RNZ: Upbeat

Calling Home this week is Dunedin-born tenor Nicholas Madden. He's a Lay Clerk at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and lives in the castle grounds.

That beautiful Christmas tune - Prokofiev's Troika - and others will be played live this weekend and next by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in their interactive family concert series APO 4 Kids Christmas. The concerts are designed especially for the little ones, they're full of Yuletide favourites AND audience get the chance to walk through the orchestra while they're playing Nathan Rarere asked APO's Thomas Hamill what to expect.

Sound artist and composer Jesse Austin-Stewart has created an album of music vibration compositions, designed to be felt rather than heard. By holding a PlayStation Dualsense controller, the music can be experienced through the way changing patterns feel against your palms. Jesse is one of the 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard award winners, and has produced music with more than 1 million streams. For Music for PlayStation he's worked with the hearing-impaired community to create these works which will be available on streaming sites from 25 November. As someone with a disability, he tells Lynn Freeman that he wanted to create music that offers a shared experience for everyone.

The Mosgiel Brass Band celebrated their 150th Anniversary over the weekend. Front and centre was Barbara Cooper, who's been playing in brass bands for 70 years. Barbara speaks to Jesse.

Grounded in the Celtic musical traditions, multi-instrumentalist Rennie Pearson is about to head around the North Island as he releases his new solo album filled with traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Maritime.

Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha University of Canterbury Librarian Lisa Davies (Kai Tahu) is determined to make te reo more accessible. She's also a jazz musician, so she's brought both together. She's part of Nga Reo Tioriori, a collective of Maori jazz musicians who'll be performing a gala concert at the Christchurch Big Band Festival next month.

NZ Barok - New Zealand's Baroque instrument orchestra is about to reunite after a lengthy hiatus, putting their own spin on famous and lesser-known examples of Baroque - classical music of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. . Graham McPhail is co-artistic director of NZ Barok, and a professor in early music at University of Auckland's School of Music. The orchestra members are leading Baroque specialists from all over the motu and are coming together to play three concerts alongside eight Baroque singers. Lynn Freeman spoke with Graham about Baroque music, in particular the music of Bach and Handel. NZ Barok's Court to Cathedral concert takes place at St Luke's Church in Remuera in Tamaki Makaurau for 3 nights starting on September 30.

After 17 years hosting Nights, RNZ presenter Bryan Crump heads over to our fine music network RNZ Concert this month. He joins Kim Hill to play some favourite songs and chat about his career.

The sweet sounds of four-part harmonies are ringing out in Palmerston North. Barbershop Harmony, New Zealand's national barbershop convention, will serenade audiences, reaching a crescendo with a gala concert. Manawatū reporter Jimmy Ellingham filed this report from a rehearsal of local group the Manawatunes

Opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and New Zealand Cross recipient Jacinda Amey say they feel honoured to be invited to attend the Queen's funeral. As part of New Zealand's delegation for the event they will both sit inside Westminster Abbey to commemorate the late monarch. Reporter Jake McKee spoke exclusively with Dame Kiri and Ms Amey about their role in a historic ceremony.

Verdi's opera Macbeth is very true to  Shakespeare's tale of a well-regarded military leader corrupted by his conviction he's destined to become King. Playing the lead role in NZ Opera's new interpretation of the opera is Kiwi baritone Philip Rhodes, under the direction of Netia Jones and opposite his Lady Macbeth, Amanda Echalaz.

A new production of Verdi's Macbeth from NZ Opera moves away from the "Scottishness" of the source material and leans into the psychological and emotional content of the piece as an exploration of human nature. Directed by Netia Jones, the production borrows from an Italian Horror show aesthetic.

Shortly, the next generation of elite New Zealand opera singers won't have to win a scholarship, find tens of thousands of dollars, or be separated from their families to train overseas for an international career. Next year the University of Waikato is opening Te Pae Kokako, The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio, aimed at preparing talented young New Zealand singers to be career ready when they graduate. It's the long held dream of Dame Malvina Major, one of our most successful international opera singers. Heading the programme is soprano Madeleine Pierard, the inaugural Dame Malvina Major Chair in Opera at the University of Waikato. Lynn Freeman asked Madeleine why the studio weas so important to Dame Malvina.

