eNotes September 2026

Discover iconic wonders in the NZSO’s 80^th anniversary season

The NZSO celebrates its 80th anniversary in 2027 with a season designed as a nationwide musical party — travelling from Kerikeri to Invercargill and bringing together international stars, Aotearoa artists, landmark classics and adventurous new sounds.

Tickets go on sale to NZSO Members on 16 September!

The festivities begin in February with two performances of Mahler’s Second Symphony at the newly reopened Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall, conducted by Gemma New. The celebrations continue under her baton with a one-night-only birthday concert, ENZSO Celebrates. This exciting reimagining of the beloved collaboration brings together the music of Split Enz and the full force of the NZSO, with arrangements by the band’s visionary keyboardist, Eddie Rayner. It features a selection of guest artists, including Reb Fountain, Lawrence Arabia and Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins.

Across the year, audiences can look forward to a rich mix of concerts and collaborations. André de Ridder begins his much-anticipated term as NZSO Music Director, leading highlights including a mid-winter Cosmic Festival in Wellington and Auckland and Reverberate, which showcases each city’s mighty town hall organs with British organist James McVinnie, who will also perform a recital in Christchurch.

The season features New Zealand debuts by organist Anna Lapwood, conductor Dalia Stasevska, electric bassist Lauri Porra, Galician piper Carlos Núñez, violinist Akiko Suwanai, clarinettist Pierre Génisson and bass singer Nathan Berg. They join homegrown artists including Troy Kingi, Louis Baker, Bridget Douglas and the Signature Choir.

Centuries of music sit alongside the new and unexpected, from Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Debussy to Max Richter and Joe Hisaishi, whose film scores for Studio Ghibli are loved around the world. The NZSO will also mark the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death with a complete piano concerto cycle performed by Javier Perianes and Kia Kotahi Beethoven, a te reo Māori interpretation of the Ninth Symphony with Troy Kingi and Mahuia Bridgeman-Cooper.

There is plenty for younger audiences and communities too, including whānau-friendly concerts, Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and a new National Youth Music Festival uniting the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, New Zealand Youth Choir and New Zealand Youth Brass Band for Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast.

From iconic songs to cosmic journeys, anniversary commissions and great symphonic milestones, the NZSO’s 2027 Season invites audiences throughout Aotearoa to celebrate 80 years of their national orchestra — and to hear where the music goes next.

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NZSO Annual Appeal: celebrate 80 resounding years!

We look forward to exciting new horizons in 2027 when we welcome our new Music Director André de Ridder, return to Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall, celebrate our 80th birthday, and present a season that explores music in all its forms. From iconic masterworks that have inspired audiences for generations to bold contemporary voices shaping the future of orchestral experiences, we promise an unforgettable season.

Your gift to the 2026 Annual Appeal will help us deliver this milestone season throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, and expand our engagement with new initiatives including secondary school concerts and a week-long National Youth Music Festival!

Please donate by 30 November 2026! 100% of your donation supports the NZSO’s nationwide touring programme of concerts, education and community activities.

Last year, donations from generous individuals and community trusts funded a vital 27% of our concerts and touring and 76% of our education and community programmes.

In 2025, the NZSO Learn & Engage team reached a record 68,882 New Zealanders across 68 centres in all 16 regions of Aotearoa—and we’re committed to exceeding this number in 2027! Your generosity helps us share the power of live music with people across the country.

Contact the NZSO Development team at: philanthropy@nzso.co.nz or 0800 479 674 ext. 2.

Emerging Artists: young, gifted and back on 23 September

Aotearoa’s finest young musicians join us on stage in Wellington on 23 September.

The talented soloists, aged 15 to 17, will perform an assortment of music by classical giants Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Vaughan Williams, Brahms, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, accompanied by the NZSO.

Emerging Artists also features 13 exceptional young musicians performing side-by-side with the orchestra throughout the concert, led by NZSO Principal Conductor-in-Residence Hamish McKeich.

Many musicians who have taken part in the NZSO’s Emerging Artists have gone on to perform in other NZSO concerts, with the NZSO National Youth Orchestra and with orchestras around the country.

