Bold Baroque and Christmas classics with Summer Brass, tour starts tonight in Wellington 

Acclaimed Australian conductor and trumpeter Yoram Levy joins the NZSO tonight in Wellington for the first concert in our much-anticipated Summer Brass tour. 

Summer Brass (5-13 Dec) showcases the power and precision of the NZSO’s Brass and Percussion sections in a programme to stir the soul and ignite the holiday spirit.  

With commanding energy and musical finesse, the NZSO ensemble presents a rich tapestry of sound—from the grandeur of Baroque masterpieces to the stirring drama of 20th-century fanfares and beloved Christmas classics. 

Maestro Levy is Head of Brass and Trumpet Studies at the Australian Academy of Music, where he conducts its renowned brass ensemble. Principal Trumpet of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra until 2023, he’s regarded as one of Australia’s leading trumpeters and brass teachers. 

His international reputation as a trumpeter has seen him work with leading orchestras and music legends, including Leonard Bernstein. It will also be a special reunion for Maestro Levy, who played trumpet in the NZSO for several months in 1994. 

The Summer Brass tour continues tomorrow in Paraparaumu (6 Dec) and next week in Whanganui (9 Dec), Napier (10 Dec), Rotorua (11 Dec), Hamilton (12 Dec) and Tauranga (13 Dec). 

Audiences will be swept away as the NZSO performs Christopher Mowat’s vibrant arrangement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Samuel Barber’s haunting Mutations from Bach, and Henri Tomasi’s theatrical Fanfares Liturgiques, a work that moves between solemnity and splendour with theatrical flair. 

To celebrate the festive season, Summer Brass also includes beloved Christmas classics reimagined through the warm, golden tones of a brass ensemble. From jubilant carols to heartwarming melodies, the orchestra delivers holiday favourites like Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells Swing-a-Ling-Ding, and Joy to the World in all their seasonal glory. 

A beautiful celebration with our Musicians’ Chair donors at Logan Brown 

NZSO Chair donors and musicians were delighted at being hosted by Steve Logan and his team at Wellington’s Logan Brown for a celebration of the generous community around our orchestra and another fantastic concert season.   

Made possible by our sponsors Te Kairanga, Pegasus Bay and Logan Brown, the evening saluted our supporters who help us share world-class music, inspire audiences and nurture the next generation of talented musicians across Aotearoa New Zealand.   

Our sponsors and donors are a reminder of the power of community, and NZSO is truly grateful for everyone who is by our side.   

If you’d like to find out more about joining our donor community or becoming a Musicians’ Chair sponsor, we’d love to hear from you. 

And there is still time to give to the NZSO Annual Appeal, match-funded by the NZSO Foundation to 31 December. 

For more information email: philanthropy@nzso.co.nz

Give the gift of music this holiday season

NZSO gift vouchers are the perfect gift for the music lover in your life. They can be used to buy concert tickets or an NZSO Membership that can be used for any 2026 Season concerts. 

Best of all, we’ll personalise the voucher for you and mail or email it to your lucky recipient. All you have to do is choose the value of your voucher – easy!  

The holiday season is also the perfect time to become an NZSO Member or renew your membership for our exciting 2026 Season. 

With NZSO annual Memberships from just $10, it’s like having Christmas every day! No booking fees, no hidden fees and immediate access to discounted tickets, plus a range of exclusive benefits including a sensational assortment of exclusive NZSO Member events. 

We’re thrilled to bring you more unforgettable experiences in 2026. Stay connected for our upcoming events and continue to enrich your NZSO journey. 

Bic Runga to perform with NZSO exclusively in Wellington

Kiwi music icon Bic Runga will perform a special concert with the NZSO exclusively in Wellington on 02 April 2026. 

Presented by WellingtonNZ and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Bic Runga & the NZSO will feature songs from her much-anticipated new album Red Sunset, to be released on 13 Feb, and a selection of her hits and best-loved songs spanning her extraordinary career. 

Bic’s songs will be transformed by the power of the NZSO, featuring 60 musicians, alongside Bic’s own band, which includes her partner and co-producer multi-instrumentalist Kody Nielson of The Mint Chicks and Unknown Mortal Orchestra fame. 

Red Sunset, recorded in Paris this year, is Bic’s first full original material since 2011’s Belle, and co-produced by Bic and Kody. The album’s lead single and title track, a powerful torch song of longing and desire, is out now.  It follows the singles It’s Like Summertime, released to acclaim in September, and Paris in the Rain, a cinematic soundscape inspired by the image of Paris. 

Bic (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine) is a multi-award-winning singer-songwriter and the youngest inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. She shot to fame with the single Drive, first recorded in Wellington, winning the prestigious Apra Silver Scroll Award in 1996. Her 1997 debut album Drive, which included the hit Sway, won the Tūī for Album of the Year. Over her career she has won 20 Tūī awards – the most an Aotearoa solo artist, including Best Female Vocalist four times. Her second album Beautiful Collision was the biggest selling album of 2003. 

A New Zealand Order of Merit recipient for services to music, Bic is also acclaimed for her collaborations and live performances with other music icons, including Tim and Neil Finn, Sir Dave Dobbyn and Anika Moa. 

