Upbeat: Recent Episodes
RNZ
A daily music and arts interview programme which ran on RNZ Concert for many years, concluding in 2020.
That beautiful Christmas tune - Prokofiev's Troika - and others will be played live this weekend and next by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in their interactive family concert series APO 4 Kids Christmas. The concerts are designed especially for the little ones, they're full of Yuletide favourites AND audience get the chance to walk through the orchestra while they're playing Nathan Rarere asked APO's Thomas Hamill what to expect.
Sound artist and composer Jesse Austin-Stewart has created an album of music vibration compositions, designed to be felt rather than heard. By holding a PlayStation Dualsense controller, the music can be experienced through the way changing patterns feel against your palms. Jesse is one of the 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard award winners, and has produced music with more than 1 million streams. For Music for PlayStation he's worked with the hearing-impaired community to create these works which will be available on streaming sites from 25 November. As someone with a disability, he tells Lynn Freeman that he wanted to create music that offers a shared experience for everyone.
The Mosgiel Brass Band celebrated their 150th Anniversary over the weekend. Front and centre was Barbara Cooper, who's been playing in brass bands for 70 years. Barbara speaks to Jesse.
When immigrants arrived in New Zealand in the Nineteenth Century, they brought with them some enthusiastic musician / composers. Their success rate was a bit hit or miss, according to composer and musicologist Philip Norman, who's about to deliver a talk about our early composers.
Wellington based, Filipino-born bassist and composer Seth Boy often combines the musical influences of his home country and of jazz greats like Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane in his work. Seth has a new work commissioned for Wellington's upcoming Jazz Festival. Farewell, Sweet Stranger is the name of the piece that touches on his feeling of being disconnected from the Philippines, and his concern about losing touch with his roots. Lynn Freeman speaks with Seth Boy - who's also the principal bassist of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band. Seth Boy is performing as part of Sunday Mixtape - three different commissioned performances one after the other, at the Opera House on Sunday 23 October, as part of the Wellington Jazz Festival.
Winning this year's $50,000 Dame Malvina Major Award is allowing Christchurch tenor Oliver Sewell to live the dream and forge an international career. Oliver's currently in Europe after recently winning first place in the Vincerò Worldwide Opera Competition in Naples, competing against 30 finalists in front of an international panel of judges. It was the award money that made it possible for him to attend the competition in Italy, and will help to fund his plans to move to Europe next year, with all the associated costs of travel, lessons and accommodation. Lynn Freeman spoke to him on the line to Dresden in Germany, and he explained why the Dame Malvina Major Award and the competition win have come at a pivotal point in his career.
Grounded in the Celtic musical traditions, multi-instrumentalist Rennie Pearson is about to head around the North Island as he releases his new solo album filled with traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Maritime.
Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha University of Canterbury Librarian Lisa Davies (Kai Tahu) is determined to make te reo more accessible. She's also a jazz musician, so she's brought both together. She's part of Nga Reo Tioriori, a collective of Maori jazz musicians who'll be performing a gala concert at the Christchurch Big Band Festival next month.
NZ Barok - New Zealand's Baroque instrument orchestra is about to reunite after a lengthy hiatus, putting their own spin on famous and lesser-known examples of Baroque - classical music of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. . Graham McPhail is co-artistic director of NZ Barok, and a professor in early music at University of Auckland's School of Music. The orchestra members are leading Baroque specialists from all over the motu and are coming together to play three concerts alongside eight Baroque singers. Lynn Freeman spoke with Graham about Baroque music, in particular the music of Bach and Handel. NZ Barok's Court to Cathedral concert takes place at St Luke's Church in Remuera in Tamaki Makaurau for 3 nights starting on September 30.
After 17 years hosting Nights, RNZ presenter Bryan Crump heads over to our fine music network RNZ Concert this month. He joins Kim Hill to play some favourite songs and chat about his career.
The sweet sounds of four-part harmonies are ringing out in Palmerston North. Barbershop Harmony, New Zealand's national barbershop convention, will serenade audiences, reaching a crescendo with a gala concert. Manawatū reporter Jimmy Ellingham filed this report from a rehearsal of local group the Manawatunes
Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and New Zealand Cross recipient Jacinda Amey say they feel honoured to be invited to attend the Queen's funeral. As part of New Zealand's delegation for the event they will both sit inside Westminster Abbey to commemorate the late monarch. Reporter Jake McKee spoke exclusively with Dame Kiri and Ms Amey about their role in a historic ceremony.
Verdi's opera Macbeth is very true to Shakespeare's tale of a well-regarded military leader corrupted by his conviction he's destined to become King. Playing the lead role in NZ Opera's new interpretation of the opera is Kiwi baritone Philip Rhodes, under the direction of Netia Jones and opposite his Lady Macbeth, Amanda Echalaz.
A new production of Verdi's Macbeth from NZ Opera moves away from the "Scottishness" of the source material and leans into the psychological and emotional content of the piece as an exploration of human nature. Directed by Netia Jones, the production borrows from an Italian Horror show aesthetic.
Shortly, the next generation of elite New Zealand opera singers won't have to win a scholarship, find tens of thousands of dollars, or be separated from their families to train overseas for an international career. Next year the University of Waikato is opening Te Pae Kokako, The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio, aimed at preparing talented young New Zealand singers to be career ready when they graduate. It's the long held dream of Dame Malvina Major, one of our most successful international opera singers. Heading the programme is soprano Madeleine Pierard, the inaugural Dame Malvina Major Chair in Opera at the University of Waikato. Lynn Freeman asked Madeleine why the studio weas so important to Dame Malvina.
New Zealand's famous opera singers are performing together before they head overseas for international stages. It's called the Auckland Opera Studio Annual Gala - and it's on this Sunday at the Auckland Town Hall.
No matter how famous they become overseas, our opera singers are often keen to come home to perform. Munich- based Eliza Boom is no exception. Eliza's in the lineup of in-demand young operatic talent in the upcoming Auckland Opera Studio Annual Gala. She'll be singing arias by Verdi, Puccini, Korngold, Mozart, and one of her new favourite composers, Richard Strauss. Since September 2020, Eliza's been working at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, taking part in their Opera Studio training programme, and performing roles on the main stage. Eliza tells Lynn Freeman that, like so many singers before her, she honed her vocal cords singing gospel music in church, alongside her parents and five siblings. Soprano Eliza Boom will be performing at the Auckland Opera Studio Opera Gala on the 21st of August at the Auckland Town Hall.
Considered one of the world's great violinists, American Hilary Hahn is a three-time Grammy Award winner passionate about making classical music more accessible.
A thoroughly modern Cinderella centred around a quest for identity, true love and the courage to be yourself is being staged by the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company. Cinderella is the company's first national tour in more than a year, and the first production performed at its renovated home base, the St James Theatre in Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. The new ballet, three years in the making, has been choreographed and composed by Kiwis Loughlan Prior and Claire Cowan.
You can't be an opera singer unless you have an impressive pair of lungs - and know how to use them. But Auckland-born soprano Christina Orjis had to get professional help to learn how to breathe again after contracting long-Covid. She spoke to Susie Ferguson.