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 and offering its main symphonic programmes in Auckland and Wellington. An acclaimed international tour in 2010 included appearances at Vienna’s Musikverein, Lucerne’s KKL, Geneva’s Victoria Hall and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Earlier tours have featured concerts at the Beijing Olympic Cultural Festival, the BBC Proms, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Snape Maltings in England and the Aichi World Expo in Japan. Music Director Pietari Inkinen succeeded James Judd in January 2008. Other conductors who have worked with the NZSO during his tenure include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alexander Lazarev, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Edo de Waart. Soloists who have worked with the orchestra include Pinchas Zukerman, Hilary Hahn, Vadim Repin, Yefim Bronfman, Simon O’Neill, Steven Isserlis, Freddy Kempf and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The NZSO has an extensive catalogue of commercial recordings, mostly on the Naxos label. Over one million of their CDs have been sold internationally in the last decade and they have received critical acclaim.

Photos courtesy of Robert Catto

For further information please visit www.nzso.co.nz.