In 2019 we celebrate the 60th anniversary of our National Youth Orchestra.

Over this time it has proved itself pivotal in shaping New Zealand’s musical future through bringing together many of New Zealand’s most gifted young orchestral players. The high percentage of players in the NZSO – around 50% - who at one stage or another were members of the NYO, demonstrates the lasting effect this establishment leaves on our young generations.

Of the thousands of former NYO members, many can be found in New Zealand and all over the world with successful careers as orchestral players, soloists, chamber musicians, music teachers and just about every other career you can think of.

The dramatic events and passionate performances of the 2018 National Youth Orchestra confirmed yet again that the NYO is an experience not to be missed.

In 2019, the NYO will work with another performance partner celebrating a significant anniversary – New Zealand Youth Choir celebrates 40 years of energetic music making.

See these two take to the stage to premiere a work by the 2019 NZSO National Youth Orchestra Composer-in-Residence, as well as present Elgar’s The Music Makers.

We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams...

James Judd Conductor
New Zealand Youth Choir - David Squire Music Director Glen Downie 2019 NYO Composer-in-Residence Work (World premiere)
Tuirina Wehi arr. Robert Wiremu Waerenga-a-Hika
Sibelius The Oceanides, Op. 73
Elgar The Music Makers, Op. 69

Supported by

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PRESENTED BY CHAMBER MUSIC NEW ZEALAND

Voices New Zealand perform a stunning musical and visual reminder about the beauty and importance of our oceans, essential to survival on our planet. This inspiring concert celebrates our oceans as taonga with uplifting and moving music from around the globe.

A newly commissioned work by New Zealand’s Warren Maxwell (composer of the glorious soundtrack to the Waka Odyssey in the 2018 NZ Festival) will capture his personal experiences of the Southern Ocean and Antarctica when spending time on the ice. Traversing the northern ocean currents, Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi will create a new work about the Arctic Ocean.

A landscape of projected moving images will accompany the music. Created by multimedia artists Tim and Mic Gruchy whose visual designs have featured in works by the likes of Opera Australia, Sydney Theatre Company, New Zealand Festival and Australian Dance Theatre, this will be a spectacular audio visual celebration.

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The familiar Christmas music is a prelude to Handel’s main concern, the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. It is an Easter piece, then, and so too are Bach’s two Passions and his Easter Oratorio.

Handel is always played in December, but liturgically this is quite wrong. The familiar Christmas music is a prelude to Handel’s main concern, the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. It is an Easter piece, then, and so too are Bach’s two Passions and his Easter Oratorio.

Sofi Jeannin, the new Chief Conductor of the prestigious BBC Singers, has devised an imaginative programme telling the Easter story using all four of these towering pieces, including the ever-popular Hallelujah Chorus. With an exceptional cast of singers and Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir it promises to be profoundly moving on a spiritual level and sublime on a musical one, just in time for Easter.

Conductor Sofi Jeannin
Singers include: Sally-Anne Russell, Henry Choo, James Ioelu
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
Director Karen Grylls

Arias and choruses from:

Handel Messiah
J.S. Bach Easter Oratorio
J.S. Bach St John Passion
J.S. Bach St Matthew Passion

 

NOTE: If you want to book tickets to only this production, please click here.

 

This is one of Mahler’s most popular works. Using massive forces – vocal soloists, a choir, extra wind and percussion and offstage brass and percussion – to create high drama, there are also many quieter, intimate moments.

Mahler wrote various programs for this work highlighting the struggles of a hero who finally succumbs to death. The first movement represents a funeral. The second remembers happy times. The third “when you awaken from a blissful dream and are forced to return to this tangled life of ours”. The fourth is a wish for release from a life without meaning. In the final movement “the end of every living thing has come; the Last Judgment is at hand … the trumpets of the Apocalypse ring out.”

Mahler later withdrew the program, telling his wife that “it gives only a superficial indication, all that any program can do for a musical work.”

Swedish mezzo-soprano Anna Larsson is renowned for her Mahler interpretations, which she has sung with the world’s greatest orchestras.

Graduating from The Juilliard School in 2011, American soprano Lauren Snouffer is one of the most versatile young sopranos on the international stage.

Edo de Waart Conductor
Lauren Snouffer Soprano
Anna Larsson Mezzo-soprano
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
Orpheus Choir of Wellington (Wellington only)
Auckland Choral (Auckland only)

Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C minor Resurrection

 

NOTE: If you would like to book tickets to only this production, you can click here.

 

Composer Anna Clyne has collaborated with choreographers, artists, orchestras and musicians worldwide. One such collaboration, Abstractions II (Auguries), III (Seascape) and IV (River) was inspired by several artworks from the Baltimore Museum of Art.

