Upbeat

Orchestra Wellington closed its 2017 season with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Conducted by Marc Taddei the Orchestra offered up a dramatic performance that pleased the crowd. Peter Mechen was at… Read more Audio

Women take centre stage for the Pop Up Globe’s third season, which starts on Thursday. Five plays – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, Julius Caesar and Macbeth –… Read more Audio

Is the Royal New Zealand Ballet in crisis? CEO of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Paul James discusses reports into the state of the Royal New Zealand Ballet, the number of New Zealanders… Read more Audio

Orchestra Wellington has gone for variety in 2018 with a Dvorak Symphony cycle, Verdi’s Requiem, concertos by Mozart, Britten and Bartok, new works by Composers in Residence Michael Norris and Gao… Read more Audio

For the first time in twelve years the Gisborne International Music Competition has been won by a New Zealander:  Auckland violist Alexander McFarlane takes away the $10,000 top prize. It’s also the… Read more Audio

The judges at the Gisborne International Music Competition are hoping those competing in the final round this weekend communicate a story through their music. Juror Robin Wilson is one of Australia’s… Read more Audio

The dramatic true story of the 1942 fire at Seacliff Mental Hospital comes to Te Papa next week. The musical, Seacliff: Demise of Ward 5 was written by New Zealand’s Got Talent winner Renee Maurice… Read more Audio

Today RNZ Concert is the first radio station in the world to broadcast a new carol by top British composer John Rutter. It’s one of 25 carols being released in the lead up to Christmas. The carols are… Read more Audio

US pianist Steve Barta is hoping to interest a New Zealand orchestra in his arrangement of Claude Bolling's 1975 orchestral crossover hit: Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano. Barta is a composer and… Read more Audio

Lucy Lawless is outspoken. She talks art, activism, sexual misconduct in Hollywood, the Hobbit Law and what she wants her legacy to be, with RNZ Concert's Zoe George.

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With a sound ranging from sensual to sleazy and a volume range from mind-melting to gentle, improvisational duo Peter Brötzmann and Heather Leigh have a charismatic and striking dynamic of polarities… Read more Video, Audio

Orchestral percussionist John Beder is among the 98 percent of professional classical musicians who suffer from performance anxiety. He talks to Zoe George about the problem, which he explores in the… Read more Video, Audio