Orchestra Wellington’s dynamic new season promises to entice both seasoned classical music lovers and those who may not yet have dipped their toes into the world of orchestral sound. Sadie Beckman met musical director Marc Taddei for a preview

All the right notes for 2015

1B2C9646Six 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.

MusicDirector            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.”

 

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