Latest News
Festival Makes Major Economic and Cultural Contribution
The New Zealand International Arts Festival continues to be a significant contributor to tourism and economic development of Wellington and New Zealand yet its full impact extends beyond tangible economic measures, according to BERL’s latest economic impact assessment of the 2010 Festival.
BERL reports that the economic output generated by the 2010 Festival for Wellington was $39.2 million, with total GDP gain of $20 million. The Festival created 324 full-time equivalent jobs.
However, the BERL report also highlights that the intangible benefits from New Zealand’s largest iconic cultural event may well outweigh the economic dollars it generates.
“For 24 years the New Zealand International Arts Festival has attracted overseas visitors as well as top artistic companies to our shores,” says Fran Wilde, Executive Chair of the NZIAF Trust. “This has turned Wellington into one of the world’s great festival cities, putting us on the international map and signaling a level of sophistication that only the arts can deliver.”
“The Festival is a significant contributor to the cultural vibrancy and quality of life of Wellington – and, as BERL has noted, you can’t put a dollar figure on that,” Wilde said. Alongside economic development and sustainable growth, diversity and culture are important to retaining and attracting residents and businesses. Ultimately the Festival’s legacy reaches far beyond three weeks of arts and entertainment. It provides wider spin-offs for many – from the hospitality and transport providers and the people and contractors directly employed by the Festival, through to the Kiwi artists who get opportunities they never thought possible.”
The 2010 Festival attracted over 1000 artists from 35 countries to the 24-day event held in 50 venues around the Wellington city and region. Around 290,000 people attended more than 300 events. Around 103,000 tickets were issued to 237 ticketed performances and an estimated 185,000 people attended more than 65 free events.
Due to the challenging economic climate, the Festival box office was down compared to the boom times of 2006 and 2008 Festivals and was more in line with the 2002 and 2004 Festivals. This was similar to the experience of other event promoters during the recession. Nielsen’s audience research commissioned by the Festival indicates that 41 percent of the New Zealanders cut spending on out-of-home entertainment during the Festival period because of the recession. Although the Festival retained the same number of attendees, 30 percent stated that they bought fewer tickets because of the recession. The Festival made up for the shortfall on its box office budget through savings in operational costs and extra charitable trust funding.
The most popular crowd pullers were the week-long shop window performance Revolt of the Mannequins, Sutra, the Mahler Symphony No.8 concert and live relay into Civic Square, Ravi Shankar, Branford Marsalis, Sing The Truth, APOLLO 13: Mission Control, New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week events - particularly Town Hall Talks featuring Richard Dawkins – and some of the acts at the Pacific Blue Festival Club.
As well as the Mahler Civic Square relay and Revolt of the Mannequins new initiatives such as Restage, Town Hall Talks, Chamber Music Weekend and the “Tix for Twenty” accessible ticketing scheme gave more people an opportunity to participate in a wider range of cultural events.
New Zealand works established new benchmarks in performance quality with both new commissions and restaged pieces. As a result, some will be performed around New Zealand and overseas including APOLLO 13: Mission Control, He Reo Aroha, The Arrival and Mark Twain and Me in Maoriland.
The Festival’s SchoolFest programme was a sellout, attracting over 9,000 students from 78 schools and tertiary institutions. These included behind-the-scenes workshops and master classes led by top performers such as Branford Marsalis, circus theatre troupe Cirkus Cirkor (Inside Out), and the Shaolin monks from Sutra.
The Art on the Move programme visited seven centres in the Wellington region, enabling audiences to experience a selection of main Festival events closer to home.
In 2010 the Festival had a younger profile of ticket purchasers than previously, which organisers believe can partly be attributed to the new Tix 4 Twenty ticketing initiative. While the majority of Festival goers (53 percent) come from Wellington City and region, visitor attendances increased from other parts of New Zealand, particularly from Auckland which was up two percent on the 2008 Festival.
New Zealand International Arts Festival co-commissions choreographer Lemi Ponifasio's latest work for the world stage
The New Zealand International Arts Festival is proud to announce its latest co-commission Birds with Skymirrors by Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio.
The French newspaper Le Figaro has declared Ponifasio to be one of the most important geniuses of dance, along with Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham. His new work will be presented by the Edinburgh International Festival in August this year.
Birds with Skymirrors is urgent, challenging yet spirit-lifting. Witnessing the plight of the small islands of the Pacific, Auckland based Ponifasio questions our role on the planet Earth.
