Paczian to conduct at Carnegie Hall
Many years have passed since Rita Paczian stopped a truck transporting nuclear waste throughLübeck, Germany, as a university student.
That young environmentalist could never have imagined where she would find herself roughly 35 years later – soon to take the stage as conductor at one of the world’s most famous concert halls, Carnegie Hall.
Paczian is from Bielefeld orginally, a city in Germany, but she has since lost her German citizenship and become a Kiwi. She now lives among orchards and vineyards in peaceful Motueka.
She first came to New Zealand in the summer of 1993 while she was 30 years old as a backpacker, and says she fell in love with the country.
The following winter she came back and was offered a job at the Wellington City Opera, she said.
So started a 30-year journey. Paczian said she started playing an instrument when her mother bought an Hammond organ. She was 14 years old.
“I secretly fiddled around with the organ and she said: ‘You must have lesson!’ And I started taking organ lessons.”
She then went on to play different instruments, such as harpsichord and piano, and studied church music.
After that, she studied music in Europe for eight years and applied for jobs at opera houses and theatres around in Germany.
In 1989, she also attended a two-week masterclass with American conductor Leonard Bernstein.
“But at that time there was not a single woman in that position, so I didn’t even get a reply,” Paczian said.
The only job offer that came through was to work for a Protestant church in Hamburg.
But working as a music conductor involved also a nomadic lifestyle, Paczian said, and she was never going to stay in Germany for long.
“It comes with the job, once you are a conductor you travel a lot,” she said.
Living in Queensland, Paczian became a part-time tennis coach.
Tennis was the perfect relaxation for a conductor, a physical activity to forget about problems. But music was always her favourite activity, as it reached something different inside human beings, she said.
Paczian had conducted in the United States, South Africa, Europe and Australia over her career. However, when she was 40 she decided she had enough of living a life out of a suitcase, she said.
Paczian was granted New Zealand citizenship but lost her German citizenship, as back then European country would not allow dual citizenship.
She said had no regrets though, as she felt she was more accepted as a conductor in New Zealand.
“They seemed to be more open to a woman being a conductor, whereas Germany was far more conservative and old-fashioned,” Paczian said. A conductor had always been portrayed as the ultimate authoritative and strong person – features Germans did not naturally associate with a woman.
In the past, conductors such as Herbert Von Karajan were feared by people.
But today everything was different, Paczian said. More doors had been opened to women, who she believed had contributed to make conducting more about teamwork, where a director had to be respected as a person in the first place.
Paczian was the musical director of Bach Musica New Zealand. She also ran conducting workshops for people who had never conducted, to prepare them to face their first performance in front of a crowd.
Paczian said a musical conductor should always strive for perfection, as the job required highlighting key instruments in an orchestra, dictating the tempo to the musicians, and encouraging musicality.
Her favourite composers were Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Strauss. The first two because they were geniuses, she said, and the latter two because they wrote beautiful music.
But she was always open to listening to different harmonies, rhythms, languages and cultural background. “The more the merrier,” she said.
Last year, a massive surprise came out of her Bach Musica concert in Auckland.
She was offered the chance to conduct at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Other Kiwi conductors have performed at the prestigious concert venue before.
Nelson-born David Childs has been conducting at Carnegie Hall by invitation since 2009 and Gemma New made her debut at the venue directing pieces by John Adams and Andrew Norman in 2013.
The last New Zealand conductor who performed at the prestigious concert venue was Gemma New, who in 2013 made her debut
In May 2025, Paczian would direct Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem.
She said she was given different pieces to choose from, but she wanted a tuneful piece for choir and orchestra.
Hence, the Frenchman’s requiem, which was joyful and ominous at the same time.
Self-doubt was an important element, to avoid complacency, Paczian said. However, she would be able to conduct the piece in her sleep, she said.
Closer to home, people could catch Paczian as guest conductor with the Nelson-based Chroma Chamber Choir at the Nelson Centre of Musical Art, on April 27 and 28.