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…

And the week is underway!  Beginning with community workshops and young artist rehearsals, our professional and emerging artists have brought the Queenstown Memorial Centre to life with their beautiful sounds.  Our musicians began their day with rehearsals for their individual recitals before a professional development session hosted by professional artist Bridget Douglas. Coming together for…

Our professional and emerging artists have touched down in Queenstown! Festival Director, Anne Rodda warmly welcomed everyone involved, compensating for a classic Queenstown southerly. Musicians, host families, sponsors and staff got the chance to settle in and meet each other before a jam-packed week of music. The excitement is growing as our musicians prepare to…

This year we have a dozen extremely talented emerging artists joining us for the festival. These young artists aged 18 to 28 have made waves both here in New Zealand and overseas. Although covid has placed some restrictions on them…. It means we are lucky enough to have them perform and engage with the community…

And, just like that, the Whakatipu Music Festival is all finished for 2021. What a wonderful whirlwind of classical music! We are so lucky to have gathered such immense musical talent and music lovers together in Queenstown this long weekend. A true match made in heaven (or the mountains, depends how you look at it!) Thank…

Sunday sunshine came for our morning Community Music Showcase. Stunning performances from a variety of ages, genres, and abilities – all talented and wonderful people! Continuing our celebration of music into the afternoon, our second instalment of Young Artist Recitals was a beautiful melody of sound. Into the evening, our Young Artists came together for…

Saturday 5 June saw Whakatipu Music Festival step into an all-day musical groove. Kicking off with our Community Music Showcase featuring local musicians in the morning! It’s great to see so much budding musical talent of all ages and abilities from across the Whakatipu Basin. A lovely opportunity for youngsters to perform together and gain confidence on-stage….

Whakatipu Music Festival opened with a bang last night! For a first-time festival, our opening reception hosted by Craig’s Investment Partners was a roaring success. At 7pm, our first evening concert got into full swing! NZTrio performed on-stage with Jonathan Cohen, clarinet, to much fanfare from the audience. Our classical music lovers around the world also…

By reaching out to local schools, Whakatipu Music Festival hopes to inspire youngsters to step into music. Festival artists visited Remarkables Primary, Shotover Primary, Liger Leadership Academy, and Whakatipu High School to aid the flourishing of the arts in our community. See shots below!