Over 80 students participated in our week-long Orchestral Summer School, immersing themselves in sectionals, workshops, and full tutti rehearsals.
The week culminated in a Finale Concert at the Bruce Mason Centre, conducted by Ingrid Martin. The concert featured two world premieres: Polka Dots by Lucy Mulgan and Meditations on the Waitematā Harbour by our 2025 Young Composer-in-Residence, Grace Wellik.
A huge thank you to the Future Fund donors, Ministry of Education, and The Lion Foundation for supporting this event.
Opportunities like this are made possible through the Future Fund, which supports our Learn & Participate programme. With your support, we reach over 30,000 people annually, mentoring and inspiring the next generation. Learn more about supporting the Future Fund here.
Photo Credits: Thomas Hamill Photography
This year, 500 West Auckland students rode music school buses to see magical performances by some of New Zealand’s best instrumentalists. At Auckland Philharmonia’s Discovery (for secondary schools) and Kiwi Kapers (for primary and intermediate schools) concerts, the tamariki experienced engaging high calibre live shows that connected them with music of the orchestra and its world-class professional players.
Pupils from New Lynn School were among those who joined the fun at the Kiwi Kapers concert in the Aotea Centre. The school’s Principal, Greg Roebuck, says this was “not only a fun, interactive excursion for the tamariki, but was also an opportunity for them to see a professional orchestra perform, which they may have never experienced otherwise. Live music performances are important for children’s development and wellbeing, positively impacting their lives. These concerts, and the provision of transport to and from the venue, gave our students access to music education that opens doors for them in the future.”
Auckland Phil’s Discovery and Kiwi Kapers concerts are two popular events in the orchestra’s schools music education programme that are attended by students from across Tāmaki Makaurau. In May, a total of 1142 secondary school students attended the Discovery concert, which was a special opportunity to hear legendary works performed live by the full Auckland Philharmonia in the Auckland Town Hall. Then, at this month’s lively Kiwi Kapers concerts for 2,826 primary and intermediate students in the Aotea Centre and Due Drop Events Centre, the orchestra explored storytelling through music, in partnership with The New Zealand Dance Company.
Transporting students to events in the CBD can be a significant barrier to participation, particularly for schools in West Auckland. Free buses carried the 500 West Auckland students and 50 staff to Auckland Phil’s schools’ concerts this year thanks to support of The Trusts Community Foundation (TTCF). Warren Flaunty, Chair of TTCF, says they are “proud to continue our support for Auckland Philharmonia’s music education initiatives, such as funding this bus transport for West Auckland students. It’s wonderful to see the smiles on the kids’ faces when they attend such a magical live music experience and it’s great to facilitate their access to these important opportunities.”
These concerts were delivered by Auckland Philharmonia’s Learn & Participate music education programme thanks to the orchestra’s core funders Creative NZ, Auckland Council, and Foundation North and the generous support of the Chisholm Whitney Charitable Trust, The Trusts Community Foundation (TTCF) and the Four Winds Foundation for Kiwi Kapers 2024 concerts, and the Potter Masonic Trust for the 2024 Discovery concert. Find out more about upcoming Learn & Participate events and programmes at aucklandphil.nz
This holiday season, take your pick from Auckland Philharmonia’s cracker selection of Christmas concerts, performed by some of the best musicians in Aotearoa. Gather the kids on the sleigh and head to Tunes 4 Tamariki: Christmas for sing and dance-along fun presented by a magical fairy on a Christmas adventure. Or join with family and friends at Celebrate Christmas (Sold Out) for an uplifting evening of traditional festive music played by the full Auckland Phil, led by sought-after choral conductor Stephen Layton, together with tenor Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono and The Graduate Choir New Zealand.
Kiwi composition student, Grace Wellik, has been selected for a sought-after residency programme that supports young composers to step up an octave to a professional career. Wellik brings to the position of Auckland Philharmonia’s 2025 Young Composer-in-Residence a composition approach that blends traditional techniques with a present-day Aotearoa voice, rich with hopefulness and connection. The multi-faceted musician will add this this role to her impressive music résumé, which includes experience in national-level youth composition, conducting and singing.
