The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1946, is the country’s leading professional orchestra. It has an establishment of ninety players and performs over a hundred concerts annually. Touring within New Zealand looms large in the orchestra’s activities. All its main symphonic programmes are presented in Auckland and Wellington, and as well as this, the orchestra visits some thirty New Zealand towns and cities annually. In 2005 the orchestra undertook a highly successful tour that included performances at the BBC Proms, the Concertgebouw, Snape Maltings and the World Expo at Aichi in Japan. Pietari Inkinen was appointed as the orchestra’s Music Director from January 2008, succeeding James Judd, who held the position from 1999 to 2007 and is now Music Director Emeritus. Other conductors who have worked with the orchestra during his tenure include Alexander Lazarev, Dimitri Sitkovetsky, David Atherton, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Edo de Waart. Soloists who have worked with the orchestra include Lynn Harrell, Lang Lang, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, Steven Isserlis, Jonathan Lemalu and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has an extensive catalogue of recordings. As part of a commitment to promote and encourage music by New Zealand composers, the orchestra makes at least one recording of New Zealand music annually. The NZSO has a strong relationship with Naxos, recording repertoire as diverse as Elgar (three discs), Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven, Bernstein, Copland, Lilburn, Sculthorpe, Frank Bridge, Akutagawa, Mendelssohn, Honegger,
For more information, please visit www.nzso.co.nz
