Auckland Chamber Orchestra

The Ox on the Roof

Experience a thrilling musical joyride featuring the jazz-infused rhythms of Milhaud’s Le Bœuf sur le toit and Martinů’s La Revue de Cuisine. This dynamic concert also showcases New Zealand works, blending powerful string textures from Leonie Holmes and John Rimmer with Hori Shaw's vibrant Ready to Ride.

Nonets

Experience a captivating blend of local storytelling and classic chamber music at this upcoming concert event! This carefully curated program bridges contemporary Aotearoa voices with foundational European avant-garde and classical chamber works. From the evocative legends of the Pacific to the charmingly unconventional sounds of early 20th-century Paris, this evening promises an immersive and contrasting musical journey.

Les Six

This concert programme celebrates "Les Six," a famous group of French composers who shook up the Parisian music scene in the early 20th century. Rejecting heavy German romanticism, their works offer a refreshing blend of clarity, wit, and vibrant modernism.The evening begins with Georges Auric’s Les Trios d'anches de L'Oiseau Lyre, showcasing playful, bright woodwind textures. It moves into Arthur Honegger’s Sonatine for Violin and Cello, a piece that highlights intricate counterpoint and rhythmic drive between just two stringed instruments. Closing the first half, Louis Durey’s Les Soirées De Valfère, Op. 96 delivers rich, evocative ensemble colors that capture the warmth of French evenings.Following the interval, the atmosphere shifts to the elegant, cascading textures of Germaine Tailleferre’s Sonate pour Harpe, a work full of neoclassical grace. The performance concludes with Darius Milhaud’s beloved La Cheminée du Roi René. This suite transports the audience to medieval Provence with lyrical woodwind melodies, warmth, and pastoral charm.

Seven Last Words

Peter Scholes, conductor  |  Rob Thorne, Taonga Pūoro

This compelling concert programme unites classical European tradition with the ancient voice of Aotearoa through a powerful meditation on grief, grace, and transition. Under the direction of conductor Peter Scholes, the performance centers on Franz Joseph Haydn’s profound masterpiece, The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross. Originally written to soundtrack the solemnity of Good Friday, Haydn’s music uses deeply expressive orchestral textures to capture the raw emotional weight, sorrow, and ultimate transcendence of Christ's final moments. Interwoven throughout the classical movements are contemporary sonic responses by acclaimed composer and performer Rob Thorne. Utilizing taonga pūoro — traditional Māori instruments made of stone, bone, wood, and shell — Thorne creates an atmospheric bridge between eras and cultures. His evocative Reflections infuse the performance with a haunting, elemental dimension. The breath, wind, and rhythms of the indigenous instruments echo the raw human suffering and spiritual peace found in Haydn's score. The result is a deeply moving cross-cultural dialogue that transcends religious boundaries. This concert promises an immersive, contemplative experience where silence, acoustic resonance, and sacred storytelling meet.

The Tui and the Kahikatea

Featuring Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i (Performance Poet)

This profound concert programme unites a 20th-century European masterpiece with contemporary Pasifika poetry to explore themes of crisis, ecological survival, and radical hope. The performance centers on Olivier Messiaen’s legendary Quartet for the End of Time, a work born from devastation. Composed in 1940 while Messiaen was imprisoned in a German prisoner-of-war camp, the eight-movement piece uses clarinet, violin, cello, and piano to evoke apocalyptic visions alongside transcendent beauty. Messiaen weaves intricate rhythms and ecstatic bird songs into the score, capturing a literal suspension of time amidst human suffering.Interspersed between Messiaen’s movements are the powerful spoken-word performances of Samoan performance poet Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i. Her poetry collection, The Tūī and the Kahikatea, shifts the focus to a modern "end of time": the climate crisis threatening Pacific shores and natural environments. By contrasting the raw survival of wartime Europe with the delicate vulnerability of Aotearoa's native birds and ancient trees, Tafuna’i’s words serve as both a stark warning and a testament to indigenous resilience.The resulting collaboration is an intense, immersive sensory experience. It challenges the audience to confront systemic ecological loss while offering a shared space of grace, ancestral connection, and enduring optimism.