We talk to wine critic and multisensory researcher Dr Jo Burzynska about her event at Christchurch's WORD Festival called Words/Wine/Sound about the fascinating relationship between the wine, sound and words and how they intersect - and about how different kinds of music affect the taste of certain wines.

New Zealand's famous opera singers are performing together before they head overseas for international stages. It's called the Auckland Opera Studio Annual Gala - and it's on this Sunday at the Auckland Town Hall. 

No matter how famous they become overseas, our opera singers are often keen to come home to perform. Munich- based Eliza Boom is no exception. Eliza's in the lineup of in-demand young operatic talent in the upcoming Auckland Opera Studio Annual Gala. She'll be singing arias by Verdi, Puccini, Korngold, Mozart, and one of her new favourite composers, Richard Strauss. Since September 2020, Eliza's been working at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, taking part in their Opera Studio training programme, and performing roles on the main stage. Eliza tells Lynn Freeman that, like so many singers before her, she honed her vocal cords singing gospel music in church, alongside her parents and five siblings. Soprano Eliza Boom will be performing at the Auckland Opera Studio Opera Gala on the 21st of August at the Auckland Town Hall.

Considered one of the world's great violinists, American Hilary Hahn is a three-time Grammy Award winner passionate about making classical music more accessible.

A thoroughly modern Cinderella centred around a quest for identity, true love and the courage to be yourself is being staged by the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company. Cinderella is the company's first national tour in more than a year, and the first production performed at its renovated home base, the St James Theatre in Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. The new ballet, three years in the making, has been choreographed and composed by Kiwis Loughlan Prior and Claire Cowan.

You can't be an opera singer unless you have an impressive pair of lungs - and know how to use them. But Auckland-born soprano Christina Orjis had to get professional help to learn how to breathe again after contracting long-Covid. She spoke to Susie Ferguson.

Giordano Bellincampi talks to Tim Dodd about Verdi's opera 'Il Trovatore' and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's semi-staging of the opera in the Auckland Town Hall.

The South Island Organ Company has been keeping the unique craft of organ building and restoration alive for 55 years and is still going strong.

Three of New Zealand's national choirs are about to join forces for the first time in 20 years for a very special performance of Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana'.

We look at repairing wind instruments - which include flutes, clarinets, oboes and bassoons. Wood instruments can swell when they get damp so the rainy winter months are particularly hard on them. Jennifer Weigel knows all too well. She's repaired many over her years as a specialist repairer and restorer of woodwinds, brass instruments, and orchestral strings.

A blend of Pacific and Mediterranean of ancient and right now, is promised in a new dance film series shot by Daniel Belton and scored by Dame Gillian Whitehead.

From Vancouver to Auckland: violinist Andrew Beer prepares to debut a major new work in his adopted home.

The Dunedin Symphony Orchestra's concert progrmme for 2022 is starting mid year. But given the events of the last two years, that's understandable. It also means the orchestra has been able to confirm an overseas conductor in the mix, something that couldn't have been confirmed until recently. The invited soloists are all homegrown.

Wellington's Chamber Orchestra is about to celebrate its 50th birthday with a flourish. The amateur orchestra has launched many professional careers over five decades, and also has musicians who've been in its ranks for most of that time. Lynn Freeman caught up with conductor Rachel Hyde and cellist Gary Wilby, currently rehearsing for the big celebratory concert. The Wellington Chamber Orchestra plays its 50th anniversary concert on Saturday May 28 at the Alan Gibbs Centre at Wellington College. Among the highlights will be Gareth Farr's Terra Incognito and The Planets by Gustav Holst.

A Russian composer living in New Zealand has written two works directly responding to the current invasion of Ukraine. Tatiana Riabinkina says she is horrified at what's happening in the country under attack by her homeland's leader. Over the past few weeks she's composed a work that the New Zealand String Quartet is about to premiere.

Richard Nunns was an English teacher and jazz musician who became fascinated by taonga puoro - traditional Māori instruments. We explore his impact on New Zealand music.

This year the Wellington Jazz Festival will highlight the achievements of New Zealand musicians.

Little Andromeda is a Christchurch venue that plays host to all sorts of events from live music to fringe theatre. Since it was set up it’s had to change location twice, each time starting from scratch to build a useable space.