Upcoming Events

Christchurch City Choir returns to the Christchurch Town Hall with it’s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah, joined by friends and whānau, conducted by Dr John Linker and accompanied by the CSO.  A perennial favourite in the concert calendar, Messiah signals that Christmas is on its way.  Joyful, majestic and uplifting. Opera soloists, organ, harpsichord, orchestra and choir unite to tell the story of the Messiah.  2022 soloists are NZ based international Soprano Madeleine Pierard, Alto Leisa Falconer, Tenor Andrew Grenon and Bass James Ioelu. Tickets through Ticketek.

Principal Sponsor Cuningham Taylor Law

Concert Sponsors South Island Heart and Mitre 10 Mega Ferrymead

https://premier.ticketek.co.nz/shows/show.aspx?sh=MESSIAH22

0800 TICKETEK (842 538)

The Central Otago Regional Choir will perform “Magical Music from Mozart to Madden” - a rare opportunity for the choir to not only sing several works written by the highly regarded New Zealand composer Richard Madden QSM, but to have him also conducting the performances. Richard’s music has often been composed for special occasions of a deeply personal nature, such as weddings for family or friends or for church services.  His anthem How Beautiful Upon the Mountains was sung at the memorial service for Sir Edmund Hillary in 2008, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The programme is interspersed with favourites from the choral repertoire, such as Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Mozart’s Ave Verum and Laudate Dominum. It begins with Mozart’s Missa Brevis (Short Mass) in Bb, K. 275.  Scored for strings and organ accompaniment, the choir is fortunate to have not only the string ensemble who mesmerized audiences in 2021 but also the effortless skill of guest artist, organist Kemp English.

The magic continues when Kemp is joined by his partner Assistant Concert Master of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Yuka Eguchi. They will premiere works especially written for them by Norwegian composer Mons Leidvin Takle and Yuka will delight audiences with the brilliance of her performance of Paganini caprices.

The choir enjoys providing opportunities for young artists to perform and this time is delighted to feature Sarah Hubbard (soprano), the only South Island finalist in the Lexus Song Quest opera competition.

Need a dose of positivity in our troubled times? Revitalize with the MAGIC of the MUSIC in this concert series! You won’t be disappointed! Tickets $30 from Life Pharmacy Wilkinsons, Queenstown, Unichem Summerfield's Pharmacy, Frankton or Lakes District Museum, Arrowtown.

The Central Otago Regional Choir will perform “Magical Music from Mozart to Madden” - a rare opportunity for the choir to not only sing several works written by the highly regarded New Zealand composer Richard Madden QSM, but to have him also conducting the performances. Richard’s music has often been composed for special occasions of a deeply personal nature, such as weddings for family or friends or for church services.  His anthem How Beautiful Upon the Mountains was sung at the memorial service for Sir Edmund Hillary in 2008, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The programme is interspersed with favourites from the choral repertoire, such as Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Mozart’s Ave Verum and Laudate Dominum. It begins with Mozart’s Missa Brevis (Short Mass) in Bb, K. 275.  Scored for strings and organ accompaniment, the choir is fortunate to have not only the string ensemble who mesmerized audiences in 2021 but also the effortless skill of guest artist, organist Kemp English.

The magic continues when Kemp is joined by his partner Assistant Concert Master of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Yuka Eguchi. They will premiere works especially written for them by Norwegian composer Mons Leidvin Takle and Yuka will delight audiences with the brilliance of her performance of Paganini caprices.

The choir enjoys providing opportunities for young artists to perform and this time is delighted to feature Sarah Hubbard (soprano), the only South Island finalist in the Lexus Song Quest opera competition.

Need a dose of positivity in our troubled times? Revitalize with the MAGIC of the MUSIC in this concert series! You won’t be disappointed! Tickets $30 from Wanaka Paper Plus or choir members.

We present a programme of beautiful music: Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria, and Christmas carols.

Nigel Williams is our Musical Director, and accompanists are Martin Setchell (organ) and Hiro Kobayashi (trumpet).

Martin is an international concert organist and accompanist, currently resident organist for the Christchurch City Choir, and Hiro is well-known to musical audiences in Tauranga for his excellent trumpet-playing.

Schola Sacra Choir presents its Christmas Concert for 2022, conducted by Iain Tetley and accompanied on organ by Janet Gibbs. The programme consists of old favourites and some new pieces, plus traditional carols for the audience to join in with. Christmas readings will set the scene, and a piece or two by guest musicians will round out the afternoon's entertainment.