She’s also inspired and influenced a new generation of New Zealand musicians. Lorde described her as “New Zealand music royalty” when she performed on stage with Bic in 2019. 

Bic has previously performed live with the NZSO for Nelson’s Opera in the Park in 2018. However, Bic Runga & the NZSO will be her first full concert with the national orchestra. 

Bic Runga & the NZSO is her only performance with an orchestra during the New Zealand leg of her Bic Runga Red Sunset Album Tour Aotearoa NZ & Australia 2026, which kicks off at Black Barn in Hawke’s Bay on Saturday, 7 March, before heading to new venues in Hamilton and Auckland: the Waikato Regional Theatre on Saturday, 21 March, and the NZICC Theatre, Auckland on Friday, 27 March. Bic will return home to Christchurch to play the Isaac Theatre Royal on Sunday, 29 March. 

NZSO a big part of Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is excited to be part of four extraordinary shows in the 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts in Wellington. 

Ranging from dance (Macbeth and Gloria: A Triple Bill) and choral (Ara Hura – A Visionary Journey) to platinum-selling Māori artist Rob Ruha (TEIWA), these four unique events showcase the versatility and musicality of the national orchestra with Aotearoa New Zealand’s most exciting musicians, singers and dancers. 

The NZSO joins the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s for the world premiere of Macbeth (25-28 Feb), a bold and bloody retelling of Shakespeare’s tragedy by acclaimed choreographer Alice Topp. After the Festival, the NZSO features in all Macbeth performances in Dunedin (13-14 Mar), Christchurch (18-21 Mar) and the Auckland Arts Festival (4-7 Mar). 

Rob Ruha takes the stage with the NZSO to transform the Michael Fowler Centre into TEIWA – Rob Ruha with the NZSO (7 Mar), a supernatural performance house of tribal futurism that will transport the senses, featuring the unmistakable haka power of special guests TOA (Te Taumata O Apanui). 

Dancers will soar, twist and turn in Gloria (12-14 Mar), a landmark trans-Tasman collaboration honouring revered New Zealand choreographer, the late Douglas Wright.  

Presented by The New Zealand Dance Company and Co3 Contemporary Dance Australia, the NZSO joins with Voices New Zealand for this special event. Gloria restages Wright’s iconic masterpiece, first seen in the 1992 Festival, alongside two exhilarating new works by Raewyn Hill and Moss Paterson. Set to Vivaldi’s famous sacred score, Gloria is a breathtaking celebration of life. 

The NZSO partners with Voices New Zealand and renowned Māori musician Horomona Horo for Ara Hura (15 Mar), a powerful celebration of our most influential choral conductor, Karen Grylls. Voices NZ was founded by Karen and made its debut at the 1998 Festival. 

Book your tickets now to these unforgettable live experiences. 

Just released! The NZSO shines on new albums

You can now enjoy the NZSO performing on two exciting new album releases: award-winning composer Michael Norris’ Rerenga and REforms with Kiwi indie rock legend Shayne Carter. 

Both albums were made possible with support from the NZSO Recording Aotearoa programme. 

Our album collaboration with Shayne—which entered the Independent Music NZ Albums chart at No.3 and Top 20 Aotearoa Albums chart at No.5 this week—expands on our 2022 Bright Sparks tour with the celebrated singer-songwriter.

On REforms the heft and glory of the NZSO collides with the Shayne Carter songbook. Ten sumptuous arrangements that keep the integrity of the originals while ‘reforming’ them in orchestral technicolour.  

Classic songs from Shayne’s career, including Randolph’s Going Home and If I Were You, spar with new tracks like Left to Defend. Guitar and orchestra do battle on the mighty Crystalator. Songs from his critcally acclaimed Offsider album, composed in a mist of classical inspiration, expand from their original two-finger piano primitivism into full scale epicness. Other songs glower with the drama of orchestral restraint.  

With arrangements by the renowned Tane Upjohn Beatson and the orchestra led by NZSO Principal Conductor-in-Residence Hamish McKeich, REforms is a unified collection of songs that coalesce into one another to become a singular and purposeful artistic statement. 

REforms is available via digital download or limited edition vinyl. 

Rerenga, Michael’s debut on Rattle Records, brings together some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top ensembles—the NZSO, NZTrio and Stroma—with leading soloists Amalia Hall, Jonny Marks and Alistair Fraser in a compelling cycle of works shaped by texture, colour and journey. 

Across five extraordinary works, Michael unfolds both broad orchestral canvases and intimate chamber textures; these works are both deeply rooted and restlessly exploratory. Rerenga reflects the composer’s long-standing engagement with place, ecology and collaboration, offering a unique listening experience at once spacious, intricate and unmistakably of these islands. 

Three of the tracks on Rerenga received the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, while a fourth won the Philip Neill Memorial Prize in Composition. As such, this album stands as a major contribution to New Zealand’s art-music repertoire and an essential statement from one of its leading compositional voices. 

Rerenga and REforms are available via digital download. REforms is also available on limited-edition vinyl. 

Other generous supporters for the albums were: 

Rerenga: the Victoria University of Wellington Strategic Research Fund, the Lilburn Trust and Dame Gillian Whitehead. 

REforms: Creative New Zealand, South Link Productions and donors Peter and Mary Biggs.