Articulate July 7-13

AMERICAN DIVA SINGS WITH THE APO

“Diva’, The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
With soprano Christine Brewer and conductor Tadaaki Otaka
Auckland Town Hall
July 12th

Strauss Befreit Op. 39 No. 4
Strauss Morgen Op. 27 No. 4
Strauss: Wiegenlied Op.41 No. 1
Strauss: Zueignung Op. 10 No. 1
Strauss: Tod und Verklarung Op 24
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde - Prelude and Liebestod

The renowned American Soprano Deborah Voigt was to have sung this Diva concert but she has been replaced by Christine Brewer, another of the rising operatic stars who was declared a “superlative Strauss singer” by the New York Times and is admired around the world for her range, golden tone, power and control.

Christine Brewer’s many acclaimed recordings include Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Wagner’s ‘Liebestod’ with Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony; Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, also with Runnicles; Strauss’s Ariadne on Naxos in English for Chandos; and Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Sir Simon Rattle for EMI. Christine Brewer was also chosen to record the opening disc in Hyperion’s ‘Complete Strauss Lieder’ series, a project that has garnered overwhelming praise.

Highlights of Brewer’s 2011-12 season include opening the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s 67th season with a programme featuring Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the Immolation scene from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung.

Later in year she will be singing Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson.

MOZARTS GREAT MASS

Auckland Choral
Mozart’s Great Mass in C
David Hamilton, The Necessary Rain – a newly commissioned tribute to Erebus disaster victims
Auckland Town Hall, 25 August, 7.30pm

Erebus – the crash of an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight in the Antarctic on 28 November 1979. At that time, it was the world’s fourth worst aviation disaster, killing 257 passengers and crew. Bill Sewell published his Erebus: a poem in 1999, and it forms the basis of David Hamilton’s new work, A Necessary Rain, to be premiered on 25 August by Auckland Choral under the baton of Auckland Choral music director, Uwe Grodd.

“David has written us a very special piece – a moving tribute to the Erebus victims,” says Uwe Grodd. “The poetry is beautifully set and the addition of a Lux aeterna text makes for a brilliant counterpoint between contemporary words and traditional Latin – a plea for rest. And with Soprano Ursula Langmayr from Vienna as soloist, The Necessary Rain will be a very unique and memorable experience for both choir and audience

The second half of the concert on 25 August features Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor KV 427 (417a). It’s a large-scale setting of the traditional mass text for two soprano soloists, a tenor and a bass, double chorus and orchestra, and it’s imbued with influences from Bach and Handel whom Mozart was studying at the time. Parts of the Kyrie from this work are used in two separate scenes in the 1984 film Amadeus and like his Requiem, Mozart’s Great Mass was left unfinished at his death.

Mozart conceived the Great Mass in C minor as an expression of piety and thanksgiving prior to his marriage to Constanze Weber will be performed by soloists sopranos Ursula Langmayr and Emma Roxburgh, tenor Paul McMahon and James Harrison, bass.

MAJOR ART AUCTION IN SEPTEMBER

The Paris Collection
Art + Object
September

The Auckland auction house Art + Object has recently announce that they will be auctioning one of the most import mat collections of New Zealand contemporary art collected by Les and Milly Paris.
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The Paris’s bought their first painting in 1963 and over the course of the next four and a half decades, amassed a collection of nearly 500 paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints and drawings by almost all of the leading mid to late 20th and 21st Century artists. The collection is one of the most carefully chosen and personal private collection in New Zealand, with many of the artwork’s having extensive exhibition and publication histories.

The catalogue will comprise of over 200 lots including major paintings and sculpture by Colin McCahon, Theo Schoon, Gordon Walters, Milan Mrkusich, Geoff Thornley, Brent Wong, Ralph Hotere, Theo Schoon, Michael Smither, Don Driver, Philip Clairmont and Peter Robinson, alongside photographs by Peter Peryer, Marie Shannon, Neil Pardington, Fiona Pardington, as well as the family’s reference library and related ephemera. The collection was last made available to the public when it was exhibited at the City Gallery in Wellington in 1993, as Hit Parade: Contemporary Art from the Paris Family Collection.

Art + Object will produce a limited edition catalogue to mark the occasion and a series of events and floor talks will also be held concurrently with the exhibition viewing. The auction will be held over consecutive evenings on the 19th and 20th of September, with the auction exhibition opening to the public from Tuesday the 11th of September.

GOVERNMENT PLANS TO INCREASE THE LEVEL OF PRIVATE FUNDING FOR THE ARTS

Creative New Zealand will invest $1.05 million over the next three years to enhance the arts and culture sector’s ability to source private sector funding.

Creative Giving is a targeted programme which will provide advice and support to selected arts and cultural organisations so they can increase the funding they receive from individual donors, businesses, trusts and foundations.

“This initiative is an exciting and practical step by Creative New Zealand to help broaden and diversify the revenue base for arts and cultural organisations,” says the chair of programme reference group, Peter Biggs.

“To be healthy and sustainable, arts and cultural organisations always need to have a mix of income streams. This is particularly important in the current economic environment where government funding is unlikely to increase in the short to medium term.”
The pilot will include:

• workshops and master classes on different aspects of fundraising

• one-to-one mentoring for selected arts and cultural organisations on developing relationships with existing and potential donors and businesses

• an incentive scheme whereby Creative New Zealand will match funds which organisations have raised through new business partnerships or new donations (between $5000 and $20,000). Details of the scheme and eligibility criteria will be announced in September

• an advocacy programme highlighting the benefits to be gained by investing in arts organisations

A dedicated Creative New Zealand manager has been appointed to develop and implement the pilot programme, which will initially run until mid-2015.

“In Australia a similar programme established in 2003 has raised more than $AUD60 million in new philanthropic income for approximately 200 artists and 600 arts organisations nationally, a return of over 1,000% on a initial government investment of $AUD5.2million,” Mr Biggs said.
The first stage of the new initiative involved masterclasses for arts and cultural organisations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in June. These were delivered by international leader in major gift fundraising, and President of Global Philanthropic Inc (Canada), Guy Mallabone.

“In New Zealand at present, the average percentage of funding for arts and cultural organisations from government is 80%, while the average percentage of funding from individuals is just 3%. Donors are not being given enough opportunities to invest in these amazing arts and cultural organisations,’’ Mr Mallabone says.

Creative Giving is the result of recommendations from Creative New Zealand-commissioned research The Art of the Possible: Strengthening Private Sector Support for the Arts in New Zealand (October, 2010); and recommendations from the Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce’s report Growing the Pie: Increasing the Level of Cultural Philanthropy in Aotearoa New Zealand, (December, 2010).

Chaired by Peter Biggs, the Cultural Philanthropy Taskforce was established by the Minister for Culture and Heritage and included representatives from arts sector and arts patrons.

Creative New Zealand is working with the Arts Foundation and Philanthropy New Zealand as part of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s Cultural Philanthropy Steering Group, which aims to increase private giving to arts and cultural organisations.