Chris Lam Sam
Presenter
Chris Lam Sam is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading musical entertainers and educators for young audiences. A former primary teacher, he co-founded the nationally touring children’s group The Funky Monkeys in 2003, performing to more than 1.7 million people and releasing four albums.
An award-winning author and songwriter, Chris’s picture book Inspector Brunswick: Case of the Missing Eyebrow received a Storylines Notable Book Award, while his music has been recognised with multiple NZ On Air awards and a Tūī award nomination.
Passionate about making the arts accessible to all children, Chris has co-founded two music charities and has presented more than a thousand performances in early childhood centres and over 800 schools across New Zealand. Since 2023, Chris has been the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s full-time Music Education Animateur, inspiring audiences of all ages to build lifelong connections with orchestral music.
Concerts & events
Serenade
Enigma
Stephen Hough Masterclass
Pre-concert Dinner - Beethoven 9
Beethoven 9
Baroque Delights: NZSO Summer Tour
Messiah
Pre-Concert Dinner 2027
Resurrection
ENZSO Celebrates
Online Classroom Sessions: Introduction to the Orchestra (Years 3-8)
Online Classroom Session: Musical Emotions (Years 0-2)
Online Classroom Session: Soundscapes - How Music Can Tell a Story (Years 3-4)
Beethoven and Mozart
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Troy Kingi Presents: 10|10|10 - The Final Chapter with the NZSO
Mozart's Gran Partita
Reverberate
Organ Recital with James McVinnie
Elouan String Quartet
Electrify
Art of the Score: The Music of Joe Hisaishi
Celtic Connections
Dvořák and Sibelius
London Portraits
Matariki Concert with Louis Baker
A Space Odyssey
From the Canyon to the Stars
Anna Lapwood Organ Recital
Anna Lapwood: Cosmology
Tchaikovsky 5
NZSO Chamber Strings
Emerging Artists '27
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Beethoven Piano Concertos (2, 3 & 4)
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Beethoven Piano Concertos (1 & 5)
Javier Perianes with NZSO Chamber Strings
One Thousand and One Nights
Moonlit Brahms
Todd Young Composer Awards
Verdi Requiem
Peter and the Wolf
A Short History of Beethoven Symphonies
Fantastique
Kia Kotahi Beethoven
