Nevine String Quartet flying to Stewart Island for a concert!

Nevine Quartet Violist, Peter Barber writes about their extraordinary trip to Stewart Island.....

It seemed like a no-brainer: a day-off prior to an NZSO concert in
Invercargill gave us a golden opportunity to visit an out-of-the-way
part of the country.

For a while that day, we wondered if we were going to get there at
all. Fog in the North Island meant that our Christchurch-to-
Invercargill flight was cancelled, and we missed our connecting
flight from there to Oban on Stewart Island. Many thanks to those
airline personnel who helped out, getting us on later flights to the
South, and then over the Foveaux Strait!
After the hours spent between Wellington and Invercargill, we spent a
bare ten minutes in the air en route to Oban, with magnificent views
all around. It was a real voyage of discovery for us, and all of it
pretty fantastic; flying in a tiny plane, after the tempest of the
day, to what looked like Prospero's island.
Oban has grown a lot in the thirty-something years since Peter, our
violist, was last there. Back then the airplane landed in the
Halfmoon Bay itself, rather than at the airstrip, five minutes
inland. These days, Oban offers arts and crafts, restaurants, cafés
and culture, in addition to the flora and fauna of the forest and sea
that surround the town. It would be really easy to spend a week or so
there.
The concert organisers of the Toi Rakiura Arts Trust were very kind
to us, helping us out with travel and accommodation. We were just so
pleased to be there; to have a look around the beautiful landscape,
and to have another chance to play chamber music. That evening,
upstairs in the Wharfside Café, we led the audience through musical
history with quartets by Mozart and Dvorak, and followed this after
the interval with Dunedin composer Anthony Ritchie's splendid second
quartet.
Back at the lodging, after the concert, we shared a delicious meal
with Di and Brent, of the Arts Trust, and downed some great New
Zealand red wines, with ginger beer for the designated driver.
The following morning we had our look around; a bit of a bush walk in
the sun (sic!); a visit to the Department of Conservation Centre,
where we learned about the marine life of Paterson Inlet; retail
therapy buying T-shirts with evocative screen-prints on the front;
enjoying the views and a coffee up at the café overlooking Halfmoon
Bay; trying out an old viola and giving a violin lesson.
Very soon it was time to join our orchestral colleagues for the
evening concert of Whitehead, Mozart and Rachmaninov at the
Invercargill Civic Theatre. After Oban, Invercargill was a seriously
big town.
For more information on Nevine Quartet activities check out their website:
http://nevine.wellington.net.nz/

Walton Viola Concerto disc is the 'Orchestral Disc of the Month' in Classic FM Magazine's August issue!

The NZSO recorded the Walton Viola concerto with Helen Callus, conducted by Marc Taddei in 2005. The August issue of the UK's Classic FM magazine rates it the disc of the month... following is the review: Click on the images for a larger view.

Update from NZSO Double Bassist, Victoria Jones at the World Philharmonic

Victoria leaving the NZSO saying good-bye to Chief Executive, Peter Walls

Picture from Paris of the 2006 World Philharmonic.

Victoria Jones, NZSO Sub-Principal Double Bass is currently performing as part of the World Philharmonic, an orchestra made up of 112 musicians from over 80 countries. (Find out more at http://www.world-orchestral.com/)

Victoria writes;
"The people are great: bass players are from Denmark, Georgia, Bosnia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Peru, and me. (Apparently the Turkish bass player had a fishing accident and didn't make it.). I'm sitting number 5 (we drew lots), which suits me fine, because I have not been very well and it gives me more chance to observe without too much pressure.I'm teaching English to my very nice stand-partner Jack, a 20 year old who plays with the Czech Philharmonic.

There are a few odd little NZ connections: the conductor, a nice Japanese guy called Yutaka Sado used to conduct Liz Patchett's (Second violin) husband, John Taber (ex-NZSO Trumpet), in Bordeaux;
one of the cellists plays on a Malcolm Collins (Upper Hutt) cello in his orchestra in Dublin. One of the percussionists - from Costa Rica -used to play in a duo with Henaro Garita's (NZSO Viola) sister -a harpist. And the guy from Salvador knows Henaro too.

Tonight we have our first concert, outdoors at 'Les Invalides', though the weather is looking a bit dodgy. We have to look EXACTLY the same as last night because it will be televised using footage from last night's dress rehearsal, and tonight's concert....if it doesn't rain.
So far I've been interviewed twice in my pidgin french: once for TV and once for the radio.We also had a great day trip to Versailles on Sunday - it was gorgeous, though hot and crowded."