NZCF Nelson / Malborough and Nelson Civic Choir present the Christmas Messiah Singfest

Sunday December 4th at 3:00PM at The NCMA
48 Nile Street, Nelson 7010

Entrance fee $25.00/$15.00 (discounted) at NCMA website, office or at the door.
Booking fees may apply.

Bring along your friends for a wonderful Christmas singing experience. Join in and sing-along or just sit, listen and enjoy.

Featuring local and national guests and soloists.
Music scores will be provided or bring your own.

Songs of Faith, Food & Festivities: Sacred & secular early music for Christmas
presented by Schola Cantorum, Conducted by Courtney Hickmott,
with Jane Brown, cello and Roger Buckton, flute

Sunday 4th December, 2pm at the Rose Historic Chapel,
866 Colombo Street, Christchurch Central

Admission by koha ($10-20 suggested)
Email scholacan@gmail.com to reserve your ticket

The Central Otago Regional Choir will perform “Magical Music from Mozart to Madden” - a rare opportunity for the choir to not only sing several works written by the highly regarded New Zealand composer Richard Madden QSM, but to have him also conducting the performances. Richard’s music has often been composed for special occasions of a deeply personal nature, such as weddings for family or friends or for church services.  His anthem How Beautiful Upon the Mountains was sung at the memorial service for Sir Edmund Hillary in 2008, in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The programme is interspersed with favourites from the choral repertoire, such as Franck’s Panis Angelicus and Mozart’s Ave Verum and Laudate Dominum. It begins with Mozart’s Missa Brevis (Short Mass) in Bb, K. 275.  Scored for strings and organ accompaniment, the choir is fortunate to have not only the string ensemble who mesmerized audiences in 2021 but also the effortless skill of guest artist, organist Kemp English.

The magic continues when Kemp is joined by his partner Assistant Concert Master of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Yuka Eguchi. They will premiere works especially written for them by Norwegian composer Mons Leidvin Takle and Yuka will delight audiences with the brilliance of her performance of Paganini caprices.

The choir enjoys providing opportunities for young artists to perform and this time is delighted to feature Sarah Hubbard (soprano), the only South Island finalist in the Lexus Song Quest opera competition.

Need a dose of positivity in our troubled times? Revitalize with the MAGIC of the MUSIC in this concert series! You won’t be disappointed! Tickets $30 from Community House, Alexandra or choir members.

There are some favourite carol sing-alongs for audience members who would like to join in, and a selection of lesser known but very beautiful carols - as well as some very enjoyable non-Christmas choral music.  Entry includes refreshments with the choir after the performance.

The Edgecumbe Choir presents A Prelude to Christmas.

Featuring
- Magnificat by JS Bach
- St Nicholas Mass by FJ Haydn

Tickets available from The Good Life (160 The Strand, Whakatane) and at the door.

Hamilton Civic Choir is delighted to share with you our final concert of the “Into the Light” Season. 

This is a celebration of old and new Christmas music, with an international flavour. The choir has been very fortunate to be gifted an arrangement of a Latin American Christmas classic called “Mi Burrito Sabanero” written by Venezuelan composer Dr Cristian Grases.  This light-hearted piece would normally be performed by a large group of neighbourhood carollers, accompanied by an impromptu orchestra of local instruments, and our performance will be the world premiere of this piece with Chris Greenslade on the piano. 

In a very different vein, you will hear four settings of “O Magnum Mysterium”, a text celebrating the great mystery of the birth of Christ which has inspired composers throughout the ages. Enjoy Vaughan William’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, featuring baritone James Harrison and renowned cellist James Bush, followed by an audience sing-along to carols. 

We hope you will join us to mark the beginning of the Christmas season at:

 What? Hamilton Civic Choir’s Into the Light

When? Saturday December 10, 7:00pm

Where? The Gallagher Centre for the Performing Arts University of Waikato

Tickets available from Ticketek

Adult $29.50,

Concession/Student $18.50, 

Child $8,

Door Sales subject to availability.

While Christmas was set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the sentiments of sharing and peace are universal, and the music making surrounding Christmas, often written by exceptional composers, has become very familiar via radio and now the internet. But nothing comes close to hearing that celebratory music live with a full voiced choir singing various parts in harmony with organ and piano providing a musical soundstage. And while there is some fun singing along with carols on headphones, it is awesome to sing along with two hundred or so others. It is even more special when the audience sings the melody, becoming a huge choir with the Renaissance Singers doing the tricky bits.

Music Director, Christine Archer-Lockwood has devised a unique programme, with very familiar elements you can join in, and other pieces for you to just sit back and soak up.