Auckland Philharmonia’s Young Composer-in-Residence programme is a partnership between the orchestra and the University of Auckland, which supports New Zealand tertiary students to launch their professional careers as composers. The residency is coveted by student and emerging composers as it provides them with the rare opportunity to hear their works performed in concert settings by a professional orchestra. Such an experience has often proven to be a valuable stepping stone for early career composers looking to build their portfolio.
A student at the University of Auckland, Wellik will complete her Bachelor of Music this year, then continue her study towards Honours in Composition. She is a versatile musician who sings with the New Zealand Youth Choir and the Auckland Youth Choir, trained with the New Zealand Choral Federation as a Young Conductor, and was the 2024 Young Composer in Residence for Auckland Youth Choir.
Wellik’s compositions explore the marrying of traditional classical compositional ideas and techniques with a voice that is present, magical, and undeniably New Zealand. There is a soft hopefulness to Wellik’s compositions, aiming to transport listeners into honest narratives. Stripping back the weight of modern life, Wellik’s music reminds us that at the core of humanity is the connections we have with others.
Under the mentorship of professional New Zealand composers, including Ryan Youens, Wellik will compose three works during the residency: two full orchestral works and a piece for chamber ensemble. They will be performed by the Auckland Philharmonia at Learn & Participate events in 2025, including the Orchestral Summer School programme, Discovery concert, and a bespoke chamber ensemble opportunity suited to Wellik’s career direction.
Wellik is looking forward to the residency and says, “I’m so excited to work with such a phenomenal orchestra over the next year. As a composer, nothing quite compares to hearing your music performed live, and the grand scale and quality of an orchestra is truly a magical experience.”
Support from the Freemasons Foundation underpins the Young Composer-In-Residence programme and the opportunities for aspiring professional and tertiary students generated through this University of Auckland and Auckland Phil partnership.
This residency is offered as part of Auckland Philharmonia’s Learn & Participate programme, which aims to give Aucklander’s access to opportunities and experiences that inspire a connection with orchestral music. The Learn & Participate programme connects the orchestra’s professional musicians with schools, individuals and communities across Tāmaki Makaurau through events, concerts, and workshops that involve over 30,000 young people and adults each year.
William Green examines the overlapping lives of two great English artists: Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Blake.
Ralph Vaughan Williams(RVW) was by all accounts a curmudgeon. Or perhaps, more accurately, he liked to play the curmudgeon. Musical literature of the 20th century is peppered with gruff remarks by the composer when there seemed little call for them. Auckland composer and organist Ron Dellow delighted in telling the story, from his London student days, of finding a seat at a mezzanine cafe that just happened to give him a bird’s-eye view of RVW’s 80th birthday celebrations, and overhearing the great man say, in his best curmudgeonly voice, “Now, I don’t want it put about that I don’t like birthday cake!” Similarly, UK-born – but latterly New Zealand-resident – Margaret Wegener was grateful for the help he gave her as a young composer in getting her music published, but alarmed at their first meeting when the distinguished composer surveyed her for a few seconds before exclaiming, “I thought you’d be taller.”
Curmudgeon or not, Vaughan Williams was an independent thinker and a man of strong opinions that he had no trouble putting forth forcefully, and often dismissively. Having a dissenting voice in his family pedigree (he was the grand-nephew of Charles Darwin) would certainly have helped him express contrary views with confidence. As a child, he was spun the orthodox line by family members on matters such as religion, often with the added proviso, “... although Uncle Charles doesn’t think so.”
Whether English artist and poet William Blake was a curmudgeon is open to debate, but no one could deny his fiercely independent spirit, nor his opinionated nature. Blake was a visionary in the literal sense, in that he saw actual visions and heard voices, for which many regarded him as insane. As a result, Blake felt sidelined and lost few opportunities for trenchant criticism of the mainstream, particularly established religion. His fellow artists were frequently in the firing line, Rubens in particular being “filled with tints and messes ... laid on indiscriminately” and given to filthy brown shadows “somewhat of the colour of excrement.”
