News and Media
News
- NZSO breaks it down with leading Aussie conductor - 26 July 2010
- NZSO selects classical stars of the future - 19 July 2010
- NZSO and West End stars create American musical magic! - 08 July 2010
- Pietari Inkinen & Li-Wei Qin - 18 June 2010
- NZSO earns double five-stars! - 28 May 2010
NZSO breaks it down with leading Aussie conductor
26 July 2010
Audiences new to classical music will hear two famous masterpieces broken into bits in August, in two special Wellington concerts marking a new departure for the NZSO.
Respected Australian conductor Richard Gill will lead the Orchestra for Close Encounters at the Wellington Town Hall on August 19 and 20, presenting classical music with a fresh twist.
Thursday’s concert breaks down Beethoven’s famous Sixth Symphony, and Friday’s unpicks Dvorak’s shimmering Ninth – revealing the composers’ tricks of the trade and explaining why these symphonies soar.
The NZSO will play both extracts and a full movement from each work, with Richard Gill on piano. Hear why the Dvorak is also called From the New World, and find out how Beethoven’s symphony earned the nickname Pastoral.
Richard Gill is internationally respected as a leading music educator. He is Music Director of Victorian Opera and Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s education programme. He has worked extensively with all Australia’s leading orchestras and has received an Order of Australia Medal, along with many other awards.
Close Encounters is based on his wonderfully popular “Discovery” series with the Sydney Symphony.
Close Encounters is Wellington’s chance to get up close and personal with the nation’s symphony – offering two essential concerts for anyone who always wanted to know more about classical music, but was afraid to ask!
This is an NZSO Community Programme, proudly supported by The Community Trust of Wellington.
NZSO Close Encounters
Proudly supported by The Community Trust of Wellington
Richard Gill conductor
Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Pastoral (extracts)
Wellington Town Hall / Thu 19 August / 6.30pm
Dvorak Symphony No. 9 From the New World (extracts)
Wellington Town Hall / Fri 20 August / 6.30pm
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NZSO selects classical stars of the future
19 July 2010
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has revealed an exciting line-up of the country’s most promising classical musicians for the 2010 NZSO National Youth Orchestra.
Selectors have chosen 85 players to make up New Zealand’s most prestigious youth orchestra, with the youngest aged just 12 and the eldest, 25. Their hometowns include Whangarei, Cambridge, Tauranga, Nelson, Porirua, Palmerston North and Waiheke Island, as well as the main centres.
Unusually, this year’s line-up features five sets of siblings, and an all-male Flute section.
Each year the Orchestra meets in Wellington for an intensive week of musical training under a brilliant guest conductor, before making its debut in a special concert series.
The NZSO is delighted to announce that this year’s maestro is young Bulgarian conductor Rossen Milanov, the newly-appointed Music Director of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.
Described as “athletic and entertaining to watch”, he is deeply committed to youth in music, as Music Director of leading US training orchestra Symphony C and the New Symphony Orchestra in his native Sofia. He is also Artistic Director of The Philadelphia Orchestra at The Mann Center for Performing Arts.
Emerging piano star Jason Bae will debut with the NZSO National Youth Orchestra as guest soloist. The 18-year-old is a second-year student at Auckland University’s School of Music.
He says: “It is an absolute honour for me to collaborate with the world-renowned conductor, Maestro Milanov. I can’t thank the NZSO National Youth Orchestra enough for giving me this amazing dream-come-true opportunity."
The NZSO National Youth Orchestra will debut in Wellington on 26 August and Auckland on 28 August, performing Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, John Adams and Vaughan Williams.
The NZSO National Youth Orchestra is presented by Principal Sponsors, The Adam Foundation and Crowne Plaza.
Rossen Milanov conductor
Jason Bae piano
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Wind
Adams The Chairman Dances
Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances
Wellington, Thursday 26 August, 7:30pm, Michael Fowler Centre
Book at TICKETEK
Auckland, Saturday 28 August, 7:30pm, Auckland Town Hall
Book at THE EDGE
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NZSO and West End stars create American musical magic!
08 July 2010
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and stars of London’s West End will bring Broadway’s golden age to dazzling musical life in Auckland and Wellington next month, with the hit show The World of Rodgers & Hammerstein.
West End singers Jacqui Scott and Andrew Halliday will perform best-loved songs from Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel, The King & I and The Sound of Music, accompanied by the Orchestra in a perfect concert for musical theatre fans.
The programme includes popular classics Some Enchanted Evening, My Favourite Things, Edelweiss, Climb Every Mountain and Surrey with a Fringe on Top, as well as orchestral pieces from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s legendary shows.
Acclaimed entertainer Jacqui Scott is a leading lady of the West End, with key roles in Evita, Cats and Miss Saigon as well as numerous TV appearances and three solo albums under her belt.
