Five Lines is a collection of writings about music in Aotearoa New Zealand by Elizabeth Kerr. It features short articles, artist profiles and reviews of concerts, operas and albums. You can subscribe - it’s free - at the bottom of any story.
Calefax in Aotearoa: colourful conversations with reeds
Netherlands reed quintet Calefax delighted the audience on its current tour of New Zealand with impeccable, characterful and musicianly playing of music across four centuries.
Orpheus Choir and Haydn’s The Creation: fine singing and radiant music
Orpheus Choir Wellington provided a welcome opportunity to experience Haydn's The Creation, a work the composer and others believed was one of his greatest masterpieces.
STROMA: playing with light and colour
An imaginative, superbly played programme from new music ensemble STROMA shows the group is an essential part of our musical fabric.
Orchestra Wellington and Marc Taddei: a story that ends in triumph
Orchestra Wellington and conductor Marc Taddei offered Beethoven’s triumphant 9th Symphony in a programme with context, novelty, and brilliance.
NZSO National Youth Orchestra: an exuberant musical showcase
The NZSO National Youth Orchestra, conducted by Tianyi Lu, offered a feast of exciting young talent, including dazzling piano prodigy Shan Liu
NZSO’s Tchaikovsky 5: Han-Na Chang’s passionate empathy
Conductor Han-Na Chang brought her insight into Tchaikovsky’s inner turmoil to a splendid performance of his 5th Symphony.
NZ Trio: unquiet dreams, musical arguments and a wild ride
In a typically adventurous touring programme, NZ Trio has introduced audiences to the astonishing New York-based composer Lera Auerbach.
NZSO’s Mahler 5: brilliance and insight
The NZSO’s Mahler 5 concert showed off the orchestra under the brilliant conducting of Gemma New in a programme celebrating exciting composers and musicians of a younger generation.
Barton and Brodsky: story-telling magic in sound
The programme Barton and Brodsky, touring for Chamber Music NZ, is full of surprises as five brilliant musicians blend cultures, histories and sounds.
NZSO Beyond Words: united by music
In Beyond Words, the NZSO, conductor Fawzi Haimor, composer John Psathas with vocalist OUM and oud virtuoso Kyriakos Tapakis marked the 5th anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks with music that moved and united the audience.
Johnny Gandelsman: a new and seductive view of Bach’s Cello Suites
Violinist Johnny Gandelsman conjured magic in a new and beguiling view of Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello in a concert in the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts in Wellington.
Kodály Reframed: crossing boundaries with imaginative ease
Polish cellist Suzanne Szambelan and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Hayden Chisholm offer a new view of Kodály’s Sonata for solo cello Opus 8.
NZTrio: folksongs, dances and dreams
The NZTrio’s Homeland Three concert Dumky, toured throughout New Zealand, delighted the Wellington audience with energy and intensity.
Voices New Zealand: Mozart’s Requiem tells a tragic story
In Mozart Reimagined: Requiem, created for Voices New Zealand by Robert Wiremu, the tragic Antarctic aircraft crash on Mt Erebus is remembered in a profoundly moving concert.
Woven Pathways: the NZ String Quartet reflects on the human experience
The concerts of the NZ String Quartet’s national tour, Woven Pathways, showed the power of a string quartet to explore emotions and experiences.
STROMA: intimate musical dialogues
STROMA paid tribute to composers Jenny McLeod and Kaija Saariaho, presented new works by young composers of Aotearoa and ended a superbly-played concert with a theatrical work by Norma Beecroft.
Sonoro Quartet with Tony Chen Lin: a fresh approach to beloved music
The Sonoro Quartet with pianist Tony Chen Lin is touring Aotearoa at the moment. Their excitingly fresh and bold approach to their programme of Schubert and Schumann is delighting audiences.
Voices New Zealand and the shining light of Karen Grylls
The recent concert “When Light Breaks” revealed many aspects of the art of Dr Karen Grylls, who has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her outstanding contributions to choral music.
NZSO’s Emperor – Beethoven rules
Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, in a stunning performance by pianist Paul Lewis and the NZSO under conductor Eduardo Strausser, was the show-stealing centrepiece of a recent concert.
Personal stories: the NZSO’s Bloch & Shostakovich
The common thread binding the works in the NZSO’s “Bloch and Shostakovich: Enduring Spirit” was, Donald Runnicles told us, a “strong personal identification” between each composer and his music.