Perhaps some sort of bond between the two men led Vaughan Williams to jump at the chance to write music for a ballet based on a selection of Blake’s Illustrations of The Book of Job, for the artist’s centenary, and which Auckland Philharmonia performs on 7 November. RVW’s enthusiasm for the project was baffling. He famously hated ballet so much – especially dancing en pointe – that he insisted the finished product be called ‘a masque for dancing’, even
though critics pointed out that the result isn’t strictly a masque. Vaughan Williams was quite happy when the decadent Diaghilev turned the project down, declaring that the great Russian impresario would have made “an unholy mess of it.”
The result is a long but close-knit score divided into nine scenes, where the agnostic composer delights in depicting God and the angels with triadic music, Job and his family with modal music and Satan with some of the most complex and dissonant music Vaughan Williams had written to date. Douglas Lilburn described Job as a pivotal work, in which his 57-yearold teacher proved he could go far beyond the pastoral style he’d been associated with, a point brought home forcefully five years later in RVW’s Fourth Symphony.
What else did these independent thinkers, Vaughan Williams and Blake, share? A little-known fact about Blake is that, despite having no musical training, he used to compose his own tunes, which were often described as beautiful by those who knew him, and which were sometimes written down by musical professors (sadly, none of this music has survived). Blake often worked in three media simultaneously, making an engraving of his subject while writing a poem about it and setting the result to one of his tunes.
Neither artist gained recognition easily. Vaughan Williams began to be noticed only in his late 30s with the Tallis Fantasia (though one critic thought it “a queer, mad piece by an odd fellow from Chelsea”). Blake’s struggle was greater, and after being branded “an unfortunate lunatic” by the sole reviewer of his 1809 exhibition, he gave up seeking public approval. Near the end of his life, Wordsworth and Coleridge – both Cambridge educated – showed an interest and spoke well of him, although they may have tittered at his idiosyncratic spelling (Blake never even went to school) and Wordsworth thought him mad.
Blake and Vaughan Williams identified strongly with London, and the street cries of this vast and complex city found artistic expression in their work. In A London Symphony, written by Vaughan Williams in 1914, the cries are incorporated into his depiction of a city waking up, with its subsequent hustle and bustle. Blake’s poem ‘London’, on the other hand, deals with social injustice and depicts the poet wandering the streets at midnight and listening to the piteous
cries of chimney sweep and harlots, and the fearful wails of babies born into such an unjust world.
At the very end of his long life, Ralph Vaughan Williams composed the Ten Blake Songs, for voice and oboe, for the Guy Brenton film The Vision of William Blake. Fittingly, the cycle begins with ‘Infant Joy’ and ends with ‘Eternity’, and sure enough, includes ‘London’, which the composer sets as a plaintive cry in free time for voice alone. Following ‘London’ is a simple, diatonic setting of ‘Little Lamb’, a poem Vaughan Williams famously detested, proving perhaps that the crusty composer had softened in his old age.
This poignant work, a meeting of two great minds, was first performed on 8 October 1958, a premiere made more poignant still as the great composer had died in his sleep six weeks earlier. Perhaps these two artistic souls are communing somewhere in another realm, “burning bright” as with Blake’s Tyger, or simply glimpsing “a World in a Grain of Sand/And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.”
7.30pm, Thursday 7 November
Auckland Town Hall
Conductor Karl-Heinz Steffens
Piano Ingrid Fliter
Beethoven Leonore Overture No.3
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3
Vaughan Williams Job – A Masque for Dancing
Auckland Philharmonia’s Francesca McGeorge spoke to cellist Johannes Moser ahead of his performance with the orchestra for our upcoming NZ Herald Premier Series concert Romantic Journeys.
Johannes, we are so excited to have you in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Can you share a bit about your process for learning a major solo work with orchestra?
Most of the pieces I’m currently touring with have been part of my repertoire since my student days, and over time, I’ve worked to refine them and reconsider many of my early interpretative choices. I aim to revisit these older pieces with a fresh perspective, bringing my present life experiences into each performance.
However, it becomes especially exciting with newly commissioned pieces that I’m learning for the first time, free from any prior interpretations. Approaching these works with a truly open mind is one reason I’m so passionate about contemporary music. It offers a unique platform to explore not only the composer’s vision but also my own current mindset, abilities, and musical philosophy. Each new piece is like a clear mirror, reflecting where I stand as an artist today.