Andrew Halliday made his West End debut as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. He has performed in countless stage musicals, including playing Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Munkustrap in Cats and Brad in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Leading the NZSO is British conductor Martin Yates, who has two decades of experience as musical director of many of the West End’s most important shows.
As well as his work with respected UK orchestras like the London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic, he regularly conducts the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden. As an accompanist, Martin Yates has worked with international classical stars Jose Carreras, Bryn Terfel and Yo-Yo Ma.
The World of Rodgers & Hammerstein is an entertaining celebration of Broadway’s most successful song-writing duo of all time, combining the symphonic brilliance of Richard Rodgers with Oscar Hammerstein’s unforgettable lyrics. It is sponsored by Sunday Star-Times in association with Phonak NZ Ltd.
Join the NZSO for a show-stopping, toe-tapping night of musical magic!
The World of Rodgers & Hammerstein
Sponsored by Sunday Star-Times
In association with Phonak NZ Ltd
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & West End International
Martin Yates conductor
Jacqui Scott and Andrew Halliday
Wellington Michael Fowler Centre / Fri 6 August / 8pm
Book at TICKETEK
Auckland Aotea Centre / Sat 7 August / 8pm and Sun 8 August / 2.30pm
Book at THE EDGE
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Pietari Inkinen & Li-Wei Qin
18 June 2010
NZSO presents dream team for July tour
Emotions will run high when the NZSO combines a dream team of super-composers, star conductor Pietari Inkinen and exceptional young cellist Li-Wei Qin for a tour of Auckland, Hamilton, Napier and Wellington next month.
In two opulent programmes, the Orchestra will present a full sweep of the Austro-Germanic classical tradition from Haydn, Schumann and Brahms to Mahler and Schoenberg.
Brilliantly expressive virtuoso Li-Wei last performed with the NZSO at the Olympic Cultural Festival in Beijing in 2008, where a delighted audience threw bouquets of flowers on stage. On this tour Li-Wei will perform Schumann’s touching Cello Concerto for audiences in Auckland, Wellington and Napier.
In a second programme in Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington, he will play Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 – lost to history until its surprise discovery in 1961.
The second programme includes Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 5, continuing the NZSO’s Mahler cycle conducted by its youthful Music Director, Pietari Inkinen. Mahler’s Fifth is famous for its aching beauty and emotional force – a musical high water mark for a quality orchestra, and a thrill to play.
This tour also features the world premiere of New Zealand composer Ross Harris’s Three Pieces for Orchestra, which the Orchestra will tour to the great halls of Europe later this year. Commissioned by the NZSO, it is inspired by three of the cities on the Orchestra’s international concert schedule – Vienna, Düsseldorf and Lucerne – and the great composers Mahler, Wagner and Schumann.
Lush, passionate and grand in scale, this tour is a wonderful showpiece for an Orchestra fresh from this month’s double-five-star review by prestigious international title, BBC Music Magazine.
A pre-concert talk by guest speakers will take place 1 hour prior to each performance. Li-Wei will sign exclusive copies of his latest CD of Beethoven Cello Sonatas, not yet available in NZ stores, at each concert interval.
Pietari Inkinen & Li-Wei Qin
Li-Wei Qin cello
Pietari Inkinen conductor
Concert 7
SCHOENBERG Transfigured Night
SCHUMANN Cello Concerto
BRAHMS (orch. Schoenberg) Piano Quartet
Wellington Michael Fowler Centre / Fri 16 July / 6.30pm
Book at TICKETEK / 0800 842 538
Napier Municipal Theatre / Tue 20 July / 8pm
Book at TicketDirect / 0800 484 2538
Auckland / Fri 23 July / 6.30pm
Book at THE EDGE / 0800 289 842
Concert 8
HARRIS Three Pieces for Orchestra
HAYDN Cello Concerto No.1
MAHLER Symphony No.5
Wellington / Sat 17 July / 8pm
Book at TICKETEK / 0800 842 538
Hamilton / Thu 22 July / 8pm
Book at TICKETEK / 0800 842 538
Auckland / Sat 24 July / 8pm
Book at THE EDGE / 0800 289 842
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NZSO earns double five-stars!
28 May 2010
BBC Music Magazine awards double-five stars to CD by NZSO
28 May 2010
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and tenor Simon O’Neill have earned a double five-star review for a CD of Wagnerian arias, from the prestigious international title BBC Music Magazine.
Simon O’Neill’s voice on Father and Son (EMI) is described as “thrilling...with real character and verbal sensitivity” and is assigned five stars in the magazine’s just-released June issue.
Reviewer Michael Scott Rohan also awards five stars for the recording itself, writing: “He [O’Neill] is lavishly supported here by his homeland orchestra under Pietari Inkinen”.
The magazine selected Father and Son as its “Opera Choice” of the month.
The CD was recorded in August 2009 at Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre and features scenes and arias from Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and Parsifal.
