The First New Zealand Pops Orchestra Creates New Sound for Kiwi Audiences

In a first for New Zealand, a dedicated pops orchestra is launching this year, and will present a stellar line-up at its premiere performance in March, ‘Follow Your Heart’. The New Zealand Pops Orchestra (NZPO) brings a unique fusion of popular contemporary music and mixes it with classical sounds.

‘Follow Your Heart’ is designed to lift the spirits of audience members and offer a platform for emerging Kiwi talent.

Co-star of ‘Follow Your Heart,’ and successful Kiwi crossover tenor Will Martin, says he is excited to be involved with the launch of the NZPO and that such an orchestra could have helped him achieve success sooner. “The formation of the NZ Pops Orchestra is the stuff of dreams for me . . . an opportunity to perform classical, crossover, and contemporary repertoire, all within the same performance, and all on New Zealand stages for New Zealand audiences.

“If you’ve never been to an orchestral concert before, this is the one for you, and those who are regulars will be sure to have their expectations exceeded as well."

Joining Will Martin on stage, internationally acclaimed New Zealand soprano Gina Sanders will perform a wide selection of favourite arias and songs from opera and music theatre, including Song to the Moon by Dvorak and Cole Porter's So in Love.

As part of its mission to be accessible and inclusive of audiences and musicians alike, the NZPO has invited Toni Gibson, a young and rising singing star from the Kapiti Coast, to be a guest performer at the premiere.

The high-profile musician who has been appointed to the prestigious post of NZPO patron is music legend and MBE Gray Bartlett, who will perform in future concerts. Gray, who manages Toni Gibson’s profile and career in New Zealand, sees a bright future for the young chanteuse, with a boost from performing with the NZPO, and likens her to Hayley Westenra.

The wide-ranging appeal of the concert’s programme will see timeless classics merged with popular music that everyone recognizes, through feature pieces from Brahms, Dvorak and Lehar to Elton John, Enya and The Moody Blues.

The premier public concert will be staged on Sunday 18 March in the Auckland Town Hall, with soloists Will Martin (tenor), Gina Sanders (soprano) and professional orchestral musicians conducted by NZ Pops’ artistic and musical director Rita Paczian.

Rita Paczian says the NZPO’s core values are simple. “We are performing music that audiences want to hear, at the highest professional standards. We want to give audiences an uplifting and exciting experience that offers interaction between performers and listeners, and above all, we want to touch people’s souls.”

The New Zealand Pops Orchestra is inspired by internationally successful and established groups, including the Boston Pops Orchestra, Andre Rieu’s Johann Strauss Orchestra and the Queensland Pops Orchestra.

NZPO has garnered the support of several respected professionals, who each play a vital part in the running and establishment of the NZPO and New Zealand Pops Orchestra Foundation Trust (NZPOFT). The line-up of trustees includes Reinhold Goeschl, Phil Morgan Rees, Roger J Kerr, Dwayne Alexander plus Raylene Ramsay and Peter Rowe as support partners.

Guardian Trust general manager, personal client services, Phil Morgan Rees, an NZPO trustee, says, “By establishing a trust to sit alongside the orchestra, this allows us to generate funding that will in turn make classical music more accessible for aspiring young Kiwi talent in the future. It will also help the orchestra to fund its planned growth and tour of New Zealand.”

The second concert of 2012 will also be held at the Auckland Town Hall, on Sunday 21 October. Over the coming years, the concert schedule will expand to include more performances, venues and cities.

Other art forms will be showcased in future concerts – dance, literature, mime and visual arts – along with a wide variety of instruments and performers such as the piano accordion, Celtic harp, folk music from many cultures and Maori Concert Parties.

The details:
Date: Sunday 18 March 2012
Time: 5pm
Venue: Auckland Town Hall
Tickets: $15 - $80, available at www.buytickets.co.nz
or 0800 BUY TICKETS (0800 289 842)
Website: www.newzealandpops.co.nz