Five Lines is a collection of writings about music in Aotearoa New Zealand by Elizabeth Kerr. It features short articles, artist profiles and reviews of concerts, operas and albums. You can subscribe - it’s free - at the bottom of any story.
STROMA: playing with light and colour
An imaginative, superbly played programme from new music ensemble STROMA shows the group is an essential part of our musical fabric.
Suite Aotearoa: magic woven from our natural world
Pianist Sharon Joy Vogan conceived, commissioned and performed the new works for the magical album, Suite Aotearoa, collaborating with taonga pūoro specialist Horomona Horo.
New Zealand piano music: walking with the birds
Pianist Jian Liu’s playing on his new 3-disc album of New Zealand piano music is lyrical and luminous, and full of respect for the music.
Orchestra Wellington and Marc Taddei: a story that ends in triumph
Orchestra Wellington and conductor Marc Taddei offered Beethoven’s triumphant 9th Symphony in a programme with context, novelty, and brilliance.
NZSO National Youth Orchestra: an exuberant musical showcase
The NZSO National Youth Orchestra, conducted by Tianyi Lu, offered a feast of exciting young talent, including dazzling piano prodigy Shan Liu
NZ Opera’s Le Comte Ory: a comedy of disguises
NZ Opera’s production of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory is a highly entertaining night at the opera for both seasoned opera-goers and those new to the art form.
Pianist Jian Liu: a way of living through music
Pianist Jian Liu is having a busy 2024, but his career from China to New Zealand via America has prepared him for this life in music.
NZSO: large and small ensembles on the road
The NZSO is on tour with its Setting up Camp project and programmes for full orchestra and string quartet.
NZSO’s Tchaikovsky 5: Han-Na Chang’s passionate empathy
Conductor Han-Na Chang brought her insight into Tchaikovsky’s inner turmoil to a splendid performance of his 5th Symphony.
NZ Trio: unquiet dreams, musical arguments and a wild ride
In a typically adventurous touring programme, NZ Trio has introduced audiences to the astonishing New York-based composer Lera Auerbach.
Cellist Matthias Balzat: representing the music with an open heart
Cellist Matthias Balzat is returning to New Zealand for a concert tour, including three concerto appearances with Opus Orchestra. He talked to Five Lines about his musical upbringing.
We need to talk about chamber music
As Chamber Music NZ attempts to broaden the definition of chamber music, audience members are concerned the organisation has lost its way. What’s the essence of chamber music? Is “music up close” enough?
Chamber ensembles on tour in Aotearoa
Three recent concerts by touring New Zealand chamber ensembles have brought a broad range of repertoire to audiences around the country.
Composer Jonathan Dove: taking opera outside the opera house
UK composer Jonathan Dove is in New Zealand for NZ Opera’s production of his Mansfield Park. In this profile he talks about why he’s taken opera out of the opera house.
NZSO’s Mahler 5: brilliance and insight
The NZSO’s Mahler 5 concert showed off the orchestra under the brilliant conducting of Gemma New in a programme celebrating exciting composers and musicians of a younger generation.
Barton and Brodsky: story-telling magic in sound
The programme Barton and Brodsky, touring for Chamber Music NZ, is full of surprises as five brilliant musicians blend cultures, histories and sounds.
NZSO Beyond Words: united by music
In Beyond Words, the NZSO, conductor Fawzi Haimor, composer John Psathas with vocalist OUM and oud virtuoso Kyriakos Tapakis marked the 5th anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks with music that moved and united the audience.
Johnny Gandelsman: a new and seductive view of Bach’s Cello Suites
Violinist Johnny Gandelsman conjured magic in a new and beguiling view of Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello in a concert in the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts in Wellington.
Kodály Reframed: crossing boundaries with imaginative ease
Polish cellist Suzanne Szambelan and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Hayden Chisholm offer a new view of Kodály’s Sonata for solo cello Opus 8.
Beneath the trees: voices of women of Aotearoa
Beneath the trees: 21x21 is a new album of songs by 21 women composers of Aotearoa, setting words by our female poets. It’s an invaluable addition to the canon of New Zealand song.