Welcome to the 2010 Concert Series
 
This year’s programmes have been designed to bring excitement, exude natural beauty, and above all, convey enjoyment to everyone who joins us – regular NSO concertgoer or newcomer: welcome to our 2010 concert series. 
 
The series starts and ends with works by NZ composer Douglas Lilburn, beginning with the overture Aotearoa and ending with the tone poem Forest.
For our first outing of the year we offer the Lilburn along with Weber’s 1st Clarinet Concerto and Beethoven’s 6th Symphony – The Pastoral.
Concert 2 Anniversaries and Friends sees 2010 as an anniversary year for many musical events: births, deaths, and compositions. It took a long time to decide which pieces to leave out, rather than which pieces to include. Orchestra Leader John Thomson shares his skills with us all in Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Ole Bull’s Et Sæterbesøg, and these, along with Nicolai’s overture The Merry Wives of Windsor and Schumann’s 4th Symphony, make a truly inspiring programme. John Thomson also features later in the year in Bruch‘s Scottish Fantasia.
In addition to all these magnificent orchestral works, we include an evening of film music and two childrens’ concerts for the Nelson School of Music Winter Festival, and in September, an amazing programme of virtuoso concerto performances by aspiring soloists from our region and beyond.
All too soon we arrive at our end-of-series concert.  This takes us to the other side of the world for a celebration of music about Scotland. Hamish McCunn’s Land of the Mountain and the Flood, Bruch’s Scottish Fantasia, and Arnold’s testing Scottish Dances unite for a journey of haggis, lochs, heather and tartan before returning to NZ for Lilburn’s Forest to bring the year to a close.
 
All tickets are available from the Nelson School of Music [1].
 
We look forward to seeing you at our concerts and wish you all the very best for 2010. 
 
Mick Dowrick - Musical Director