As part of this year’s World of Wearable Arts Award Show, musical director Paul McLaney has brought six of New Zealand’s best and most acclaimed composers together and commissioned a new work from each of them. Here they comment on each other’s work – not just for WoW, but across their careers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwMqdLxaFoM Tane Upjohn … Read more
Anna Knox reviews the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s Shed Series – Responses and finds that Shed 6 transforms the experience of live classical music entirely. Last time I wrote about the NZSO, I claimed that hearing them perform was not about the ‘whole experience’. I’d like to say in hindsight that was foolish and I’ve changed my … Read more
‘There’s something incredible about watching otherwise ordinary people do something extraordinary.’ A recent NZSO performance prompts Anna Knox to reflect on what makes live classical music so special. I always forget, beforehand, that live orchestral performance is one of most wonderful things a human being can experience, and then, the moment the first note is … Read more
Kate Robertson talks to Rebecca Nelson, New Zealand’s newest classical crossover star. Classical crossover singer Rebecca Nelson is kind of a big deal right now. Her debut album, Poppies & Pohutukawa, has been sitting around the top of the album charts since its release in early April, and is currently ahead of The Chainsmokers, David … Read more
The long journey that turned Shayne Carter, one of New Zealand’s great guitar heroes, into a classical piano music fan. Like most people under 70, I’d always found classical music a bit of a bore, a wing of the museum I hadn’t found the key for, the property of blue rinses bussed in from the … Read more