Photo: Laura Manariti
2024 is a bit of a landmark year for Benjamin Northey, as it’s coming up to his tenth anniversary as Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and he recently celebrated 20 years working with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
He took the position with the CSO just a few years after the devastating 2011 earthquake, at a time when the orchestra didn’t even have a permanent rehearsal space.
RNZ Concert’s David Morriss spoke with Ben Northey, and began by asking him why he took the job in the first place.
“I saw it as a tremendous opportunity, and I’d visited the orchestra as a guest a few times in the years before ...”
“Gretchen LaRoche, the CEO at the time, I was so impressed by her and I was so impressed by the work that the orchestra was doing in actually taking the opportunity of the reset that the earthquakes offered. To perhaps re-think what an orchestra can be in the 21st century, and what its relationship can be with its community and with the city.”
Those initial years with the orchestra were, he says, “an unforgettable period of time” and offered many opportunities as well as challenges.
Benjamin Northey, Michael Houstoun & Tony Chen Lin at Christchurch Town Hall reopening concert Photo: Supplied by Tony Chen Lin
Looking to the future, Northey is committed to continuing the orchestra’s practice of bringing new music, and especially New Zealand compositions, to the Christchurch audience.
“It was something that was very important to the orchestra – I think it was part of the philosophy particularly of Gretchen LaRoche, it is now with her successor Graham Sattler as well. I believe that is such an important role that an orchestra plays, and we’re able to bring our audience on this wonderful journey of discovery, too...”
“It’s finding these opportunities for both hearing [in a CSO concert] something that is familiar ... but also things that are discoveries, and intellectually stimulating. Because I think as audience members, we love both of those things. We love the opportunity to discover, as well as we do to relive."
“The coming years [with the orchestra] will continue that journey.”
