We wish you a very Merry Christmas with all the blessings, felicitations and joys the Season brings. It has been a grand year full of extraordinary events and projects – and we thank you for your support, good wishes, interest and feedback. 

You'd best rest and recuperate while ye may, because we can promise you an even more exciting, interesting and extraordinary event-filled 2011 including:

a second 'Friday at 5' series of  in the Ilott Theatre

a midwinter opera season (which could be ironic!)

a Jazz Festival with international guests in the Wellington Town Hall

an orchestra concert with international links in September

a 'Hunter Series': superb concerts in the elegant Hunter Council Chamber 

a full programme of 24 Friday Lunchtime Concerts 

and ... and ... and ... lots more ...
 

'Tis the season to be giving, and the lovely people at Rattle Records, along with our own Norman Meehan, are giving you Pacific Raft  for Christmas!

Pacific Raft is one of the 13 tracks on the Buddhist Rain CD: settings by Norman Meehan of poems by Bill Manhire. Norman is the pianist with Hannah Griffin (vocals) and Colin Hemmingsen (reeds).

It is a beautiful, soulful album: but don't take my word for it – click here and listen yourself!

And if you like what you hear, the CD is available from Rattle Records,  or good CD stores or can be ordered through our friends at SOUNZ.

Last Tuesday, Dr Daphne Rickson crossed the stage to receive her degree and became the first PhD to be conferred by the New Zealand School of Music, granted jointly by Massey and Victoria Universities. 

The event marked the completion of five years of study, research and writing in Music Therapy by Daphne through which she was able to demonstrate the benefits of using music as an everyday tool when teaching disabled children. She and Sarah Hoskyns are co-leaders of the Music Therapy Programme at the Mt Cook campus of NZSM, the only post-graduate programme in this field in New Zealand. 

Daphne is understandably delighted to be NZSM's first doctorate but when addressed formally as Dr Rickson she claims that it's as 'Dr Daph' that she will be known! 

You can read more about 'Dr Daph's study and achievements here. 

Despite the end of classes and exams, our senior Jazz students have had no rest.

Over the last couple of weeks they have been sequestered in the NZSM Concert Hall with technician Richard Caigou, director Rodger Fox and guest artists laying down the tracks that will become the backbone of a new CD to be released in 2011. It will be a  followup album to their Tui-Award-winning Run For Cover and promises to be just as exciting. 

Rodger will be spending time in the States over our summer working with a few more soloists and the audio technicians who will master and mix the album.

Something to really look forward to ... 

Soprano Barbara Graham, an alumnus of NZSM, won both the French Melodie Prize and First Prize in the 'Festival de Musique et de Langue Francais - des mots et des notes' –  a competition for French language and music in Paris. With nine singers in the final, eight of them French, this was quite a coup for the Kiwi girl! Barbara was invited to stay on and sing a concert with a Parisian orchestra and will give two more Paris concerts with the orchestra in January. One of the judges told her that her French was better than the French singers!

Barbara also came second in the big Symphonie D'Automn competition in Macon with judges including Rudolph Piernay and Theresa Berganza. She didn't realise she had won something until she heard her name, walked out on stage and was handed some wine and an envelope marked "Second". She said she nearly dropped onto the floor with surprise.

As NZSM Classical Voice tutor Richard Greager points out: "With literally thousands of sopranos vying for recognition in Europe, for Barbara to achieve these results is quite simply outstanding." 

For some of New Zealand’s most talented musicians, the only thing that stands in the way of their dreams is the lack of funds to make them real.

By making a lifetime donation or a gift in your will to the New Zealand School of Music, you can help young musicians to fulfil their ambitions.

For further information on how you can provide support for students at the New Zealand School of Music, please contact:

Elizabeth Hudson
NZSM Director
Ph: 04 463 5860
Email: elizabeth.hudson@nzsm.ac.nz

or

Diana Meads
Development Manager -- Planned Giving
Victoria University of Wellington Foundation
Ph: 0800 VIC LEGACY (0800 842 534)
Email: diana.meads@vuw.ac.nz

www.victoria.ac.nz/foundation