Elise Tan, 17, began cello at age five and now studies with the NZSO’s Section Principal Cello Andrew Joyce.  She’s played with the NZSO and Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, reached five consecutive NZCT Chamber Music Contest national finals, won the 2024 title, performed internationally through competitions and masterclasses, and has been accepted into the 2026 Aspen Music Festival and School.  

Elise performs the tense and sardonic first movement of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1.

The other gifted soloists are Alex Wu (oboe), Catherine Harrison (violin), Elise Tan (cello), Jerry Wang (piano), Steven Song (piano) and William Ding (piano).  

Alex, 16, will perform the third movement from Vaughan Williams’ haunting Oboe Concerto.

Alex has won multiple national oboe awards, including the 2025 New Zealand Double Reed Society Oboe Competition. He has performed with youth and community orchestras across New Zealand and held principal oboe roles with Auckland Youth Orchestra and Auckland Mandolinata Orchestra.

Catherine, from Lower Hutt, performs the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s deeply expressive Violin Concerto. The 16-year-old began violin at age three. She has performed with Wellington Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra, among others, and has achieved major recognition in chamber music, exams and competitions, including the Hutt Valley Performing Arts Concerto category.

Jerry, 15, began piano at age eight and now studies with renowned New Zealand pianist Stephen De Pledge. He has won awards including first prizes at the North Shore Performing Arts Society and the Institute of Registered Music Teachers of New Zealand scholarship and was a semi-finalist in the 2024 National Concerto Competition. He plays the dramatic first movement of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto.

Steven, 15, will perform the second and third movements from Prokofiev’s exuberant Piano Concerto No. 1. He began learning piano in 2021 and also studies with De Pledge. He has won prizes at regional competitions, received Best Performance of a New Zealand Work at the 2024 Lewis Eady National Piano Competition, and was a finalist in the 2025 NZCT Chamber Music Contest national final.

William, 16, is a Wellington-based pianist who began piano at age seven. He has earned regional and national recognition including First Prize in Wellington’s Sonata Celebration and a Grand Final placing in the 2023 Lewis Eady National Junior Piano Competition. He performs the passionate first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto.

The 13 young musicians playing side-by-side with the orchestra will perform Nic Brownlie’s Blind is the Gardener, by the young New Zealand composer, and the fourth movement of Schubert’s Second Symphony.

Emerging Artists will also be livestreamed for free on NZSO+.

Star conductor joins Kiwi soprano for Four Last Songs

Sir Donald Runnicles, one of the world’s most renowned conductors, leads the NZSO in October for a sublime concert experience featuring award-winning Kiwi soprano Madeleine Pierard.

Presented in Wellington and Auckland, the programme brings together three extraordinary works: Richard Strauss’ dazzling Rosenkavalier Suite, his profound and deeply personal Four Last Songs, and Johannes Brahms’ masterful Symphony No. 3.

Award-winning New Zealand soprano Madeleine Pierard joins the NZSO for Strauss’ Four Last Songs, among the composer’s final and most moving creations. Written at the end of Strauss’ life, the songs contemplate love, memory and mortality with glowing orchestral colours and a sense of serene farewell.

Sir Donald made his New Zealand debut with the NZSO in 2023 to critical and audience acclaim. The New Zealand Herald hailed his debut as: “One expected the earth to move. And it did.”

The Scottish conductor is considered one of the greatest interpreters of Strauss’ music, which he’s conducted with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies.

During his lifetime Strauss was also a highly regarded conductor and Sir Donald says he always returns to Strauss knowing that the composer also stamped his conducting experience into his scores.

“It’s not [just Strauss] ‘the visionary’, as a composer. There’s very much the practical conductor who is telling [other] conductors what he thinks they should be doing in order to keep the whole thing together and basically sculpting the work.”

Pierard’s performance places Strauss’ late songs at the emotional centre of the concert, balancing the exuberance of the Rosenkavalier Suite with the warmth and grandeur of Brahms’ Third Symphony.

The concert opens with the sensuous, glittering raptures of the Rosenkavalier Suite, evoking the elegance and decadence of 18th-century Vienna through a dazzling swirl of waltzes.  

