Vector Wellington Orchestra launches 2012 Season

Vector Wellington Orchestra launches 2012 Season

Media Release
Embargoed until 9pm Friday 18 November
Includes full season brochure attached as PDF

Vector Wellington Orchestra’s 2012 season marks the start of a new era for the orchestra. As before, the core of its identity rests in its four subscription concerts, its education and outdoor concerts, and its support for the capital’s opera, ballet and choral performances. But behind the scenes, the VWO is taking a strong stance towards encouraging new talent and strengthening Wellington’s arts infrastructure through its links with other arts organisations.

Music Director Marc Taddei has once again put together an intriguing mix of the popular and the less familiar. The combination of Michael Houstoun playing Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto should be an unbeatable crowd pleaser, and the summer concert in the grounds of Government House is a much-loved annual tradition for many Wellingtonians.

But as always, Taddei is eager to introduce his audiences to new pleasures too. The Fourth Symphony by Austrian composer Franz Schmidt is one such piece, Taddei says. “A contemporary of Mahler, Schmidt’s symphony is one of the great masterpieces of Late Romanticism – a searing, passionate and lushly melodic outpouring of love and grief in remembrance of his daughter.”

Taddei is excited that the orchestra will present the New Zealand premiere of Debussy’s exquisite ballet The Toybox, and introduce a new talent, the Australian percussionist Claire Edwardes to play James MacMillan’s dazzlingly kinetic Veni, Veni, Emmanuel.

The Toybox continues the VWO’s exploration of Debussy’s works, carried over from 2011 and filled out with his March Ecossaise sur un theme populaire. The Ecossaise opens a Scottish-themed programme that includes Scots composer MacMillan and Mendelssohn’s evergreen “Scottish” Third Symphony, inspired by the Mendlessohn’s visit to Holyrood Castle.

Older classics are not overlooked, with Haydn a particular focus. In 2012 the VWO will play his Symphony No 60, Il Distratto, and his No 44, Trauer. Leading NZ keyboard player Donald Nicolson will join the strings of the VWO to play Haydn’s best-known piano concerto, the G major, Hob. XVIII-4, for a tour of smaller centres in a programme also featuring Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen.

New Zealand’s reputation for producing great singers means we are blessed with a wealth of rising opera stars. The VWO’s first subscription concert will showcase four of the best young singers in Beethoven’s tremendous masterwork, the Missa Solemnis.

VWO audiences will hear another New Zealand premiere with the performance of Chris Gendall’s Triple Concerto, featuring the NZTrio as soloists, and a theatrical disposition of brass around the concert hall. Gendall is the VWO’s 2011 Composer-in-Residence; the choice of composer and soloists illustrate the VWO’s commitment to New Zealand music and musicians in a way that benefits them all.

The Composer-in-Residence scheme, announced last September, will continue. It is a partnership with the Jack C Richards/Creative New Zealand residency based at the New Zealand School of Music. Juliet Palmer has already been selected as the Composer-in-Residence for 2012.

The VWO’s other new initiatives for 2012 include internships for an Assistant Conductor and an arts administrator, an Education Composer-in-Residence, and an Emerging Composer-in-Residence.

Thomas Goss, creator of the popular Baby Pops programmes, has been named as the Education Composer-in-Residence. Karlo Margetic will be 2012’s Emerging Composer-in-Residence, while the conducting internship has been awarded to Brent John Stewart, currently Musical Director of the Hutt Orchestra and HOD of Wellington East Girls College, as well as being VWO Sub-Principal Percussionist.

The Arts Management internship is a partnership with the Whitecliffs College of Arts and Design in Auckland, offered to MA students in the Arts Management programme. VWO General Manager Diana Marsh says, “These residencies and internships are an important addition to the orchestra’s role as an organisational leader, contributing to the development of the arts sector and the region”.

In another partnership, the VWO will celebrate and support the fantastic quality of contestants in the Gisborne International Music Competition by sharing the concert platform with them. In 2013, the VWO will feature the winner of this year’s Gisborne International Music Competition as a soloist.

In addition to its regular Education and Baby Pops concerts, the orchestra plans to provide small groups to visit schools. These should provide fun, interactive learning tailor-made for class groups.

ENDS

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