COLOURS OF FUTUNA CONCERT SERIES 2025 - 6 APRIL to 15 JUNE

COLOURS OF FUTUNA 2025 - 10 SUNDAYS and 10 CONCERTS from Sunday 6th April to Sunday 22nd June (excluding Easter Sunday 20th April)

The Futuna Chapel Trust is grateful to the Wellington City Council Arts and Culture Fund for supporting this event.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR PERFORMERS INFORMATION, DATES AND BOOKING DETAILS.

6 APRIL: KRACKERJACK

Krakerjack is a seven-piece band infusing a Kiwi twist into traditional Polish and klezmer tunes, celebrating these unique cultural traditions by fusing authenticity with innovation. Our pieces showcase soul-stirring vocal harmonies alongside virtuosic instrumentals, poignant ballads and lively dance numbers. We have been gigging since 2022 at various Polish community events, Newtown Festival, Slavfest and have started to perform outside of Wellington, including in Palmerston North at the Festival of Cultures.

13th APRIL: Gary Wilby

Gary Wilby has recently retired after nearly 50 years in the classroom. He taught Music both in the classroom and as an Itinerant teacher – mostly in secondary schools. He was fortunate in 1995 to be appointed to the Composer in Schools position which resulted in many works for students to play. Gary graduated from the University of Canterbury with a MA(Hons). He plays piano and cello and while he has in the past sung in choirs, he now enjoys the annual NZCF Wellington May Workshop. Gary has played in many ensembles and has been in the Wellington City Orchestra (formerly Wellington Chamber Orchestra) since 1986. He formerly was for 15 years the Music Director and Conductor of the Capital Performing Arts Orchestra. He has regularly played with “Opus 3 Trio” for the past decade.

27TH APRIL: ZOE LI (ERHU) & JEFF LIN (BAMBOO FLUTE)

Zoe Li is a Chinese violin—(erhu, which instrument has only two strings) player and teacher in Wellington,NZ. She has finished her Bachelor of Music at Wintec, Hamilton in 2019 and Master of Music at Victoria University, Wellington, in 2021. Within her classical career, Zoe has worked with lots of quartet, ensemble, and Orchestra all over the world, including Beijing string ensemble, WCO orchestra in NZ, Singapore folk orchestra and so on. In additional, with her 7 years teaching experience, she also loves to teach erhu from age 4 to adult.

4 MAY: Winds and Strings: Prokofiev Quintet and more

Helen Clinton, Oboe

Helen joined the NZSO as Associate Principal Oboe in 2023. Prior to this, she enjoyed a busy and varied freelance career. In addition to working with many orchestras across the UK, particularly the north of England where she grew up, Helen held a contract position as Principal Oboe with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden and worked as an orchestral academist alongside the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ellen Deverall, Clarinet

Ellen Deverall has been the Associate Principal clarinet of the NZSO since 2017. Prior to that she was the Principal clarinet of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. She completed her BMus Hons in Wellington, studying with teachers who have now become her colleagues. Following that, she moved to London on a full scholarship to do a MMus at the Royal Academy of Music.

Sam Brough, Bassoon

Sam joined the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra as Principal Contrabassoonist in September 2022 following three years as Principal Bassoon with Swedish chamber orchestra, Dalasinfoniettan. Sam has been a guest player with major orchestras throughout the UK and Scandinavia, and has completed trials with City of Birmingham Symphony orchestra (Principal No.2), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Principal) and Royal Northern Sinfonia (2nd bassoon) as well as regularly performing with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra (2nd/Contra), Manchester Camerata (Principal) and Sinfonia Cymru (Principal).

Anna van der Zee, Violin

Originally from Paeroa, Anna van der Zee is a member of the first violin section of the NZSO. Anna runs Karori Classics - a series of monthly chamber music concerts supporting local charities. She plays regularly in chamber music groups with her NZSO colleagues and is a core member of contemporary ensemble Stroma.

Eli Vincent, Viola

Eli is an Australian violist from Brisbane. He received his Bachelor of Music in his home town before pursuing further studies in Melbourne at the Australian National Academy of Music. Seduced to the European lifestyle during academy projects with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Vienna Philharmonic Summer Academy, he began his Masters at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in 2018. In 2020, Eli moved to Germany to play in the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, where he remained until relocating to Wellington at the end of 2023.