La Mort de Cléopâtre (The Death of Cleopatra) by Hector Berlioz is a dramatic cantata, with text by French poet and playwright Pierre-Ange Vieillard. It was composed when Berlioz was just 25 years old. Featuring leading American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, whose operatic appearances include the Paris Opera, The Met, Milan’s La Scala and Covent Garden Royal Opera House.

English composer Gustav Holst’s most famous work, The Planets, finds inspiration not only in the planets of our solar system, but their astrological character. Written in seven movements (one for each of the known planets at the time) The first, Mars, inspired the composers of both the Star Wars and Gladiator movies. The last, Neptune, deploys an off-stage female choir, which is where Voices New Zealand join this dramatic work.

The approximate runtime for this concert is 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Edo de Waart Conductor
Susan Graham Mezzo-soprano
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir

Anna Clyne Abstractions: II, III, IV
Berlioz La Mort de Cléopâtre (The Death of Cleopatra)
Holst The Planets

 

NOTE: If you would like to book tickets to only this production, you can click here.

Music Director Edo de Waart, is joined by a stellar group of soloists and Voices New Zealand to end the Beethoven Festival in style.

Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony is light-hearted and cheerful. It is one of Beethoven’s shortest symphonies, with a second movement much faster than most symphonic second movements. It is said to imitate the newly invented metronome. Beethoven met the metronome’s inventor, Johann Mälzel, at a dinner party while writing this work.

The Ninth Symphony is regarded as one of Beethoven’s finest works. It has the largest orchestra of his symphonies and was the first symphony by a major composer to use voices. In the final movement, the voices sing the triumphant Ode to Joy, a poem by Friedrich Schiller.

The work premiered in 1824 in Vienna. The audience gave rousing ovations, including waving handkerchiefs and lifting hats so that the deaf composer, who could not hear the applause, could see the ecstatic response.

Beethoven’s Choral Symphony is frequently featured in film, TV and even video games.

As we head towards the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birthday in 2020, his music is as relevant today as it was when it premiered.

Edo de Waart Conductor
Sabina Cvilak Soprano
Kristin Darragh Mezzo-soprano
Kim Begley Tenor
Anthony Robin Schneider Bass
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir

Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in F major, Op. 93
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 Choral

 

AUCKLAND CONCERT SOLD OUT!

NOTE: To buy a ticket to only this production, please click here.

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This musical and visual concert features breath-taking footage from Sir David Attenborough’s iconic BBC Earth series, on the big screen. The full force of the APO and VOICES New Zealand performing the remarkable music by the Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and Jasha Klebe, will accompany the antics of acrobatic primates, fearsome hunting lions, death-defying penguins and dancing grizzly bears.

Celebrate the greatest treasures of our planet in a thrilling, unique way. Planet Earth II Live in Concert is the story of nature on an unprecedented, noble and epic scale.

Conductor David Kay

Planet Earth II is a BBC Studios Natural History Unit production, co-produced with BBC America, ZDF, Tencent and France Télévisions

Mālō e lelei, fakaalofa lahi atu, bula, bonjour.

Another big milestone for the NZ Youth Choir calls for a special celebration!

We want to pay tribute to the many Pasifika singers and the significant impact these singers and the music of the Islands have had on our choirs. We invite alumni, friends and families to join us for the 2019 NZYC International Tour to the Pacific.

Stopovers include Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Fiji, New Caledonia and Sydney, Australia. There will be plenty of opportunities to hear the choir perform and join in to sing with the choir on board! NZYC will have a programme on the islands to engage with local singers, choirs and schools.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity – a choral cruise through the Pacific with the New Zealand Youth Choir!

Email CHOIR@HOT.CO.NZ or call our friends at House of Travel on 0800 246 669 for more information on joining the cruise.

As part of their 2019 summer tour, the NZ Youth Choir is visiting the Treaty Grounds in the lead up to Waitangi Day. This is a free, outdoor concert outside Te Whare Rūnanga. Bring a blanket, a picnic, and your whānau to experience this amazing group of singers.

It is always on honour to put on the black uniform. These 50 singers have been selected from all over the country to represent New Zealand. The trophy cabinet at headquarters is full to the brim and includes the ‘world cup’ of choir singing, the ‘Choir of the World’ trophy won in 1999 in Wales.

This is your chance to see this award-winning ensemble on your home turf for one night only.

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It is always on honour to put on the black uniform.

These 50 singers have been selected from all over the country to represent New Zealand. Their skills are amazing and their international reputation is huge.

The trophy cabinet at headquarters is full to the brim and includes the ‘world cup’ of choir singing, the ‘Choir of the World’ trophy won in 1999 in Wales.

This is your chance to see this award-winning ensemble on your home turf for one night only. Pack your whānau, bring your mates this will be one glorious summer night out.

 

 

SUPPORTED BY