Our livestream option is a great way to join us if you are out-of-town or maybe as a gift to friends and family overseas. Please register by emailing us at pnrenaissancesingers@gmail.com.

Stay up to date with our news by following us at
https://www.facebook.com/RenaissanceSingersPalmerstonNorth/

The Edgecumbe Choir presents A Prelude to Christmas.

Featuring
- Magnificat by JS Bach
- St Nicholas Mass by FJ Haydn

Tickets available from The Good Life (160 The Strand, Whakatane) and at the door.

Handel’s Messiah will be presented by CBS Music in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Manchester St.,
on Sunday, December 11, 2022, at 1.30 pm.

Soloists will be Sarah-Jane Rennie, Thomas Woodfield, Wally Enright, Ken Joblin and Chris
Whelan. The Cathedral Orchestra will be led by Natalia M. Lomeiko, with continuo Janet Cubey
and Grant Bartley. Don Whelan will direct. Admission is by programme donation of $20 and $15,
available at the door.

This annual performance has continued to attract a substantial audience. Messiah proved a popular
choice on the group’s first four European tours, and its concerts throughout the Americas. While
awaiting a future cathedral building. the spacious and resonant Catholic Pro-Cathedral, Manchester
St, is proving an excellent concert venue and temporary home for the regular cathedral music
programme. The adjacent CBS Music Centre provides a substantial second auditorium, with very
good acoustics and dedicated lighting, used for rehearsals and chamber music concerts.

At this year’s Christmas Midnight Mass, the CBS Choir and Orchestra will perform Weber’s lovely
“Jubilee Mass“ in G within its original liturgical context. Written in 1818 for the golden wedding
of the King of Saxony in Dresden, this charming setting captivates the listener by its unaffectedness
and its striking orchestral writing. Instrumental timbres colour the liturgical text, and prominent
wind instruments give a Romantic expressiveness. It would have been first heard in the choir
gallery of the magnificent royal chapel, now Dresden Cathedral, where CBS Choir and Orchestra
have twice given concerts. The preceding vigil, beginning at 10.30 pm, will contain the usual
congregational carols.

Next year, CBS Music continues its popular Lunch Plus Wednesday At One recital series, the
Bach St John Passion at 8 pm on Good Friday, and another Christmas Messiah at 1.30 pm on
Sunday, 10 December. Orchestral concerts are planned for 12 February and 12 March, a Patronal
Festival on 11 June, and a Viennese concert on 10 September. The CBS musical year will conclude
with a performance of Dvorak’s Mass in D at next year’s Christmas Midnight Mass.

New members are welcome to join the cathedral choir, which rehearses on Wednesday evenings at
7.30 pm in the CBS Music Centre. Sight reading ability is expected. Those interested should contact
the musical director, Don Whelan, ph. 358 5873.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas concert with the Sitting Room Singers.

Join us on 11 December, at the University of Auckland Epsom Campus Music auditorium for an afternoon of beautiful carols and all-around holiday vibes

Venue: 74 Epsom Ave
Epsom, Auckland
Gate 3, Block B

3-4:30pm

Plenty of free parking on site

Tickets will be sold at the door (cash or bank transfer)

General admission: $20
Kids and students: $10

You are welcome to join us for an afternoon tea from 4:30pm (gold coin koha appreciated).

We look forward to seeing you there!

While Christmas was set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the sentiments of sharing and peace are universal, and the music making surrounding Christmas, often written by exceptional composers, has become very familiar via radio and now the internet. But nothing comes close to hearing that celebratory music live with a full voiced choir singing various parts in harmony with organ and piano providing a musical soundstage. And while there is some fun singing along with carols on headphones, it is awesome to sing along with two hundred or so others. It is even more special when the audience sings the melody, becoming a huge choir with the Renaissance Singers doing the tricky bits.

Music Director, Christine Archer-Lockwood has devised a unique programme, with very familiar elements you can join in, and other pieces for you to just sit back and soak up.

Our livestream option is a great way to join us if you are out-of-town or maybe as a gift to friends and family overseas. Please register by emailing us at pnrenaissancesingers@gmail.com.

Stay up to date with our news by following us at
https://www.facebook.com/RenaissanceSingersPalmerstonNorth/

Bach Musica NZ presents Best of Bach with Bach’s Magnificat, Violin Concerto in E Major, Flute Concerto in e minor BWV 1059/35 (NZ premiere), Jauchzet, frohlocket from Christmas Oratorio.

Rita Paczian conductor

Yanghe Yu Violin 

Luca Manghi Flute 

Elizabeth Mandeno Soprano

Wendy Dawn Thompson Alto

Iain Tetley Tenor 

James Harrison Baritone 

Best of Bach concert commences with the NZ premiere of the composer’s Flute Concerto in e minor, played by internationally acclaimed Italian flutist Luca Manghi.