Tell us, what draws you to Tchaikovsky’s music?
For me, Tchaikovsky is at his strongest in his operas and ballet scores. He is a master of drama, understanding theatre and the need for striking contrasts like no other. I also admire his exquisite writing for voice, with a dramatic range that spans from tender love songs to intense, sometimes harrowing emotions. His ability to transfer these qualities so naturally to the cello is a remarkable gift.
What memories does playing Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme bring up for you?
My most vivid memory is my participation in the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, which, as the name suggests, featured the Rococo Variations in the finals. It was during this time that I first encountered the original version, which has since become my preferred version and the one I’m currently performing. I also have strong memories of performing this piece with an orchestra for the first time shortly after my 18th birthday. It was a remarkable experience, though admittedly daunting. Looking back on the 30 years I’ve spent practising and performing this piece, I feel incredibly fortunate to have had such a wonderful companion through my early years of learning and throughout my career.
Is there a composer or work you haven’t performed, that you would like to?
Recently I have been deeply intrigued by the composer Kapustin. During the pandemic, I studied Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante, though I haven’t yet had the opportunity to perform it. It’s been scheduled a few times, but life always intervened, and it hasn’t happened yet. In terms of contemporary composers, I feel very fortunate that those I’ve approached have generally been willing to collaborate with me, and the creative exchanges have been immensely fulfilling. I consider this collaborative process one of the most rewarding aspects of my profession. Being part of a wellspring of ideas and engaging with the diverse visions of different composers makes this career incredibly rich and enjoyable.
What are some of your favourite albums to listen to?
Beastie Boys Check your Head
Miles Davis Bitches Brew
Solti Conducts the Chicago Symphony Don Juan
Anything by Beethoven, any day.
What is the best piece of advice you would give to a young aspiring musician?
I would say, don’t focus only on what YOU want to achieve in your career; take time to connect with the community and understand THEIR needs as well. A musician’s career increasingly requires an ongoing dialogue with the community, as our roles have diversified and now cater to very specific needs, sometimes even niche interests, amidst significant shifts in the market. Covid has disrupted the art world and served as a long-overdue wake-up call. The ease with which artistic organizations were sidelined and deemed non-essential was deeply concerning. I envision an artistic community valued as highly as any essential public service, and achieving such a status requires open dialogue and a willingness to engage with the reality faced by our peers. So – connect with your audience and hear them out!
What are you looking forward to exploring while you are in New Zealand?
This time around there is almost no time, but I had a spectacular two weeks of vacation when I was here last. See pictures:
Auckland Philharmonia’s 2025 Season has a stellar lineup of over 40 electrifying concerts. We spoke to the mastermind behind the season, our Director of Artistic Planning Gale Mahood, who shares her thoughts and some special insights into the programme in store for next year.
What an incredible 2025 Season lies ahead, featuring performances by some of the world’s best artists. What factors do you consider when building a full year of performances?
On the artist side, the process of building a programme begins with confirming dates that we can use venues. The next step is gathering guest conductor and soloist availabilities – this is a collaborative process involving many of the region's other orchestras and presenters as we often invite international artists for multi-week tours of Australia and New Zealand.
As high-profile performers are in demand and have less availability, we tend to place them in the early phase of planning. We also look for opportunities to feature local artists (including our own musicians) as soloists.
Ultimately, I look for musicians who have that magical combination of technical mastery and interpretative skills. The best artists tell a story with their playing and are also generous collaborators.
Who will be making debut performances next year?
We have some wonderful debuts next year. Korean guitarist JIJI will be making an Australasian debut in Rodrigo's famous Concierto de Aranjuez. She's been making a name for herself in the States and is quite the rising star over there, so it's an honour to be one of the first orchestras outside that market to share her talent.
Another important Australasian debut will be with Pierre Bleuse, one of the most exciting new conducting personalities in France. He has recently taken on the Music Directorship of Paris' Ensemble Intercontemporain and is a true institution in the world of contemporary music.
We asked Auckland Philharmonia musicians and staff to pick which pieces they are looking forward to hearing in our 2025 Season.
