12 April – 22 November 2025
Michael Fowler Centre
Orchestra Wellington is New Zealand’s oldest professional regional orchestra. Its busy concert series includes music from classical, romantic, and contemporary periods. You’ll also see it regularly performing with the Orpheus Choir, Royal New Zealand Ballet, and New Zealand Opera.
For its 2025 season, ‘The Dictator’s Shadow’, the orchestra focuses in part on Dimitri Shostakovich. The programme includes masterpieces that symbolise the artist’s struggle and resilience under repression and political control. Coupled with works from other composers, the concerts feature local and international soloists.
Kiwi soprano Madeleine Pierard sings excerpts from Shostakovich’s opera ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’. The programme includes the New Zealand premiere of Orchestra Wellington patron and composer John Psathas’ work ‘Next Planet’. The third work in the programme also has a Kiwi connection. The Glazunov’s Violin Concerto will utilise the considerable skills of New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker.
New Zealand composer Victoria Kelly premieres her Requiem. It uses poetry by Bill Manhire, Sam Hunt, Chloe Honum, Ian Wedde, and James K Baxter. Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 is possibly his most famous and frequently performed symphony. It could be viewed as a sincere expression of Soviet ideals or a subversive critique of totalitarianism. Whichever it is, it continues to captivate audiences with its emotional depth and structural brilliance.
20 December 2025Michael Fowler Centre
7 March – 5 December 2025Michael Fowler Centre
17 November 2025Michael Fowler Centre
1 February 2026Michael Fowler Centre
17 October 2025Michael Fowler Centre
26 February 2026Michael Fowler Centre
12 December 2025Michael Fowler Centre
9 November 2025Michael Fowler Centre
4 November 2025Michael Fowler Centre
10 November 2025Michael Fowler Centre | 18+