Choir and full orchestra assemble next to perform Bach’s most famous Christmas chorus Jauchzet, frohlocket, the opening music of his Christmas Oratorio.  

Bach Musica NZ’s concertmaster, Yanghe Yu, features as soloist in Bach’s Violin Concerto in E Major. 

In the second half, Bach Musica NZ presents the composer’s famous Magnificat, scored for four vocal soloists, 5-part chorus and large Baroque orchestra, including three majestic trumpets. The ultimate Christmas music!

“It is conceivable, that when Bach premiered his immortal work in Leipzig almost 300 years ago, that the quality of his concert would have been eclipsed last Sunday by that of Bach Musica NZ‘s rendition - and this in remote New Zealand!”

Rainer W. Buhmann, review of Bach Musica NZ’s St Matthew Passion performance in April 2021.

Book tickets now.

Uwe Grodd conductor
Isabella Moore soprano
Kate Webber mezzo soprano
Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono tenor
Benson Wilson baritone
Auckland Choral
Pipers Sinfonia
Sunday 18 December, 5.00pm
Monday 19 December, 7.30pm
Auckland Town Hall
ticketmaster.co.nz/09 970 9700

Messiah brings people such joy and overwhelming
pleasure, so it’s easy to understand its phenomenal
popularity.
In 1742, Handel’s name drew such a crowd that
audience members were advised to leave their hooped
skirts and swords at home for fear of overcrowding at the
Dublin premiere.
The tradition of presenting the much-loved masterpiece
at Christmas rather than Easter grew out of fundraisers
knowing that people’s spirit of giving to charities was far
greater at Christmas, and by the 1960s Messiah had been
almost completely transformed to a Christmas event.
Handel’s beautiful music transcends its biblical text,
embracing the possibility of hope and rebirth after the
darkest of times. Auckland Choral is thrilled to be able to
return to this celebration of hope and new beginnings…
dazzling solos and instrumental fireworks… the most
glorious choral writing of all time, this masterwork never
fails to thrill all ages.

Uwe Grodd conductor
Isabella Moore soprano
Kate Webber mezzo soprano
Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono tenor
Benson Wilson baritone
Auckland Choral
Pipers Sinfonia
Sunday 18 December, 5.00pm
Monday 19 December, 7.30pm
Auckland Town Hall
ticketmaster.co.nz/09 970 9700

Messiah brings people such joy and overwhelming
pleasure, so it’s easy to understand its phenomenal
popularity.
In 1742, Handel’s name drew such a crowd that
audience members were advised to leave their hooped
skirts and swords at home for fear of overcrowding at the
Dublin premiere.
The tradition of presenting the much-loved masterpiece
at Christmas rather than Easter grew out of fundraisers
knowing that people’s spirit of giving to charities was far
greater at Christmas, and by the 1960s Messiah had been
almost completely transformed to a Christmas event.
Handel’s beautiful music transcends its biblical text,
embracing the possibility of hope and rebirth after the
darkest of times. Auckland Choral is thrilled to be able to
return to this celebration of hope and new beginnings…
dazzling solos and instrumental fireworks… the most
glorious choral writing of all time, this masterwork never
fails to thrill all ages.

Come launch your singing career with the international, award winning Christchurch City Chorus. ‘Enriching voices, enriching lives’.

Do you love to sing?  Is the performer in you ready to emerge?  
Do you want a musical escape where you can make friends with other diverse, dynamic women?

Christchurch City Chorus is New Zealand's premier chorus of dynamic, vital and exciting female performers. Our members enjoy our Wednesday evening rehearsals because they are all about musical fun and achievement. You’ll find we’ll change your life, so come and join us at our rehearsals.

You now have the opportunity to experience this first hand at one of our open nights.

We rehearse every Wednesday evening from 7pm to 10pm at McCombs Performing Arts Centre, Cashmere High School, 61 Barrington Street.

To join our chorus you do not need to read music or have a trained singing voice. You only need to be able to sing in tune. Ongoing training is provided in vocal, breathing and visual performance skills.

If you are interested in joining the Chorus, you will be placed in one of four voice parts – tenor, lead, baritone or bass. The Chorus will provide you with music and learning tracks to take home. What could be easier?

OPEN NIGHTS:

16, 23 November 7-9.30pm

1, 8 February 2023  7-9.30pm

Come and enjoy the beautiful, colourful, diverse voices of community choirs from around Nelson.