2025 Whakatipu Music Festival Welcoming two incredible conductors: Euan Safey and Reuben Brown In the lead up to our 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival we will be introducing you to each of our selected young and emerging artists who will take the stage alongside five internationally renowned classical musicians this Easter. About Reuben: Hailing from the…

2025 Whakatipu Music Festival Our Kiwi vocalists return home: Austin Haynes and Felicity Tomkins In the lead up to our 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival we will be introducing you to each of our selected young and emerging artists who will take the stage alongside five internationally renowned classical musicians this Easter. About Austin: Austin Haynes…

2025 Whakatipu Music Festival Introducing our Young Artists: Violinists Esther Oh and Sarah Lee In the lead up to our 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival we will be introducing you to each of our selected young and emerging artists who will take the stage alongside five internationally renowned classical musicians this Easter. About Esther: 20-year-old Esther…

2025 Whakatipu Music Festival Introducing our Young Artists: Otis Prescott-Mason and Yixuan (William) Sun In the lead up to our 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival we will be introducing you to each of our selected young and emerging artists who will take the stage alongside five internationally renowned classical musicians this Easter. Otis Prescott-Mason: Otis Prescott-Mason is a…

2025 Whakatipu Music Festival Introducing our Young Artists: Violists Tal Amoore and Yuxin Chen. In the lead up to our 2025 Whakatipu Music Festival we will be introducing you to each of our selected young and emerging artists who will take the stage alongside five internationally renowned classical musicians this Easter. About Tal: Born in…

We sat down with Sarah Watkins and Gracie Francis – our collaborative pianists for the 2024 National String Competition – to talk about what it’s like to work with a large number of young artists with a limited amount of rehearsal time…the challenges, the joys and the myriad of things that both competitor and accompanist…

12 November 2024 Last Tuesday we played a concert in Dunedin and the composer Gillian Whitehead was actually in the audience. I’m playing one of her pieces called Bright Silence and I got to meet her backstage. She was so warm and genuine and I’m really happy that I got to meet her. After Dunedin…

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…

Situated on the banks of Lake Whakatipu and running across the 4 days of the 2025 Easter weekend, 18 – 21 April, the Whakatipu Music Festival weaves together New Zealand’s most outstanding emerging musical talents with world-class luminaries, local grassroots music initiatives and dedicated local and national educators. The festival delivers an exhilarating event for…

The finale concert of the Whakatipu Music Festival was a beautiful reflection of the festival as a whole, a celebration of music. Our professional artists performed some of their favourite pieces. Alistair Fraser, from Tararua performed alongside flautist Bridget Douglas in a piece composed for taonga pūoro.   The Kia Kōpuni performances closed out a fantastic…

Easter Sunday – Our lovely musicians volunteered their time and talent at local churches for their Easter services yesterday morning.  The afternoon hosted more amazing concerts and recitals. Yesterday’s community performance showcased Wasabi – the Japanese choir, piano students of Kinga Krupa, Aspiring Chamber Ensemble and young artist Zephyr Willis (a musician of incredible talent…

A fresh Queenstown day began with a taonga pūoro talk from Tararua members, Ariana Tikao and Alistair Fraser.  Coming off the back of their performance the previous night, the talk provided an incredible insight into their unique musicality. Ariana and Alistair discussed their own journey with taonga pūoro and how improvisation skills from Tararua group…

After another big day of rehearsals and sound checks, before everything kicked off yesterday evening! An afternoon of soundchecks for Tararua and Dale Gold Sandbox Quartet gave the staff an exciting little sneak of what was to come.  One of our incredible sponsors, Craigs Investment Partners, kindly hosted an opening reception for artists, staff, sponsors…

Getting excited for public performances – some of the young artists put on an impromptu, flashmob style performance outside the famous Fergburger. A fun, light-hearted performance, had people in the Fergburger queue taking videos and stopping passerbys in their tracks. Even the Ferg chefs came outside for a listen! A fun way to finish off…

This morning began with school visits. Introducing local kids to classical music, inspiring and stimulating kids to continue or pick up their own instrument.  Young artists April and Stefenie visited St Joseph’s Primary School, Shuan, Hazuki and Cecile went to Te Kura Whakatipu o Kawarau and composer Lucy Mulgan engaged with kids at the Liger…