More information on www.nelsonwinterfestival.co.nz

Nelson Performing Arts Competitions

Each year, since 1935, the Nelson Performing Arts Competitions Inc.(formerly the Nelson Competitions Society) has held their Annual Competitions.

The Competitions are usually held in August, in the disciplines of Vocal, Instrumental, and Speech and Drama.

The aim of the Competitions is to enable young students to gain valuable experience as performers in their fields and also to encourage community participation in the running of such an activity.

If you are not familiar with NPAC and your first contact with us is online: We would be pleased to hear from you! Please let us know what your needs and questions are, we will be more than happy to help.

Liberace, Live From Heaven

Liberace, Live from Heaven is the story of Lee Liberace. His music, his costumes, his life.
Tonight Liberace plays for his life, his eternal life!

Bobby Crush's latest show "Liberace, Live From Heaven" premièred at London's Leicester Square Theatre in October 2009 for a limited season. Written especially for Bobby by respected playwright Julian Woolford, the one-man show was an imagining of Liberace's impact on Heaven following his untimely demise in February 1987. The show received rave reviews.

February 4, 1987: Liberace, Mr Showmanship arrives at the gates of Heaven and God tells him that he needs to play a little Gershwin before the angels decide if he gets in or not. It may sound like the opening of a joke but in fact, it is a synopsis of Julian Woolford’s latest play, which essentially offers piano entertainer Bobby Crush the chance to bring back the legendary Liberace.

For many years, Liberace was the highest paid entertainer in the world, providing performances that were as spectacular as they were gaudy. A flamboyant personality supported by a strong, musical technique, Liberace appealed to audiences around the world.

If ever there was a performer destined to play Liberace, then Bobby Crush is that man. Blessed with his own strong keyboard technique, Crush, in a selection of diamante-encrusted outfits, evidently relishes the insane ‘gorgeousness’ that epitomised a Liberace concert. Old classical music favourites with the ‘boring bits cut out’ are merged with popular tunes, offering a hint of what a great popular entertainer Liberace was.

“Bobby Crush neatly captures Liberace's crinkle-noised, umpteen-caret diamante smile”
Evening Standard

"Liberace, Live From Heaven Is Brilliantly Entertaining”
George Black, ‘what’s On Stage’ - London

Tickets: NSOM (03) 548 9477 or online - click here

Read the Dominion Post review - click here

New Zealand String Quartet
Schumann and Shostakovich - Romance, Passion & Politics

National tour by New Zealand String Quartet

Two composers will share the spotlight in the New Zealand StringQuartet’s annual two programme series in August.  The concerts will acknowledge the 200th birthday of Schumann, the great Romantic, and illuminate his music by pairing it with that of Shostakovich, an equally passionate but very different composer.

Schumann was a composer free to create as he wished. His music is flexible, self-indulgent, personal and full of explicit emotion. Shostakovich, on the other hand, was forced by the political climate to present deep and intimate feelings in a coded and enigmatic language.

And what will audiences experience? “I think the juxtaposition of these two composers will emphasise the individuality and power of each,” says Helene Pohl, 1st violinist.

This will be the 9th year of the New Zealand String Quartet’s annual series, now a significant event in the New Zealand concert calendar, eagerly awaited by chamber music fans. For each series the musicians have chosen a special theme, composer or group of composers to explore in depth and share with audiences.

Piers Lane and the Doric String Quartet

Piers Lane piano
Alex Redington violin
Jonathan Stone violin
Simon Tandree viola
John Myerscough cello

In their twelve years together, the prize-winning UK-based Doric String Quartet have successfully forged a career path that places them in highly acclaimed chamber music events and series around the world, and working in collaboration with world-class artists. This tour to New Zealand, in partnership with the Royal Overseas League, sees them team up with one of our favourite international touring pianists, Piers Lane.

London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career which has taken him to more than forty countries. He is in great demand as a chamber music collaborator, and in 2007 was appointed Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, held annually in Townsville.

Two giants of the Romantic repertoire are presented on this tour – two piano quintets by Schumann and Brahms, both breathtaking in their scope and emotional range. Each is balanced by a Classical Haydn string quartet, and a twentieth-century masterwork. Exquisite solo piano works pay homage to Chopin two hundred years after his birth.

Find out more about Piers Lane & the Doric String Quartet - click here

The Song Company

Singing together a cappella since 1984, the six members of the Song Company, and their Director Roland Peelman, give around 130 concerts a year around the world. They wholeheartedly embrace music from all continents and eras, and they work with artists of the highest calibre to create a distinctive and dynamic new voice, relevant to audiences of today and tomorrow.

Regular international tours to Europe and Asia have taken The Song Company to some of the most prestigious festivals and venues around the world such as the Dubrovnik Festival, MDR Sommerfest, Festival of Flanders and the Dresdner Festspiele. Their concerts have prompted great critical acclaim.

The Seasons is a programme that leaps into Spring, revels in the abundance of Summer, grieves through the losses of Autumn and faces Winter head on. Works from composers as diverse as Heinrich Schütz and Paul McCartney reflect on our relationships with the eternal influences of the seasons.

Sweet Dreams takes us into the world of fantasy in an exploration of the subconscious mind where not only are our deepest desires and phobias hidden, but also our wildest, sweetest dreams. Madrigals and songs from Medieval and Renaissance times lead into modern-day musings, including works by Jack Body, who will be composer-in-residence with the Song Company in early 2010.

Find out more about the Song Company - click here

Schubertiade

Michael Houstoun piano
Helene Pohl violin
Douglas Beilman violin
Gillian Ansell viola
Rolf Gjelsten cello

Join us in celebrating Chamber Music New Zealand’s 60th anniversary with an evening of music by Schubert. Our ‘unofficial subscriber survey’ in 2008 voted five Schubert works into the top 20 most popular chamber music pieces. Two of these all-time favourites feature in this programme; the  Trout Quintet and the Notturno.

Schubert lived for his friends, enjoying not only their vibrant intellectual conversation and appreciation for the arts, but also their personal support of his career. Meetings to discuss literary works soon included musical events, or Schubertiades; informal social events which grew from Schubert’s love of poetry and song, and his skilled combination of the two. Schubertiades were very popular events, whether or not the composer was present, and they remain so to this day, with regular Schubertiade festivals and series being presented all over the world.

The New Zealand String Quartet are this country’s premier chamber ensemble. As well as performing their innovative programmes around New Zealand and teaching at the New Zealand School of Music, they have also forged a major career in the busy international chamber music field. Recent highlights include a nine concert tour of Europe including first visits to Poland and the Czech Republic and a debut concert in the prestigious Library of Congress series in Washington DC.

Michael Houstoun has made a unique contribution to New Zealand music as a concert pianist and chamber musician of the highest calibre over the past thirty-five years. He performs tirelessly all over the country in recitals, with orchestras and in festivals to critical acclaim and the great delight of audiences.

Find out more about the Song Company - click here