"On the smallest of islands in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, shiny glittering fragments of plastic waste attract the eyes of frigate birds. These tiny sky mirrors, deadly parcels of pollution which adorn the nests of unsuspecting sea birds, are a dreadful ironic reminder of the fragile beauty of environmentally degraded, remote islands throughout the Pacific," reads the Festival programme. Lemi Ponifasio's work is a radical composition in ceremony, poetry, chant, oratory; a unique and utterly contemporary theatre proposition.
Birds with Skymirrors is co-produced by the New Zealand International Arts Festival with Theatre de la Ville in Paris, Theater der Welt 2010 in Essen, spielzeit'europa/Berliner Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, KVS Brussels, Holland Festival, Mercat de les Flors Barcelona, and DeSingel Antwerp and is being co-presented by the Edinburgh Festival.
"Lemi Ponifasio is an extraordinary artist and we are delighted to have joined with these Festival partners in realising his latest work," says Lissa Twomey, artistic director of the New Zealand International Arts Festival. "Birds with Skymirrors will have its New Zealand premiere at the next New Zealand International Arts Festival in 2012."
Ponifasio's work Tempest: Without a Body will be featured with Birds with Skymirrors at this year's Edinburgh International Festival.
Lemi Ponifasio
Birds with Skymirrors
CoProduction: Théâtre de la Ville, New Zealand International Arts Festival, Theater der Welt 2010, spielzeit'europa / Berliner Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, KVS Brussels, Holland Festival, Mercat de les Flors, DeSingel Antwerp.
Production: MAU
Recent Press
Tempest : Without A Body
Le Figaro
Paris, France
29/01/2010
LEMI PONIFASIO - the revelation. This New Zealand choreographer should stand out among the greatest.
What's new in the choreographic landscape? Lemi Ponifasio.
On Wednesday evening the public discovered this in the main hall of the "Théâtre de la Ville", which over the past 25 years has seen, performing for the first time, some of the most important geniuses of dance: from Alain Patel or Anne Teresa de Keermaerker to DV8 or Sasha Waltz, not to mention Merce Cunningham or Pina Bausch.
For several seasons now, we have been watching out for the new miracle: the one capable of bringing onto stage bodily images captivating both fans of dance and contemporary art. Judging from one unique piece, Lemi Ponifasio could indeed be the one.
Le Nouvel Observateur
Paris, France
02/02/2010
Lemi Ponifasio makes a sensational entry to the European scene. After at least 15 years of stagnant programming ... the City of Paris now opens its stage to something new, powerful and fascinating, with the work of LEMI PONIFASIO.
First Events Announced for 2010
A fusion of dance celebrating George Gershwin's music, a play with no words set to a soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel, Mahler's orchestral masterpiece ‘Symphony of a Thousand' and leading British writer and historian Simon Schama are the first events to be announced for the 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival to be held in February and March next year.
World-renowned Russian conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy will lead the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and some of the world's finest soloists for an epic performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No 8 ‘Symphony of a Thousand'; from Latvia comes the innovative New Riga Theatre with Sound of Silence - a play without words set to the soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel; French dance company Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu makes its first visit to New Zealand with Good Morning, Mr. Gershwin; while leading British writer, historian and television presenter Simon Schama headlines New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week.
Season tickets go on sale today for the 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival which takes place in Wellington from 26 February to 21 March.
In making today's preview announcement, artistic director Lissa Twomey says the 2010 Festival programme looks to the past while continuing to explore innovative art forms of the future."We're bringing the best possible works and the best artists to New Zealand to connect with, engage and entertain the widest possible audiences," Ms Twomey says. "I'm excited about the wealth of experiences we have in store for 2010 and I'm delighted to now be able to share a few Festival gems."
Mahler Symphony No 8
2010 marks 100 years since the premiere of Mahler's Symphony No 8, dubbed ‘Symphony of a Thousand' due to its vast instrumental force. Opening the 2010 Festival, this monumental work, Mahler Symphony No 8, will be performed by the NZSO with two large mixed choirs, a children's chorus, organ, off-stage brass and eight leading vocal soloists.
"Mahler 8 is a remarkable work of redemptive power and one of the greatest musical experiences of our time," Ms Twomey says. "We're absolutely thrilled to bring one of the world's most renowned and revered artists to New Zealand to conduct this work. It will be a wonderful celebratory start to the Festival."
