'Bach & Father' first of five Friday at five-fifteen concerts from NZSM

The popular Friday evening free concert series from Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of Music will begin again this week with a programme called  ‘Bach & Father’ in the Ilott Theatre at Wellington Town Hall.

“This is the third year of the Friday evening concerts and once again we have scheduled a diverse range of music in the series: from eclectic electroacoustic improvisation and Jazz through to Beethoven with the New Zealand String Quartet and chamber music by Debussy, acknowledging the French composer’s 150th birthday," say NZSM Director Professor Elizabeth Hudson. "It is also terrific to be able to introduce our newest staff member to the Wellington public in the launch of the new season this Friday."

Dr Erin Helyard, newly appointed lecturer in historical performance practice at NZSM, will perform on one of the school’s harpsichords, choosing his repertoire from the vast number of keyboard compositions by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and his father, Johann Sebastian.

“I called the programme ‘Bach & Father’,” Helyard notes, “as opposed to ‘Bach & Son’ because for most of the 18th century, CPE Bach was more highly regarded both as a performer, composer, and theorist than his father. Johann Sebastian was considered a bit of a dinosaur – old-fashioned. Our opinions have now changed somewhat, with the perspective that time brings, but I believe the audience will be impressed with the imagination and kaleidoscopic verve that can be found in the son's oeuvre.”

This first ‘Friday at 5:15’ concert will start, obviously, at 5:15pm and will last for one hour. “We found last year, when we started the concerts right on 5:00pm, that there were a significant number of people who wished to come but couldn’t get to the venue in time, and so we have pushed the start time out just that little bit further,” says Professor Hudson. “The concerts are a way for the School to bring ‘downtown’ the quite remarkable talent that we have at NZSM amongst our staff and students.

“These concerts represent just a fraction of the musical activity going on at NZSM – in 2011, for example, we scheduled more than 280 events at our campuses at Mt Cook, Kelburn and Albany, the vast majority of which were free and open to the public. Through the ‘Friday at 5:15’ series in the Ilott Theatre, we aim to share some of this musical expertise with the wider public in a more convenient venue. For many people, it is a great opportunity to finish up a working week with some excellent, interesting, inspiring and beautiful music as well.”

There will be five concerts in the 2012 ‘Friday at 5:15’ series: April 3, June 29, August 24, September 14 and October 26. Each concert will be held in the Ilott Theatre, Wellington Town Hall, will be free and will last for one hour. More information: www.nzsm.ac.nz.

Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of Music, is a joint venture of Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington.