Making music together
Christchurch businessman Martin Brennan has teamed up with Nelson Tasman songbird Aly Cook to bring music to Aotearoa and Australia. Martin first met Aly just over two years ago, at a Sharon O’Neill at the Hornby Club in Christchurch. Aly was the promoter for Sharon’s tour and singing backing vocals in the […]
Two operas, two Figaros: Lansdown Narropera
At ‘Lansdown(e)’, in behind the Bicycle Thief Restaurant on the Old Tai Tapu Road, something new is happening. Narropera, the musical/narrative entertainment created for Lansdown(e) eight years ago, will present its first winter season. All four winter performances will be on weekend afternoons, from 3pm to 4.30pm, so that audience members can be home […]
Modernised Mozart
You wouldn’t think Beyoncé and Mozart had much in common. But when it comes to the Aotearoa adaptation of the Marriage of Figaro, when asked the question ‘who run the world?’ Both answer – girls. More than 235 years after its premiere in Vienna, the female-led creative team will put its spin on […]
A song to belong
A new exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū by a local artist gives a glimpse into what five New Zealand families with a wide range of cultural and ancestral connections feel about place and belonging in Aotearoa. Artist Olivia Webb, whose own Christchurch-based family is part of the exhibit, worked […]
The magic of Marlon
From home in the portside township of Lyttelton, music has taken alt-country troubadour Marlon Williams around the world, from The Yarra Hotel of inner-city Melbourne, to The Troubadour in Los Angeles. It was the latter where Bradley Cooper spied his Kiwi-born and bred talents, seeking Marlon out to appear in his 2018 Academy award-winning film, […]
Festivities all grown up
Adult musicians – and the musically curious – are invited to join an educational and entertaining festival at the Christchurch School of Music next month. The new Festival of Adult Music Learning will run from September 7 to 13 in collaboration with Adult Community Education NZ (ACE) and its Year of Lifelong Learning initiative. […]
Born to sing
Delta Goodrem once told us she was, Born to Try. But to describe what this powerhouse performer has been able to achieve as simply ‘try’ would most certainly sell her short. Named after the Joe Cocker song Delta Lady, it seem Delta wasn’t Born to Try; she was born to sing. “It was […]
She had a dream
Sometimes all it takes is perfect timing to bring your best achievement into the limelight. When she was 20, local Christchurch musician Steffany Beck won a grant with the foundation Rise NZ, to record her song I Have a Dream. Now at 30 she has just commercially released her favourite original to the […]
Jackie Clarke’s southern sounds
We caught up with powerhouse vocalist Jackie Clarke ahead of her 2021 trip down our way for Selwyn Sounds. You’re heading down our way for Selwyn Sounds in Lincoln in 2021! How excited are you and what are you looking forward to the most?! I’m so thrilled to be part of this line-up. […]
Gray Matter
We’re all pretty familiar with the line that there’s often several years of hard work behind an overnight success; plenty of stars of their fields have filled us in on this very fact. But there’s an even more magical twist to the success of UK singer-songwriter David Gray. Although there had undoubtedly been […]