Music superstars to perform in Wellington with the NZSO

NZSO Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Gemma New

One of the world’s greatest opera singers, a sensational chart-topping British saxophonist and Kiwi Oscar-winner Bret McKenzie are part of a star-studded array of artists to perform with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington this year.

American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, a multi-Grammy Award winner and Olivier Award winner, performs for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand with the NZSO led by Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor Gemma New.

Hailed as “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” (The New Yorker) and with a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” (The Times) DiDonato performs Berlioz’s spine-tingling song cycle Les nuits d’été (Summer Nights) in Wellington in November.

“Our superstar-studded season creates a ‘wow!’ experience right throughout the year with so many virtuosic performers and their insightful perspectives,” says New.

British saxophonist Jess Gillam, 26, went to No.1 in the UK classical charts with her first two albums, featuring music from classical composers to Björk, David Bowie and Kate Bush.

The youngest ever soloist to play at the prestigious Last Night at the Proms, Gillam performs in New Zealand for the first time Glazunov’s romantic Saxophone Concerto and joins the orchestra for Rachmaninov’s epic Symphonic Dances.

Oscar-winning musician and comedian Bret McKenzie, who starred alongside the NZSO and The Muppets for the hit Jim Henson Retrospectacle in 2018, hosts the family-friendly Creepy-Crawly Carnival.

The concert, with the orchestra led by acclaimed German conductor André de Ridder, features McKenzie as narrator of Saint-Saëns beloved Carnival of the Animals. The orchestra also perform Roussel’s enchanting The Spider’s Feast: Symphonic Fragments to a special big-screen video experience starring New Zealand creepy-crawlies and more.

Other international stars to perform with the NZSO in Wellington include Grammy-winner Daniil Trifonov and fellow pianist Javier Perianes, Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto, Austrian cellist Kian Soltani and Welsh flautist Emily Beynon, alongside Kiwi violinist Amalia Hall, taonga puoro specialist Jerome Kavanagh Poutama and NZSO Concertmaster Vesa-Matti Leppänen.

Under the direction of Leppänen, an ensemble of NZSO players kick-start the orchestra’s 2025 Season with a selection of Baroque music. The eight-date Timeless Beauty: Handel & Telemann tour includes Kāpiti (6 March), Wellington (7 March) and Carterton (8 March).

Legendary Japanese maestro Masaaki Suzuki, a leading authority on Bach, is part of the line-up of top international conductors to lead the NZSO this year, which includes Australia’s Simone Young, Italy’s Umberto Clerici, Hungary’s Gábor Káli and NZSO Music Director Emeritus James Judd.

New’s first concert is Pictures at an Exhibition on 27 March, featuring Emily Beynon, and in September Mahler’s extraordinary Sixth Symphony, a monumental work involving 110 musicians.

Maestro de Ridder leads the winter Immerse Rumakina festival with three concert programmes. The NZSO also presents a special Summer Brass programme led by celebrated American musician and conductor Gail Williams.

New Zealand works to feature this year include Salina Fisher and Jerome Kavanagh’s Papatūānuku and the world premiere of Victoria Kelly’s Stabat Mater.

Kelly’s work is a response to Rossini’s famous Stabat Mater, which is also performed in the concert, led by esteemed Italian conductor Valentina Peleggi and featuring soprano Madison Nonoa, mezzo-soprano Anna Pierard, tenor Filipe Manu, bass-baritone Teddy Tahu-Rhodes and Voices New Zealand.

Canadian Adam Johnson will conduct the NZSO National Youth Orchestra in concerts featuring Kiwi soprano Madison Horman.

For more details on the NZSO’s Season 2025 go to www.nzso.co.nz