The vocal soloists feature New Zealanders Simon O'Neill (tenor) and Martin Snell (bass) together with sopranos Annalena Persson (Sweden), Russia's Marina Shaguch and Australian Sara Macliver; altos Dagmar Peckova from the Czech Republic and Bernadette Cullen (Australia) and German baritone Markus Eiche.
Sound of Silence
Set to a soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel hits and staged by award-winning director Alvis Hermanis, New Riga Theater's Sound of Silence brings to life the idealism and heady romance of the 1960s.
Sound of Silence weaves together the experiences of 14 young Latvians as they discover the intricacies of life and love in the aftermath of the cancellation of a Simon and Garfunkel concert. The production has also won numerous awards including the Grand Prix at the 18th International Theatre Festival in Poland held in May this year.
"Sound of Silence is a journey back in time," says Ms Twomey. "It's funny, colourful and exuberant, but it's also mischevious and poetic."
Good Morning, Mr. Gershwin
Fusing hip-hop, ballet and tap-dance against a backdrop of immense and emotive video imagery, Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu's Good Morning, Mr. Gershwin pays tribute to American composer George Gershwin.
In the first half, dancers bring to life the glamour of the 20s and 30s as they take an exuberant frolic through some of Gershwin's most well-known Broadway classics; while the second half draws on the music of Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess and features some of the composer's most popular hits including Summertime and It Ain't Necessarily So.
"I'm looking forward to welcoming Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu to New Zealand for the first time. They've been to Australia before, but despite previous efforts have never made it here," Ms Twomey says. "It's hard not to like this company, who blend ballet with contemporary street dance and acrobatic styles with video to popular and magical effect."
Simon Schama
New Zealand Post Writers and Readers Week runs from 9-14 March presenting a programme of remarkable writers and thinkers from around the world and headlining the programme will be renowned British writer, historian and art critic Simon Schama.
Currently an art and cultural critic for the New Yorker Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, Simon Schama is a multi award-winning writer and is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain. His impassioned account of the American Revolution in Rough Crossing won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Non-Fiction in 2007 and his other award-winning books include Citizens: Rembrandt's Eyes and the History of Britain trilogy.
These events are just a glimpse of what's in store for the 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival programme of music, theatre, dance, performance, visual arts and literature which will be staged from 26 February to 21 March 2010 in Wellington. The full programme will be announced on Tuesday 3 November. The 2010 New Zealand International Arts Festival is proudly supported by Gold sponsorship partners TV3, New Zealand Post, Pacific Blue and Clemenger BBDO.
Season tickets for the Festival are on sale from today for dedicated arts enthusiasts to be able to secure priority access to the hottest tickets of the Festival. Season tickets and Friends of the Festival memberships can be purchased online at www.nzfestival.nzpost.co.nz.
"A beauty of voice greater than Kiri's"
Winning soprano Aivale Cole has garnered rave reviews for her performance at the 2009 Lexus Song Quest Final Concert and is building up a fanbase nationwide as she performs around New Zealand as part of the Recital Tour with fellow prize-winners, bass Wade Kernot and soprano Julia Booth.
The New Zealand Herald's review said "there was no stopping the irrepressible Aivale Cole", while the Dominion Post declared the first place winner to have "a beauty of voice greater than Kiri's" and that "the other finalists were not to be dismissed... This was one of the strongest contests of the many I have attended".
On Thursday 30 April the tour finishes up in Wellington. Buy your ticket now for the recital at The Opera House at 8pm. Word filtering back from the rest of the country is that it's a thrilling programme, with the young stars performing together in duos and trios - an extended repertoire showing the true calibre of their voices.
And keep your eye on the Arts section of the Dominion Post on Wednesday, as Tom Cardy interviews 'down to earth diva' Aivale Cole in advance of her hometown performance.
Aivale Cole wins Lexus Song Quest
Soprano Aivale Cole joined the elite ranks of New Zealand opera singers on Thursday night when she won the 2009 Lexus Song Quest at the competition's finals concert in the Auckland Town Hall.
Aivale triumphed after being a finalist in Lexus Song Quest in 2007.
The Wellington singer impressed competition judge Siegfried Jerusalem with her performances of John Carter's Peter Go Ring dem Bells in the Lieder section, accompanied by pianist Terence Dennis; and Strauss' Es Gibt ein Reich from Ariadne auf Naxos and Verdi's Ritorna Vincitor (Aida) in the Orchestral section accompanied by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Aivale says she is ecstatic to win. "This was my last opportunity to be in the contest so I knew I had to give it everything. I'm absolutely thrilled."
