All the right notes for 2015

Six By One, a series of six con­certs show­cas­ing all of Tchaikovsky’s sym­phon­ies and fea­tur­ing top New Zea­l­and pian­ist Michael Hou­s­ton, is set to be Orches­tra Wellington’s biggest sea­son yet, says music­al dir­ect­or Marc Taddei.

“These sym­phon­ies are one of the monu­ments of the 19th cen­tury and it’s extremely rare to hear them all done in one sea­son,” he says.

The con­cer­tos, rep­res­ent­ing the height of the Rus­si­an Romantic move­ment, will be com­ple­men­ted by a piece writ­ten by Orches­tra Wel­ling­ton com­poser in res­id­ence Karlo Mar­getić, one of three who call the orches­tra home, and one of New Zealand’s most renowned up-and-com­ing clas­sic­al composers.

            Based at the Michael Fowl­er Centre, the orches­tra takes an access­ible approach in their con­certs, leav­ing white tie, tails and stuffi­ness to the 19th cen­tury, and favour­ing a more cas­u­al even­ing, says Marc.

“I talk to the audi­ence; we’re not elit­ist, we want to bring new people to clas­sic­al music — this amaz­ing world we live in,” he says.

A new sub­scrip­tion offer avail­able until the end of Feb­ru­ary means the con­certs work out at a very afford­able $18 each. In addi­tion, the tick­ets are trans­fer­able, Marco explains, mean­ing they still have a value even if the own­er can’t use them.

“Elasti­city in pri­cing is some­thing we have been look­ing at, and this way even if people can’t make every con­cert, they can have someone else go in their place under the same subscription.

“It’s going to be an incred­ibly pop­u­lar sea­son, as these pieces of music tell a real story.”

Six By One runs along­side the orchestra’s suc­cess­ful Baby Pops pro­gramme, an intro­duc­tion to clas­sic­al music and instru­ments for preschool chil­dren where a high­light is the chance to get up close and per­son­al with the orches­tra by walk­ing through the middle of them while they are playing.

“Baby Pops has been incred­ibly pop­u­lar for a num­ber of years,” says Marc. “It’s a great oppor­tun­ity for par­ents to spend valu­able and inter­est­ing cul­tur­al time with their children.”

With Baby Pops help­ing form a new gen­er­a­tion of clas­sic­al music afi­cion­ados, and an excit­ing new sea­son in the off­ing for those who already have an ear for it, Orches­tra Wel­ling­ton is con­tinu­ing to push the cul­tur­al bar in the cap­it­al and beyond.

“We are really con­tent driv­en,” says Marc. “We really look like we’re hav­ing fun on stage because we are, and that’s what it’s all about.”