This weekend we want to go to . . .
Auckland Town Hall
Who doesn’t want to transport themselves to another world from time to time? Opportunities abound this month thanks to Elemental Festival — Auckland’s new winter event underway across the city right now — which aims to be a veritable banquet for the senses. Think winter feasts, light shows, theatre and, of course, festivities to mark Matariki. This Saturday, event producers extraordinaire Inside Out Productions join forces with orators Rewi Spraggon (Te Kawerau a Maki), Taiaha Hawke (Nga¯ ti Wha¯ tua O¯ ra¯ kei), and Pita Turei (Nga¯ ti Paoa) for Te Hono, contemporary storytelling complete with state-of-the-art mapping on to the ceiling of the Town Hall’s historic Concert Chamber. It’s a free event but booking is advised.
Te Hono, Concert Chamber, Auckland Town Hall, Saturday and Sunday, every two hours from noon-6pm.
During the past 60 years, thousands of our finest orchestral players, soloists, chamber musicians and music teachers have started their careers with the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) and a fair percentage have gone on to join the NZ Symphony Orchestra (NZSO). This year, the NYO is joining forces with the New Zealand Youth Choir, which turns 40, for a grand celebration and concert. They’ll premiere a work by the 2019 NZSO National Youth Orchestra Composer-in-Residence as well as perform Elgar’s The Music Makers because they are the music makers now and tomorrow.
NYO Celebrates, Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall, Saturday.
The Powerstation
Good things take time — so it is with Jan Hellriegel’s fourth studio album, Sportsman of the Year — A Suburban Philosophy, which has been seven years in the making. Hellriegel, a big name of the 90s, says it’s about finally arriving at a place where she looks back at failures, disappointments and rejections with a sense of accomplishment and pride, knowing that without them she wouldn’t be doing what she is today. Now she performs her stunning new songs at CompactStation, within the Powerstation. It promises to be an uplifting evening of songs, stories and suburban philosophy. Jan Hellriegel, CompactStation at the Powerstation, Friday (R18), doors open 8pm.
Smith & Caughey’s
Oh, how we love an afternoon wandering round Auckland’s oldest department store . . . As if we needed one, there’s an extra incentive to visit this month. The World Press Photo Exhibition has returned to Level 6 with a selection of the most compelling images seen in the media in the past year. About 4800 photographers from 129 countries submitted 78,801 images — and what’s displayed here is the best of the best. These are moving, at times harrowing photographs, which remind us what photojournalism at its finest looks like and, also, that there’s a world outside our comfortable confines. World Press Photo Exhibition, Smith & Caughey’s, until Sunday, July 28.
Opera Factory
Back to musicians of the future, we produce a surprising number of talented young opera singers who are following in the footsteps of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Malvina Major and Simon O’Neill and being heard in the world’s great opera houses. Sunday provides an opportunity to hear sopranos Meghan Carppe, Jacqui Moloney and Sophia Yang with baritones Aidan Phillips and Timothy Burrell, accompanied by well-known Auckland pianist Juan Kim, as part of Opera Factory’s commitment to nurturing the next generation. Its winter series of vocal recitals starts this weekend and you’re guaranteed a warm welcome. And although it’s not the weekend, opera fans might like to note that international star tenor Simon O’Neill performs arias and duets at a Monday night concert in the Auckland Town Hall. Opera Factory, Winter Vocal Recitals, St Marks Centre, Newmarket, Sunday at 4.30pm.