environment.

Everyone is welcome in our specially curated environment with breakout rooms, cushions and a warm atmosphere for the ultimate classical chill out. Music will include lots of relaxing classics and fun upbeat numbers, with a chance to see and hear the instruments of the orchestra up close. Check out our playlist www.orchestras.org.nz/comfortable-classical, and find out more about the music! Including music by New Zealand composer Gillian Whitehead.

If you have any questions about what to expect, take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions below, or get in touch on support@orchestras.org.nz - we're happy to hear from you.

What to expect at Comfortable Classical? Sometimes at a Classical concert it’s easy to feel like there are a lot of unspoken ‘rules’ and that the music should be enjoyed in a certain way. Our Comfortable Classical experience is all about creating a welcoming and laid-back atmosphere for anyone and everyone of all ages and stages to enjoy. Let’s throw out the rule book!

If you feel like getting up and dancing – that's great! If you need to leave the room for any reason, we encourage you to take the time out you need. You can hum, sing, dance, draw, or respond to the music in whatever way feels right in the moment – our friendly host and guide will encourage it! And don’t worry about disrupting the musicians, they want you to enjoy the music and experience as much as they love performing for you.

March 23, 2024 16:00 — March 23, 2024 17:00   ·   Cambridge Town Hall

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra | Whitehead, Kuusisto, Sibelius

Concert

Benjamin Northey | Conductor
Andrew Haveron | Soloist

Gillian Whitehead | Retrieving the fragility of peace
Kuusisto | Violin Concerto Op. 28
Sibelius | Symphony No. 2 in D Major Op. 43

Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 was the first work that our Sibelius Academy-trained Chief Conductor Benjamin Northey conducted with CSO – we return to this gem of the repertoire in celebration of Ben’s tenth year at the helm. The Sydney Morning Herald reviewed one of his recent interpretations of the work with “it was one of those performances where everything comes together magnificently to create a halcyon moment of surprised delight.”

We pair Sibelius with another Finnish composer who local audiences will be thrilled to discover: Jaakko Kuusisto. The talents of British violinist Andrew Haveron will bring this virtuosic work off the page – as Concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony, and former Concertmaster of the BBC Symphony and first violinist of the Brodsky Quartet, he is an artist not to be missed.

The concert opens with a work written around the same time as Kuusisto’s concerto but on our shores: Dame Gillian Whitehead’s Retrieving the fragility of peace is dedicated to Lyell Cresswell, who passed away while she was writing the work, and she says “I think it may reflect something of the times we’re living in, but words can’t express as music does.”

June 15, 2024 19:30 — June 15, 2024 21:30   ·   Douglas Lilburn Auditorium

Orchestra Wellington | The Jazz Age

Concert

SOUNZ Commission for Orchestra and Arohanui Strings

Porgy and Bess | George Gershwin (1898 – 1937), arr. Russ Garcia (1916 – 2011)
Deborah Wai Kapohe
Eddie Muliaumaseali'í
Siliga Sani Muliaumaseali'í
Signature Choir

Gershwin based his opera on a 1925 novel by DuBose Heyward about a crippled Charleston man who got around on a goat-cart. The novel, turned into a play by DuBose and his wife, became a tremendously successful play. In 1934, Gershwin was invited to the Heyward’s summer house at Folly Beach, near Charleston. Catfish Row, the fictional location of Porgy and Bess, is based on a street in nearby James Island mostly inhabited by the Gullahs, descendants of the African coastal towns who made their living as fishermen and stevedores. Gershwin immersed himself in the Gullah’s musical and speech rhythms, and attended their religious revivals, which had their own unique vocal patterns. The result, which Gershwin called a folk opera, blended classical, jazz, gospel, spirituals and blues in a completely new way. The story of between Porgy, a crippled beggar blessed with optimism, and Bess, an outcast woman cursed with a violent jailbird boyfriend, is rich with drama, danger, love, danger and compassion.

Russ Garcia arranged the opera in 1956 for the second complete recording of the opera and the first to use, instead of classically-trained performers, jazz singers (in this case Mel Torme and Frances Faye) and musicians drawn from, among other groups, the Duke Ellington Band. Garcia recorded it again in 1957 with Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong in the lead roles, and a big orchestra of strings, horns and woodwinds. The album won a Grammy Hall of Fame award.

November 09, 2024 19:30   ·   Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington

Orchestra Wellington | A Modern Hero

Concert

Hour of Lead | Eve de Castro Robinson (1956-)
War Requiem | Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976)
Morag Atchison - soprano
Benson Wilson - baritone
The Orpheus Choir of Wellington

Britten was steeped in the English choral tradition and its liturgical music. In 1962, he was able to fulfil his long-held desire to compose a large‑scale choral work when he was asked to provide music for the dedication of Coventry Cathedral, rebuilt after Luftwaffe bombs Coventry’s beloved 14th-century Cathedral. An important symbolic occasion, it allowed Britten to air in public his pacifist beliefs and his faith in humanity’s capacity for compassion. In a break from tradition, he blended the traditional Latin mass for the dead with nine of Wilfred Owens’ poems from WW1. In Britten’s own words, he offered the War Requiem as “an act of reparation”. On the title page of the score, he quoted the poet, "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity …All a poet can do today is warn.”

The Requiem requires huge forces: a very large orchestra, a smaller chamber orchestra which accompanies the soloists, two organs, three soloists, main chorus, and boys’ choir. When it was first recorded, the Requiem sold 200,000 copies within five months — a rare example of a contemporary work that was immediately embraced by the public.

Stravinsky noticed, and sniped, "Behold the critics as they vie in abasement before the wonder of native-born genius. Kleenex at the ready, and feeling as though one had failed to stand up for God Save The Queen, one goes from the critics to the music…”

Britten could give as well as take, saying of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, "I liked the opera very much. Everything but the music."

December 07, 2024 19:30   ·   Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington
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