Leading NZ classical players to perform in Hawke’s Bay concert
Two of New Zealand’s leading musicians are due to perform with the Hawke’s Bay Orchestra.
After a successful fundraising show in March, the Hawke’s Bay Orchestra (HBO) will perform a concert at Iona College’s Blyth Performing Arts Centre on May 16.
Violinist Monique Lapins and violist Gillian Ansell take to the stage to perform Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, while HBO will perform works by Beethoven and Juan Crisostomo de Arriaga.
HBO musical director and conductor Jose Aparicio encouraged locals to attend the historic event.
“Hawke’s Bay has a phenomenal opportunity to enjoy the brilliant playing of two of the country’s finest musicians in the Sinfonia Concertante, which is a bubbling concerto full of excitement and tender expression,” he said.
The orchestra will perform an array of classical hits, including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 and Spanish composer de Arriaga’s Los esclavos felices The Happy Slaves overture.
The HBO, the region’s premier orchestral ensemble, has a core of local musicians but will be joined at this concert by players from orchestras around the country. Ansell, who made her soloist concerto debut as a violinist with the Auckland Philharmonia at the age of 16, was made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit (MNZM) for her outstanding services to music in 2008.
She started playing the viola to help with her violin technique when she was a student at the Royal College of Music in London before falling in love with the sound.
After studying and performing in Germany and England, she returned to New Zealand in 1987 to become a founding member of the NZ String Quartet.
Lapins, who began violin studies at the age of 6, has toured extensively with major chamber orchestras and the Singapore Symphony, before joining the NZSQ in 2016. The concert is due to begin at 2.30pm on May 16. Admission is $20 for adults and free from those under 18.