RNZ Concert
RNZ Concert (Māori: Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Kōnohete) is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand FM fine music radio network.
[1][2] The network's specialist production department commissions work, initiates music programs, and records live broadcasts of concerts and recitals from local and visiting international musicians.
[8] The highest-ranked pieces are performed live by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra during the previous November, at concerts hosted by well-known New Zealanders like John Campbell and Wallace Chapman.
[11] NZ On Air contributes $130,000 each year towards local recordings made by RNZ Concert through SOUNZ - Centre for New Zealand Music's Resound Project.
In 2014, it broadcast a concert featuring the five finalists of a one-off secondary school song-writing competition - 'The Calling' - in which students had to reflect the emotional impact the declaration of World War I had on New Zealand families through an original musical score.
During his time as broadcasting minister in 2008 to 2011, National MP Jonathan Coleman asked the organisation to consider alternative revenue sources, including listener donations and commercial sponsorship of RNZ Concert programmes, to help cover the network's operating costs.
[28] Opponents of the plan, including Dame Kiri te Kanawa and Helen Clark, call the cuts "very concerning" and question whether youth would even tune in the proposed new radio service.
[32] On many occasions the pieces are from prominent composers, like Gustav Mahler, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Prokofiev or Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
On other occasions, they are the work of local composers like Gareth Farr, John Psathas, Eve de Castro-Robinson, or Chris Watson.
[33] Each year, young composers studying musical composition at university are also given the opportunity to have their work performed by the Symphony Orchestra and broadcast on RNZ Concert.
[41][42] Winners of the Royal Overseas League Arts International Scholarship for a New Zealand Chamber Ensemble also have their performances recorded for broadcast.
[52][53][54][55][56][57] Singers Morag Atchison, Stephanie Acraman and Valerie Wycoff, violinists Amalia Hall and Natalie Sharonlin and pianists Charmaine Ford and Rachel Thomas have also performed their work.
[58][59][60][61][62][63][64] International artists are regularly featured through the touring programmes of Chamber Music New Zealand, as well as soloists with the major orchestras.
