New Zealand Symphony Orchestra

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The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is the national orchestra of New Zealand. It is a Crown Entity owned by the Government of New Zealand.

It was founded in 1946 as the National Orchestra and administered by Radio New Zealand until 1989. About that time it was known as the NZBC Symphony Orchestra after the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. It is currently based in the Wellington Town Hall but frequently performs in the adjacent Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington.

It has 90 full time players, augmented by contract players for larger works.

Contents

[edit] Touring

The NZSO has always had a heavy touring schedule within New Zealand. It performed in Christchurch as early as 1947. It performs its core series of 12 programmes in Wellington and Auckland, about half of those in Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin, and visits several provincial cities each year. It has several times toured overseas, notably in 2005 to the BBC Proms, the Snape Maltings, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the World Expo at Aichi in Japan.

[edit] Conductors

For a number of years it had no permanent conductor. Many international conductors have directed performances. Igor Stravinsky spoke highly of it.

[edit] Recordings

It has recorded many several LPs and many CDs, several with internationally known soloists such as Alessandra Marc and Donald McIntyre. In the last decade it has sold 500,000 CDs. It records at least one CD of New Zealand music each year.

[edit] Broadcasts

Its Wellington or Auckland concerts are broadcast in real time and online on Radio New Zealand Concert (formerly Concert FM, formerly the YC Network) and may be repeated.

[edit] The National Youth Orchestra

The NZSO National Youth Orchestra was founded by Ashley Heenan in 1959. It auditions afresh each year and, after an intensive rehearsal schedule, performs one programme, in 2007 to be repeated in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. In 2005 the orchestra inaugurated its Composer-in-Residence scheme appointing Robin Toan as first recipient of the award.

[edit] The New Zealand Chamber Orchestra

The New Zealand Chamber Orchestra was founded by NZSO violinist Stephen Managh, its first leader, and comprises members of the NZSO.

[edit] External links

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