Events Archive - Page 16 of 19

This concert has been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The NZSO will endeavour to reschedule each of the concerts to later dates. However, ticket holders will have the option of a refund if they wish. For ticket holders who can’t exchange tickets but want to support the Orchestra, they can donate part or all of the value of their ticket to the NZSO.”

Following the triumphant 2019 Beethoven Festival, NZSO’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth continues with a masterwork from the end of his life – the Missa Solemnis.

Imbued with theatrical spirit of opera and deep spirituality of Catholic mass, mixed choir, soloists and orchestra bring to life this rarely heard magnum opus.Maestro Donald Runnicles visits New Zealand for the first time to conduct this work. Currently Music Director of Deutsche Oper Berlin and Music Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival, Runnicles is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Under his baton, a quartet of local and international soloists will be supported by Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir. Runnicles brings his considerable operatic expertise to Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, a work whose manuscript Beethoven inscribed with the phrase: “From the heart – may it return to the heart!”

“Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO) regrets to advise that the upcoming Beethoven 250 Symphony Series concerts will not go ahead as planned, owing to the critical Covid-19 situation and the Government’s new limits on mass public gatherings.

We are however delighted to announce that the APO will still be performing each of the Beethoven concerts for you to enjoy via a livestream on the APO website and Facebook page as well as other third-party digital channels.”

Beethoven Symphony No.8

Beethoven Symphony No.9

Beethoven’s whimsical, amiable Eighth Symphony is the work of a great artist who also happens to be a fellow human, laughing and joking like the rest of us.

Our shared symphonic journey ends with a mighty hymn to our universal humanity, the heaven-storming Ninth. The orchestra alone wasn’t enough for Beethoven’s ecstatic vision: voices were necessary. ‘All men shall become brothers,’ they sing. ‘I embrace you, O you millions – this kiss is for all the world!’ With this music, with its vast, elemental force, Beethoven speaks to us across the centuries and into infinity.

This event is part of a four concert series where we will be playing all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies.

Featuring ensemble of singers from the three national choirs:
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
New Zealand Youth Choir
New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir

Britten Simple Symphony
Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks
Fauré Requiem [1893 ed. Rutter]

‘Once upon a time there was a prep-school boy’, wrote Britten. ‘There was one curious thing: he wrote music, reams of it’. The former prep-school boy recycled some of his best juvenilia into this captivating piece.

Handel’s splendid Fireworks Music was composed for a grand celebration, marred only by stray pyrotechnics burning down some buildings. The APO’s pyrotechnics will be solely musical.

Fauré saw death as ‘an aspiration towards the happiness of the hereafter’; his bright, serene Requiem entirely omits Judgment Day. The great British choral conductor Stephen Layton returns to the APO with Fauré’s intimate, rarely heard original version.

Conductor Stephen Layton
Soprano Sara Macliver
Baritone Laurence Williams

Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
Director Karen Grylls

Blue Planet II Live in Concert at Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre on Wednesday 22 July 2020 will need to be rescheduled. We hope to make an announcement of a new date for this concert experience in the coming weeks. For the time being, please hold on to your ticket(s) while we work with BBC Studios and Auckland Live to reschedule the event.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact ticketing@apo.co.nz.

Blue Planet II Live in Concert takes you beneath the surface of the world’s oceans and up close with the fascinating creatures of our underwater world.

This immersive concert experience features breath-taking visuals from the multi-award winning BBC Earth television series on the big screen, with the original music score by Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and David Fleming, performed live by the APO.

Watch surfing dolphins, powerful killer whales, colourful clownfish and ethereal jellyfish. From icy polar seas to vibrant coral reefs, from the luminous deep sea to vast undulating kelp forests — Blue Planet II Live in Concert is an unforgettable exploration of the awe-inspiring wonders of the deep.

Presented by BBC Studios, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and Auckland Live

Proudly sponsored by Meridian Energy

Blue Planet II is a BBC Studios Natural History Unit Production

We guarantee a vibrant concert of wonderful music to farewell our young singers on the eve of the NZSSC’s first ever tour to Europe! Touring in Germany and Prague before attending the Dresden International Children’s Choir Festival as one of five invited international choirs, this will be a Farewell Concert to remember.

