Concerts head back to the 'burbs

Auckland Philharmonia has announced its 2025 In Your Neighbourhood concert series of ensemble performances by its world-class musicians in Auckland’s suburbs and communities.

The series kicks off in March, as part of the 2025 Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Arts Festival, with In Your Neighbourhood: Beethoven Quartets concerts at venues in St Heliers, Remuera and Devonport. Then in August, the series will showcase low brass instruments, diving into the divine depths of the orchestra’s pitch for performances of In Your Neighbourhood: Tuba Tones in Titirangi, Devonport and Remuera.

An immensely talented ensemble of Auckland Phil’s Principal String players will step into the spotlight for In Your Neighbourhood: Beethoven Quartets; including Minglun Liu (Second Violin) Robert Ashworth (Viola) and Ashley Brown (Cello), led by acclaimed violinist and Concertmaster, Andrew Beer.

Beethoven is widely seen as the leading composer of music for string quartets, writing 16 works in this medium. Each work showcases contrasting periods in his development as a composer and the fluctuating emotions he experienced across his turbulent life.
In Your Neighbourhood: Beethoven Quartets features two of the great composer’s string quartets. His lively String Quartet No.6 was written between 1798 and 1800 and includes a dramatic final movement, ‘La Malincolia’. This will be performed alongside a work Beethoven composed in 1809, String Quartet No.10, nicknamed the ‘Harp’ as it includes sections where the string instruments are plucked, sounding similar to a harp.

Auckland Phil’s Principal Cello, Ashley Brown, says, “I’m looking forward to joining my friends to explore these dramatic and intense masterworks that my colleague Andrew has selected. How this music reveals depths of the human condition is as crisply relevant now as it was in Beethoven’s time.”

The In Your Neighbourhood: Tuba Tones concerts will be led by Auckland Phil’s Principal Tuba, Alexander Jeantou, who has curated a fascinating collection of pieces to give his instrument its moment in the spotlight, alongside his brass section colleagues. This wide-ranging programme has it all, from Calvert’s spirited and buoyant French march through to the jazzy, almost cabaret feel of Previn’s Four Outings for Brass.

Auckland Philharmonia’s ever popular In Your Neighbourhood series, proudly supported by Davis Funeral Care, brings music out of the city and into Auckland’s suburbs and communities. These concerts are general admission, tickets are only available through aucklandphil.nz for $30.00 Adult/Senior and $15.00 Student/Child.

IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: BEETHOVEN QUARTETS

6.30pm, Thursday 6 March
St Heliers Church & Community Centre

6.30pm, Friday 7 March
Holy Trinity, Devonport

6.30pm, Monday 10 March
St Luke’s Church, Remuera

Featuring Concertmaster Andrew Beer and fellow String Section Principles