Did you know that it will cost over $40,000 to purchase or hire the gorgeous pieces of music in our 2025 Season programme? We rely on the generous support of Notes Fund donors to purchase these scores. Find out more about our Notes Fund, and why this is such a valuable way to support our orchestra, in this interview with our Director of Development, Melanie Esplin.
In 1890, Claude Debussy stated: “The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between”. But without notes, there is just silence.
And while John Cage might delight in a full concert hall audience observing a mute orchestra, every year the Auckland Philharmonia invests in a note or two. With more than 60 concerts a year, and up to 90 musicians to service with different score parts, many pages of notes are needed. As a result, the Auckland Philharmonia spends more than $35,000 each year on purchased or hired music to support the season of programming. And every year, generous donors step up and help the orchestra fulfil these purchases through support of the Auckland Philharmonia Notes Fund.
The Notes Fund enables Auckland Philharmonia supporters to leave their own metaphorical mark on a special piece of music. Perhaps it’s a favourite work, or one they feel particularly connected with – through the memory of a first concert, or the music they listened to with friends and family while growing up. This is a donor’s chance to share the joy of music that has meaning to them by giving towards a specific score or making a general donation.
The available scores are noted on the website and encompass music from the mainstage concert series, as well as our smaller community concerts and Learn & Participate educational programming. There is something for everyone, from $60 for a swaggering Piazzolla tango or swooning Dohnányi Serenade (both featured in the In Your Neighbourhood series), to a $4300 orchestral score of Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto featured in the NZ Herald Premier Series: City Lights concert in November.
Donating to the Notes Fund represents a long-term investment in the Auckland Philharmonia. While copyright and availability mean that sometimes only hire arrangements are possible, whenever feasible the orchestra purchases the scores outright. This allows the organisation to build a library of high-quality music, benefitting Auckland Philharmonia musicians and the wider Auckland music community, and enable access to the music in perpetuity.
There are other advantages too, as Auckland Philharmonia Librarian Robert Johnson explains. “It means we can preserve all our own string bowings and other performance markings that are particular to our orchestra, so we don’t have to waste more time than necessary preparing the music for subsequent performances.”
Avid Notes Fund supporter David Lovell sees long term value in his investment. “Supporting the Auckland Philharmonia through the many donor programmes is a real privilege and the Notes Fund is no different. It’s a tangible way to see how my support helps the orchestra, not only now but in the future when the pieces are brought out again from the library.
“I really do encourage others to join in with the Notes Fund; it is an accessible way to offer your support. I also think it must be quite nice for the conductor to see my name written on the front of the score when they go to pick it up for the first rehearsal!” This year, that conductor will be Giordano Bellincampi, when he first opens the score to Wagner’s epic Tristan und Isolde.
When Notes Fund donors support a particular piece, they are acknowledged in the concert listing on the Auckland Phil website, in the printed concert programme, in the music collection notification that is sent to all musicians and on the score itself, which the conductor uses. And donors’ gifts ripple throughout the orchestra, literally providing music for each musician – and through them to everyone in the hall.
This week, we added a noble string to our bow with a performance during the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa. Four Auckland Phil professional string players visited Samoa for three days to represent Aotearoa at the CHOGM Commonwealth Song Relay, lead workshops, perform alongside local musicians and build a deeper understanding of music education for Samoan communities.
This was Auckland Phil’s first visit to the Pacific Islands and is the start of a new ongoing collaboration between the orchestra and Sol Fa Music, a Samoa-based music education service. During the first two days of their Samoa visit, Auckland Phil’s Gill Ripley (violin), Ben Harrison (viola), Karen French (cello), and Tim Shacklock (double bass) met with musicians from Sol Fa Music and representatives from Commonwealth Resounds.
The professional musicians led instrumental workshops and rehearsals of specially arranged music, which were performed with the Sol Fa musicians at the Closing Ceremony for the Commonwealth Youth Forum during CHOGM, attended by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Dame Patricia Scotland.
The best in brass will step into the spotlight at a special Auckland Philharmonia concert on 31 October, Baroque & Beyond: Colours of Brass. In the striking surroundings of Parnell’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, some of Aotearoa’s top brass musicians will perform music from Elizabethan England through to the world premiere of a new work by New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke.