Music Director: Sue Densem

“The astonishing variety of the singing, the display of absolute confidence, freedom and easy interaction of all choir members, made this a concert which will live long in the memory – a wonderful music experience for both choir and audience, exhibiting the splendid culture in the choir, built up under the leadership of Music Director Sue Densem and her assistants, Brent Stewart and Rachel Alexander.”

Peter Williams for Hawkes Bay Today, January 2020

Come on a festive journey with NZ Youth Choir and special guests, VOICES New Zealand!

In this cracker of a concert, these two national choirs have much to celebrate. Not only the festive season and warmer days, but it’s also our 40th anniversary year!

NZ Youth Choir will be performing a selection from our Pacific repertoire, specially celebrating Pacific music. This is your last chance to see this choir before their first ever Pacific tour. They are journeying to Samoa by plane, then on the MS Maasdam Cruise Ship to Tonga, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, and Australia.

VOICES NZ with be performing well known Christmas songs, including brand new arrangements from some of Aotearoa’s most esteemed composers. Directed by Dr Karen Grylls, this choir fills a room with festive cheer.

“Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir…was magnificent, the men in striding good form, the sopranos fearless and unerring above the stave.” – NZ Herald

This is a rare chance to see two of New Zealand’s top choirs perform together. Plus we’ll be debuting our first ever Virtual Choir!

With support from

Reviews from our 2018 concerts in Napier and Palmerston North:

“The audience was enthralled and totally absorbed in everything they heard and saw, from start to finish. … Little wonder that the audience was on its feet at the end in a prolonged standing ovation in appreciation of a superb concert where all the singers continually projected the pleasure they gained from singing and sharing this with an appreciative audience.”
Peter Williams for the Hawkes Bay Today, January 2018 “Throughout their concert the choir sang with great commitment, magnificent tone and technique and a marvellous feeling for the style of each work. What was surprising, however, was the freshness and feeling of spontaneity, qualities that can only reflect the hours of hard work that have gone in to ensure the success of this concert”.
Stephen Fisher, reviewer for Stuff Palmerston North, January 2018

Free Community Events in Napier

Workshop for young singers - come and see how a national choir rehearses. Join us for vocal warm ups, rehearse a concert piece with us and stay to meet our members over morning tea!

Secondary School-aged Singers: Register to attend Student Rehearsal, Sunday January 19, 9am to 11.30am

Local choir conductors: come and observe our rehearsal processes in Napier. Come for a few hours...or a few days! Meet with Music Director Sue Densem for Q&A session.

Choir Conductors: Register to observe rehearsals, January 18-21

Open Rehearsal: All welcome to observe the choir at work under Music Director, Sue Densem. Sunday January 19, 4.30pm to 6.00pm. No registration required

This tour is supported by:

Unfortunately our tour has been cancelled due to the COVD-19 pandemic. However our Auckland concert is still going ahead!

Public concerts in this tour include the following:

Farewell Concert in Auckland, Sunday April 19, St Matthew-in-the-City

Friday April 24, St Gumbertus Church, Ansbach, Germany: 7.30pm, one hour programme plus host choir performance of 30 mins

Saturday April 25, Our Lady Victorious Church, Prague: 1.00pm, 30 minute programme

Sunday April 26, Museum of Music, Prague: 7.30pm, one hour programme

International Children’s Choir Festival Dresden

28 April – 3 May, Dresden, Germany

It's that time again—practise videos, gear lists, billeting schedules and itineraries abound as we prepare for our October rehearsals and concerts in Dunedin, Timaru and Christchurch.

Let friends and family in the mainland know to get their tickets to the concerts in Dunedin (4 October), Timaru and Christchurch (5 October). Don't miss out!

We'll also be performing as part of the SCAPE Public Art Festival at the Christchurch Art Gallery, 6 October, 11:30am before everyone heads home that afternoon.

This tour is supported by:

Free Community Events in Napier

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