Judge Siegfried Jerusalem had high praise for all six finalists and was impressed by the "very high standard of competition, but Aivale Cole was technically and musically ahead. The way she presented and performed was very nearly perfect.
"I have no doubt she has a wonderful career ahead of her."
Aivale (32) is currently based in Perth, Western Australia with her husband Nicholas and two children, Morgan (5) and Rowena (2). She made her debut with the Western Australian Opera in the title role of Aida late last year. Aivale has sung a wide range of operatic roles and featured in a number of new works including Classical Polynesia in the NZ International Arts Festival and Ifoga in the Christchurch Arts Festival, and also recorded a solo piece with the NZSO for the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's film The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
As winner, Aivale receives a cash prize of $10,000 and a Study Scholarship of $15,000 plus a return economy international airfare. Cash prizes ($8000 for second place and $5000 for third place) and scholarships were awarded to the runners-up and the other three finalists were each awarded $3,500.
Second and third placegetters were respectively, Wade Kernot of Auckland and Julia Booth of Hamilton. The other three finalists were Andrew Glover, Kristen Darragh and Polly Ott.
The three prizewinners head off on a Recital Tour performing with Terence Dennis in Christchurch on Sunday 26 April, Dunedin on Tuesday 28 April and Wellington on Thursday 30 April. Judge Siegfried Jerusalem will speak briefly at each recital and will also be conducting free masterclasses in each city.
Aivale Cole wins Lexus Song Quest official media release.pdf (300 KB)
LSQ Finalist in International Competition
Lexus Song Quest 2009 finalist Wade Kernot has been selected as one of 25 singers from around the globe to compete in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in June.
More than 600 singers from 68 countries auditioned for the contest from around the world. It is the first time a New Zealander has been selected for the prestigious contest since 2005 when mezzo soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson was a finalist. The 2009 finals will be held in Wales from 6-14 June.
Wade (28) is one of six finalists in the Lexus Song Quest 2009 with the finals concert scheduled for Thursday 23 April at Auckland Town Hall.
"We are absolutely thrilled to hear of Wade's selection as a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Young Singer of the World," says New Zealand International Arts Festival executive director Sue Paterson. "He's a superb talent who was runner-up in Lexus Song Quest 2007 and then performed the bass roles in Lyon Opera's production of Kurt Weill's double bill of The Lindbergh Flight and The Seven Deadly Sins, at the New Zealand International Arts Festival 2008. We're very much looking forward to hearing him again in Lexus Song Quest 2009."
Previous New Zealand singers who have competed in the Cardiff competition include mezzo Anne Young (1983), soprano Nicola Waite (1985), soprano Greta Crawley (1987), soprano Patricia Wright (1989), baritone Paul Whelan (1993) who was the Song Prize winner and baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes (1999).
Lexus Song Quest Final Concert this Thursday night
The new rising star of New Zealand singing will be chosen this Thursday. The finalists have been whittled from a competitive field of entries, proving once again that for such a small country, we produce an extraordinary amount of talented opera singers.
Ranging in age from 21 to 32 years, the six exciting young singers show enormous potential. They are sopranos - Aivale Cole (Wellington/Perth), Julia Booth (Hamilton) and Polly Ott (Christchurch); mezzo Kristen Darragh (Auckland); tenor Andrew Glover (Taupo/London) and bass Wade Kernot (Auckland/London).
At the Final Concert on Thursday 23 April, the finalists will each sing one item accompanied by piano and two items accompanied by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with conductor Michael Lloyd.
The winner of the 2009 Lexus Song Quest will be decided by international judge Professor Siegfried Jerusalem, one of the world's leading tenors of our generation.
Lexus Song Quest Final Concert: Thursday 23 April 7pm, Auckland Town Hall
Tickets from $15.00 (booking fees may apply)
Click here to book your ticket!
Welcoming our new Executive Director
The end of February meant the start of work at the New Zealand International Arts Festival for new Executive Director, Sue Paterson.
Festival Chair Fran Wilde described securing Ms Paterson for the role as "a real coup". Sue is no stranger to the Festival, having been the Marketing Director from 1994 to 1998. More recently, she has spent eight years as General Manager of the Royal New Zealand Ballet and was GM Marketing and Communications at the Department of Conservation.
Sue says she thinks of the Festival as "an anchor stone of the performing arts in New Zealand" and looks forward to jumping in at the deep end.