Alanna Jones, Double Bass

Born in the United States but hailing from the far north of New Zealand, Alanna joined the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra bass section in 2019. She completed her studies in the United States at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Rice University. She also enjoyed fellowships with the Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Tanglewood Music Centre for two seasons. Outside her work with the NZSO, Alanna enjoys working with her full studio of double bass students and is co-founder of the Aotearoa Music Education Trust

Photos courtesy of New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Te Tira Pūoro o Aotearoa and Oliver Casanovas house_newsphotography

11 MAY: KLEZMER REBS:

Klezmer Rebs are an 8 piece Wellington band formed in 2002 that plays (mostly) klezmer music, an engaging style of world/folk music born out of the Yiddish/Jewish culture of eastern Europe in the 1800s and 1900s. Klezmer then went to America and in the early 1900s began to fuse with jazz and swing. There has been a worldwide revival of klezmer music since the 1980s.

Klezmer Rebs instrumentation includes guitar, mandolin, clarinet, violin, accordion, keyboards, trombone, helicon (like a tuba), string bass and vocals. Together the Klezmer Rebs capture the true klezmer spirit with songs of joy, sorrow and rebellion.

18 MAY: Michelle Velvin: solo harp

Michelle Velvin is a Wellington based harpist, composer and teacher. She performs regularly as part of Orchestra Wellington and the NZSO and she is involved with diverse chamber music groups. As a musician her explorations have led to collaborations over wide-ranging genres and disciplines, such as Flow (trombone, voice and harp), Stroma, Duo Eolienne (saxophone and harp), Tamira Pūoro (taonga pūoro, cello, vocals and harp) and Seasons Ensemble (piano, saxophone and harp). In 2022 she released the debut album ‘Feather Spines’ with Ruby Solly, as part of the new duo 'Tamira Pūoro’ This duo features taonga pūoro, cello, vocals and harp, exploring the relationship between the contrasting instruments, and the history of Aotearoa New Zealand's social landscape. In 2019/2020 Michelle won the SOUNZ Community Commission to create a new work for the Auckland Harp Orchestra and live dancers. Most recently Michelle completed a new commission for the NZ Harp Festival, to be performed at the festival in February 2023. Michelle completed her PgDip in harp performance at Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music in 2015.

Concert description: Michelle will be performing a solo harp concert centered on NZ music, including new music by James Middleton, Autumn Arabesque by Kenneth Young and her new solo harp work, The Paekākāriki Blues.

25 MAY - Hala Aotearoa

Hala hosts intimate music and art events. These events are centred around celebrating local artists and performances and we do not advertise the lineup before the event. Our events could feature music, poetry readings, performances or talks on social issues. 100% of the revenue from tickets goes towards the artists first, and if there is any left over it will be donated to local charity groups.

TICKETS ARE TO BE PURCHASED DIRECT FROM HALA.

The link for tickets is here: ???????

1 June: LILBURN RESIDENCE TRUST - COMPOSER IN RESIDENCE - PENELOPE AXTENS

details to come

Photo credit Elif Budakli

8 JUNE - DOWNING STREET TRIO (DST)

Helen Weir (Violin)

Joby Jose (Violin)

Gary Wilby (Cello and Piano)

Present:

Here and Now playing music from the Baroque to Now and from Germany to Here (Aotearoa)

Image credit: Kevin Capon

15 June - Baroque Voices 'Draw on, sweet night'

Baroque Voices (BV), founded in June 1994 by Wellington-based soprano Pepe Becker, is a vocal consort which specialises in pre-Classical music written for ensembles with one voice to a part. Its size varies according to the particular demands of the repertoire for each concert or project.

Over the years, BV has collaborated with several Wellington choirs and instrumental groups and members of BV have also been engaged as an ensemble of soloists by various larger choirs.

In this performance, BV presents English, Spanish and Italian 14th, 15th, 16th & 17th Century madrigals and part songs, and 21st Century NZ music for unaccompanied voices; contemplative and coquettish, devotional and delightful songs to brighten up a Winter's afternoon; including works by Morley, Wilbye, Anon., Monteverdi and Becker.