Auckland Philharmonia’s Principal Trumpet, Huw Dann, is the Director and trumpet soloist for Baroque & Beyond: Colours of Brass. The talented Mt Eden trumpet player will lead the orchestra from his instrument, with no conductor on the podium.
Dann is excited to share with his local community this wonderful celebration of brass music through time.
“Brass instruments have wowed audiences for centuries, as you’ll hear in the commanding sound of Bryd’s The Earl of Oxford’s March. However, us brass players are not just about volume and power – we love emulating the sound of the human voice, playing softly and lyrically, as you'll hear in Giovanni Gabrieli’s piece Sonata pian’ e forte and Bruckner’s motet Os Justi. To play this music in the majestic setting of the Holy Trinity Cathedral will be a memorable experience.
“It’s a real honour to be performing the world premiere of New Zealand Composer Gemma Peacocke’s new work, Don't You Trust Me?, commissioned by our orchestra. I was really impressed by the colourful, evocative soundscapes Gemma created when the orchestra performed her piece, White Horses, so to have such a talented composer write a premiere for us is a really special. I'm excited to hear it myself!”
This concert is part of the orchestra’s Baroque & Beyond mini concert series, presented by Ryman Healthcare, which combines Baroque masterworks with later works that have been inspired by them.
7.30pm, Thursday 31 October
Holy Trinity Cathedral, Parnell
Director Huw Dann
Conductor Vincent Hardaker
Byrd The Earl of Oxford’s March
Gabrieli Sonata pian’ e forte
Giazotto Adagio in G minor
Clarke (arr. John Iveson) The Prince of Denmark’s March
Bruckner Aequale No.1
Bruckner Os Justi
Byrd (arr. Allen) Third Elizabethan Suite
Gemma Peacocke Don't You Trust Me? (world premiere)
Presented by Ryman Healthcare
A stellar lineup of over 40 concerts have been announced for Auckland Philharmonia’s 2025 Season, featuring electrifying performances by some of the world’s most-esteemed artists from here and abroad. Soloists performing next year include regular Auckland Phil collaborators James Ehnes, who joins the orchestra with a two-week residency, and Spanish pianist Javier Perianes. The season also features debuts from major international artists including guitarist JIJI, cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, and conductor Pierre Bleuse. Exciting collaborations with Bic Runga and Ria Hall, concerts featuring beloved family favourites Hairy Maclary and Wallace & Gromit, and a blockbuster evening of film music by Hans Zimmer, also star in this impressive season.
Diana Weir, Auckland Philharmonia’s Chief Executive, says, “Whether you enjoy timeless masterpieces by Beethoven and Mahler, contemporary works from global and local composers, or unique performances by legendary New Zealand musical stars alongside the orchestra, this season offers music experiences for all tastes and backgrounds. I’m delighted to share this season with you and hope you can join us next year as we connect, inspire, and enrich the lives of Aucklanders through music.”
"I can't wait to showcase our talented musicians, performing with these wonderful international artists, through this incredible season of music," says Music Director Giordano Bellincampi. “Opening with Beethoven’s greatest piano concerto, the ‘Emperor’, alongside Strauss’ epic tone-poem, Ein Heldenleben, through to our annual collaboration with musicians from the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) to perform Mahler’s magnificent Third Symphony.
“During the year, we celebrate Ravel’s 150th anniversary with a complete performance of the score for his exhilarating ballet, Daphnis et Chloé. We’re also excited to continue our journey with Beethoven through the year with performances of his iconic masterpiece Symphony No.5, and a selection from The Creatures of Prometheus, Beethoven’s only published ballet.”
Shiyeon Sung, Principal Guest Conductor, will be back to lead the orchestra in 2025 with her trademark flair. She will conduct programmes featuring fellow Korean Clara-Jumi Kang, who returns to the Auckland Phil for the third time to lend her interpretive power to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, and Mozart’s playful Piano Concerto No.21 performed by another friend of the orchestra, British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, who was recently named in Gramophone magazine’s top 50 greatest all-time pianists.
