2024 Upcoming Events

Latest News - Keep up with the play!

Keep up to date with the latest from the Hill Family Foundation for Arts and Music

Photo credit: Jenny and Jeongwhan at The Hills

Keep Up With The Play – Jenny’s Winners Tour blog #2

Tuesday 5 November Earlier this week we performed in Invercargill, Christchurch and Nelson. The Opera House in Invercargill was so dark that I couldn’t see the audience so I imagined that I was an opera singer on stage. The next morning, I had a 6am Zoom class in writing short fiction for my Bachelor of…

Photo credit: Jenny Jin with Sir Michael Hill and Jennifer Ward-Lealand

Keep Up With The Play – Jenny’s Winners Tour blog

31 October 2024 I’m writing this blog at Hamilton Airport. We’re about to fly to Invercargill for our next concert. I had some trouble with my excess baggage because of all the dresses in my bag, but we are fine now! Last night was really fun. We had an amazing concert at the Gallagher Academy…

Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter to be kept up to date

    Instagram Gallery

    Introducing Julian Smiles: Whakatipu Music Festival Feature Artist.
 
We’re privileged to welcome Julian Smiles to Queenstown as a guest artist at next year’s Whakatipu Music Festival.

Julian has been a standout performer on the Australian classical music scene for decades, holding many prestigious positions including a number of years as principal cellist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

He has performed frequently as guest principal cello with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and is regularly heard as a soloist with the Melbourne and Canberra Symphony Orchestras.

Julian founded the internationally renowned Goldner String Quartet in 1995 with colleagues Dene Olding, Irina Morozova and Dimity Hall, garnering rave reviews of their recordings and performances in the UK.

Julian has premiered solo works by Australian composers including Mark Isaacs, Carl Vine and Ross Edwards, and is a passionate and highly respected teacher, passing his depth of knowlede and experience to the next generation of music lovers.

Festival Audiences will be able to hear Julian with other Festival Artists over the Easter weekend 18-21 April in Queenstown.
    Congratulations to 2013 MHIVC Sixth Prize winner & Michael Hill Audience Prize winner, Natalie Lin Douglas whose debut album with the Houston-based Kinetic Ensemble is up for consideration for a Grammy Award nomination.

Natalie is the founder and Artistic Director of the 16-piece ensemble and their self-titled debut album is being considered for three award categories.

The recording debuted #1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical charts when it was released last year and is described as “an entertaining, rewarding and interesting program of new music, played with enthusiasm and finesse by this terrific ensemble” by David Rowe for Classical CD Reviews.

The Awards will be announced on February 2, 2025.

Find out more via @kineticensemble
    📣 Calling all Central Otago early career event and arts professionals!

The Whakatipu Music Festival has created paid apprenticeship opportunities for you to ‘own’ and deliver many aspects of our event while being be mentored and supervised by experienced music and event industry professionals. All apprenticeships are paid at a rate of $30/hour.

The 2025 festival takes place in Queenstown next Easter and has numerous apprenticeship contract roles on offer in areas including artist management, marketing, stage and technical management, ticketing and hospitality. 

If you’re a resident of Central Otago, meet the legal requirements to work in New Zealand, are at least 18 years of age with an authentic appreciation for NZ arts, we’d love to hear from you.

Full role descriptions and expression of interest forms are available at the Training Ground web page:

https://michaelhillviolincompetition.co.nz/training-ground/

Image: Wren Glover, credit James Robertson

    Sponsors