The NZSM Jazz Festival gets underway on Thursday with more than 250 secondary school jazz musicians and their directors coming together for three days of performances, competition, workshops, masterclasses and concerts. 

The highlights will undoubtedly be the two evening concerts in the St James Theatre, Courtenay Place: 

NZSM presents NZYJO – 7:00pm Thursday 21 August
Guest artists, the New Zealand Youth Jazz orchestra directed by Dave Lisik and Rodger Fox, perform with THEIR guest artist, the 'musical octopus' trombonist Luis Bonilla. This concert will include the NZSM Improvisation Competition.

JaZzjAzZJazZ – 8:00pm Friday 22 August
The award-winning NZSM Big Band directed by Rodger Fox will feature in this showcase performance. NZSM's special guest artist is Eric Marienthal – a saxophonist who has played in more than 65 countries and recorded with Elton John, Barbara Streisand, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach, Aaron Neville, Johnny Mathis, Dave Grusin, B B King ..... 

Each concert can be booked through Ticketek: Adults $30, Concessions $15

For anyone with a smidgeon of jazz in their blood, this will be an unmissable pair of concerts. In fact, to help that decision along, there is a VERY special deal for tickets to BOTH concerts!   Adults $45 – Concessions $20.

Recovering Forbidden Voices: responding to the suppression of music in WWII

From 7pm on Thursday 21 August until10pm on Monday 25 August, NZSM together with the German and History Programmes of Victoria University of Wellington, will present: 

    3 international keynote speakers
    4 academic panel presentations
    2 orchestral concerts including...
       a  world premiere cantata, a NZ premiere cello concerto
       and Opera excerpts
    2 performances of a children's opera
    1 film screening
    9 chamber music performances from string quartet to solo organ,
       from Klezmer to electroacoustic performance.

In  preparing the programme notes for these works, many poignant and affecting stories emerge. 

For example, read about Ellwood Derr's 'I Never Saw a Butterfly' – settings of poems by children who were incarcerated in the Terezin ghetto ... Read more ⇒

or the committed courage of Victor Ullman in composing his opera The Emperor of Atlantis satirising Hitler's brutal regime while a prisoner... Read more ⇒

or Steve Reich's remarkable Different Trains for string quartet and tape... Read more ⇒

or the profound background behind the works of Georg Tintner, Dmitri Shostakovich, Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Richard Fuchs, Olivier Messiaen, keynote speaker Laurence Sherr, .... 

These and the other performances and presentations will simply be extra-ordinary.

The full Conference programme can be found here...
Links from the title of each session lead to much more information about the works, composers, performers and presenters. Single session tickets are still available – booking online through Eventfinder is recommended to ensure you have a seat. Most sessions are $19 / $10 online or $25 / $15 at the door.

Eventfinder conference 'tour' for booking individual sessions

On Friday 29 August, Victoria University opens its doors to show prospective students the myriad options and opportunities that they have for study. NZSM will hold two presentation sessions in the Adam Concert Room on the Kelburn Campus: 

12:15 – Music as part of another degree (including the BA) 
  1:10 – Bachelor of Music

While many DawnChorus readers may not be specifically interested, you probably know others who will be – school-leavers with an interest in music or others who are considering a return to tertiary study. 

Full information can be found on our Event pages.  Pass it on....

In addition, for those you know who are still getting ready for tertiary study, the NZSM Young Musicians Programme is holding its Open Day on Saturday 30 August based at the Mt Cook Campus.

More information on the Events pages. Pass it on...
 

Latest news includes a farewell to Associate Professor Greer Garden, glowing reviews of our last orchestral concert and more exciting achievements for our singing alumni. 

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 Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, please contact:

Professor Emeritus Barrie Macdonald
Interim NZSM Director
Ph: 04 463 5860
Email: barrie.macdonald@nzsm.ac.nz

or

Victoria University of Wellington Foundation
Ph: 0800 VIC LEGACY (0800 842 534)