Renowned Kiwi sportsman John Wright shows us another side as he launches his album Red Skies right here in Motueka.

On the road as an international cricket coach you clock up hotel hours! John preferred to pick up his guitar and write songs rather than do crosswords. Finally those songs and stories have made their way onto an album recorded over two years with Sou'Westers Liam Ryan and Dean Hetherington.

John will perform with The Sou'Westers including third member Aly Cook who is enjoying a solo career with three Number 1 Country Radio hits in Australia in the last year.

Hear songs from Red Skies performed live for the first time in concert and see the premiere of John's music video Drivin' Into Mot featuring wonderful shots of Motueka Valley and township.

The pre-concert function will be at the Senior Citizens Hall from 6:30pm on. This includes Meet & Greet and album signing with John, refreshments and finger food, followed by the concert in Motueka Hall.

"There's a big, vivacious, steel-belt of a sound Imani gets when playing at the top of its lungs that is most appealing" - Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer

The season concludes with fun, fire and flair thanks to the Imani Winds. Their mission is to use collaboration, outreach, and new commissions to bridge diverse musical tradition, including America, Latin American, and Africa.

Celebrated for the 'sultry sophistication' of their performances, Imani Winds are truly an ensemble for our time: they are young, outstandingly talented musicians whose reputation for musical innovation is growing all over the world.

Their unique programme reflects their commitment to the traditional and the new: Rimsky-Korsakov, Piazzolla and Ravel are surrounded by the flamboyant, genre-disrupting and entertaining music by less well-known Latin composers. And they'll be presenting a new work by our very own Natalie Hunt.

Beethoven's ten Sonatas for Violin and Piano form a transcendent, transformative monument of the duo sonata repertoire: they present a formidable, unique challenge to violinists and pianists.

Bella Hristova is known for the power and lyrical beauty of her sound, a violinist perfectly suited to the huge technical and emotional demands of Beethoven's Sonatas. Michael Houstoun's recent performances of Beethoven's complete Piano Sonatas met with huge acclaim for fluency and appreciation of Beethoven's wit, as well as the moments of profound desolation.

Hristova and Houstoun's collaboration in our Beethoven Mini-Festivals will be a landmark musical event of 2017.

Programme:
Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, op 12, no. 3
Sonata No. 8 in G Major, op 30, no. 3
Sonata No. 2 in A Major, op. 12, no. 2
Sonata No. 7 in C Minor, op 30, no. 2

"You could see the joy in the performers' faces and movements as much as you could hear it in the playing." - The New York Times

Juilliard415 represent the best-of-the-best early-music ensemble from the Julliard School, with a reputation for combining youthful energy with poise, precision, and a luminous sound. For this New Zealand tour, J415 join forces with maestro Masaaki Suzuki, hugely esteemed for his performances and recordings of Bach.

The programme concentrates on Bach and Handel, the giants of the baroque era. It will give audiences a tantalising taste of Bach's work, and guarantees an evening of luminous, vital performances.

There will be a prelude event before the concert. Check http://www.chambermusic.co.nz for more updates.

Renowned for her interpretations of French piano repertoire - full of ‘evanescent colours and shimmering, elusive light’ - British pianist Kathryn Stott will perform recitals in New Plymouth and Napier, before joining the New Zealand String Quartet for solo and chamber music.

Debussy’s L'Isle joyeuse - inspired by Watteau’s enigmatic painting L’Embarquement pour Cythère - is at the centre of Kathryn’s recitals, alongside Dutilleux’s Piano Sonata: this is a rare opportunity to hear these ravishing works programmed together.

A Member of NZSQ will lead a discussion with Kathryn Stott at 4:15pm
- free entry -

Take Me Home - The Music & Life of John Denver returns to New Zealand following the astounding success of the 2016 tour of Australia. Singer Bevan Gardiner, accompanied by international musicians perform all the John Denver songs with such accuracy and feeling that if you close your eyes you will be effortlessly transported to the era of John Denver. The show includes exclusive film footage of John Denver through his career, his personal life and his love for the environment.