After the luminous stillness of Four Last Songs, the programme turns to Brahms’ Third Symphony, a work of light and shadow whose motto, ‘frei aber froh’ — free but happy — gives the symphony its distinctive inner strength.

Sir Donald Runnicles appears with generous support from Dame Bronwen Holdsworth DNZM.

Young orchestral musicians celebrated

The Alex Lindsay Awards, founded by NZSO players in memory of former NZSO Concertmaster Alex Lindsay, has granted $13,500 in life-changing awards to seven young Aotearoa musicians.  

The winners this year are cellist Jack Moyer (23), violist Tal Moore (24), violinist Skyla Murray (20), oboist Amy Clough (23), oboist and pianist David Zhu (16), Northland cellist, DJ Hopkinson (22), and Christchurch flutist Anastasia Bell (19).

The chairperson of the Alex Lindsay Award Trust, NZSO Principal Flautist Bridget Douglas, says: “There was a very high standard of applicants for our awards this year, the final decisions weren't easy. These seven fine young musicians have already made a big contribution to musical life in New Zealand and we're glad to be able to support them to continue their studies on their instruments. We hope that we'll see them all playing professionally in New Zealand one day.”



Jack, from Wellington, will put his $1000 award towards his third year of cello study at the Guildhall School of Music in London. After his studies at Guildhall, he would love to pursue an orchestral career.  

Tal, from Auckland, will use his $2000 award towards his Master of Music in Performance at the Royal College of Music in London. He will be studying with New Zealand violist, Bryony Gibson-Cornish.

Skyla, who was Concertmaster of the Dunedin Youth Orchestra and the New Zealand Secondary Schools Orchestra and a member of the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, is now studying towards a bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance at the Sibelius Academy in Finland.  

She will use her $2500 Alex Lindsay Award towards the cost of a new violin.  

Amy, from Christchurch, was Principal of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra for several years and a casual player in the NZSO, Orchestra Wellington and the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. Since 2025 she has been an oboe fellow of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, performing regularly as a casual musician in the orchestra. She is about to begin postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music London. Her $2500 award will help towards the cost of living in London.

David, from Auckland, has been accepted into the Cleveland Institute of Music for undergraduate studies in oboe and piano. He will use his $2500 award towards the cost of these studies, which begin this month. David has already performed as a soloist with both the NZSO and Auckland Philharmonia. He has been Principal Oboe of the NZSO National Youth Orchestra.

DJ, from Auckland, will put a $2000 Michael Monaghan Award towards the purchase of his own cello. He currently studies cello at Te Kōkī – New Zealand School of Music. He was a member of the 2026 NZSO National Youth Orchestra and took part in the Adam Music Festival this year.  

Anastasia, from Christchurch, is the 2006 winner of the Giese Flute Grant. She’s in her second year at Te Kōkī – New Zealand School of Music, is a member of Wellington Youth Orchestra and has played in the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra as a casual musician.  

Last year she performed in the NZSO/NZ Opera production of Monster in a Maze. She has been a conducting fellow of both the NZSO and the Christchurch Symphony. She will put her $1000 grant towards the cost of attending the Adelaide Flute Festival with the UK flautist, Michael Cox in December.

Many previous recipients of the Alex Lindsay Award occupy positions in professional orchestras in New Zealand and overseas. 



To donate, contact Bridget Douglas, ALA Chairperson or ALA Secretary, Belinda Veitch: alex.lindsay.award@gmail.com

NZ Opera presents a passionate tale of love and betrayal

From the composer of Carmen, Bizet’s early masterpiece The Pearl Fishers returns to New Zealand Opera for the first time in 24 years, in a spectacular new production and the company's biggest staging of the year.

Set at an exclusive resort, where image, influence and ambition shape every decision, this visually stunning interpretation brings fresh perspective to Bizet’s luminous score, performed by a cast of internationally acclaimed opera talent from Aotearoa, alongside the Freemasons Foundation New Zealand Opera Chorus.  

Book now to be swept away by a powerful story of friendship, compassion and sacrifice.

23, 25 & 27 September | Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland

14, 16 & 18 October | Isaac Theatre Royal, Ōtautahi Christchurch

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