Take Me Home is authorised and by arrangement with John Denver management.

Australian audiences experienced this show in 2016 and witnessed the rising talent Bevan Gardiner. Originally Gardiner debuted in Australia when he was the support act for American country singer Charley Pride. People rushed to buy his CD commenting how much he sounded like John Denver. Even Pride was impressed: "Bevan is amazing. He sounds just like John Denver", the country singer said at the time.

Two shows only - not to be missed!

Teapot Summer School presents its 17th concert ' Singing for Joy' at Old St. John's Nelson on Sunday 22 January at 2pm. Ben Parry, director of The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, is the conductor.

The program includes Requiem by Faure, the mood being one of peacefulness and serenity. Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten, who movingly encapsulates the poem's half-mad and delightfully religious spirit. Seven Goodly Reasons to Sing by Ben Parry, " and if, at last, your voice take wing, this noisy world may hear the song you sing".

Teapot Summer School has over its 17 years attracted singers from all over NZ  who come together for a week of an intensive singing course directed by highly respected overseas conductors, including Sir David Willcocks, Brian Kay and Ebbe Munk.

After sell out shows at The Christchurch International Jazz Festival and The Tauranga National Jazz Festival and theatre shows across the country The Lizard Kings return with their exquisite tribute to the music and poetry of Jim Morrison and the Doors. A feast for the eyes and ears The Lizard Kings' show pays homage to The Doors counter-cultural politics and musicianship - a potent fusion of jazz-rock and the blues exploding into 1960s consciousness in the search for The Edge.

Opening act is Rabbit Hole a musical collaboration between Sahn Bishop and Bruce McGregor who seek to infect you with intergalactic squid-juicing grooves as they journey through swirling soundscapes, cosmic tentacles and lots of dancing!!!

We're proud to welcome two of Ireland's finest musical exports to Nelson, with a double bill show featuring Mundy and ALDOC.

ALDOC bring urban sounds & musical soundscapes, led by charmed melodies on the flute and lit up with jazz-tinged arrangements, heavy grooves, spooky brass solos, tremolo affected electric guitars, lonely banjo lines and dramatic breakdowns. The members will be no strangers to Nelson audiences with Dubliner Alan Doherty visiting Nelson as the flutist and vocalist with Grada, Trinity Roots at Ceol Aneas. Gerry Paul has performed in Nelson with Tim O'Brien, Grada, Trinity Roots and also Mel Parsons. ALDOC have headlined the Goa Jazz Festival and Ireland's 1916 celebrations, Celtic Connections in Scotland and they put on an "unforgettable show".

Mundy's long career speaks for itself. A multi- platinum selling artists who has released six studio albums over 20 years, it's no surprise he's even performed for Barack Obama in Ireland AND the White House. Equally adept at writing sensitive acoustic songs and upbeat crowd favourites, Mundy is known for writing ridiculously infectious songs that lodge in your cranium like squatters in a vacant house. He's been known to team up with some pretty unbelievable talent too, including Youth, Pink Floyd, Culture Club, The Verve, The Makers and even Paul McCartney and he made Steve Earle's song "Galway Girl" into an international hit. He's a humourist, a raconteur and can stir a crowd into a hearty song along".

The Nelson Civic Choir, directed by Chris Lukies, offers you Navidad Nuestra - a catchy pre-Christmas programme of music with a Hispanic American flavour.

Two pieces by Ariel Ramirez - Navidad Nuestra and Misa Criola - use Hispanic rhythms and traditions to present the Nativity and the Mass in joyful mood. John Leavitt's Missa Festiva matches the festive atmosphere, from a North American perspective.

Piano, guitar, double bass and percussion accompaniment.
Solos are sung by Manase Latu (tenor) and Matt Landreth (bass).
The Duo Jackson complete the programme with guitar solos and duets.

This is the choir's last performance before they head off to New York to sing at Carnegie Hall: come along and wish them bon voyage!