New headquarters for N.Z.'s first orchestra

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 24

New headquarters for N.Z.'s first orchestra

From

OLIVER RIDDELL

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is moving to new headquarters in Wellington — in converted billiard rooms. Its present home, the Masonic Chambers on The Terrace, has been in the hands of the Broadcasting Corporation (which administers the orchestra) since Lite 19305. The operational part of radio was shifted there during World War II because its previous home was more vulnerable to bombing. The Masons built their temple walls of double thickness, and it was thought the nation's

radio should be made sate. When radio’s former home on Waring Taylor Street became vacant it

provided a home for the New Zealand Orchestra, founded immediately after the war. This edifice, which later housed the first television studios in V'’ellington, had been a gentlemen’s club. The first studio used by the orchestra was once the pool room.

The orchestra later shifted to St Paul’s Hall and then, in 1964, to the Masonic Chambers. These are now to be demolished and replaced with a 14storey monolitith, the design of which has run into problems at the Min-

istry of Works’s wind tunnel; so the orchestra has to move again. The move will be made in late December, when the orchestra is in its summer recess.

The new premises in Willis Street, next to the St. George Hotel, have been tentatively renamed “Symphony House.” At present it is known as “McDonald’s Building.” There will be 500 sq.ft, more space in the new orchestral studios, which

have housed billiard tables for many years, but the cubic capacity will be twice as great as the Masonic Chambers studios and this will make rehearsals much more pleasant for those participating. Members of the orchestra have complained about the hot, stuffy studios on The Terrace for years.

Once renovations have been completed, all the management, library, storage for the considerable amount of equipment, and training facilities will be together.

Another improvement over The Terrace site will be in the access. At present, everything has to be manhandled along a dark and narrow alleyway to the studios (often in pouring rain or high winds), but a vacant lot goes with the new site, so it will be possible to back a truck right up to the studio door.

The new premises will not be cheap. The outgoing occupants are believed to have paid a combined annual rent of $34,000, and the orchestra’s new general manager (Mr Peter Nisbet) said the new rental would be higher than that, although he would not give an exact figure. He also said that the lease was for a finite period, but he would not say how long the period was. Five years has been mentioned.

These costs are all part of the considerable expense of running an orchestra, particularly an orchestra which travels as much as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra does. The late chairman of the Broadcasting Council (Mr Ron Jarden) estimated shortly before his death in March that the orchestra

was expected to show a net loss of between SI.7M and S2M. In view of the costs of moving, and the prospect of the orchestra’s having to move again, some thought has been given to a permanent home. Some years ago it was hoped the orchestra would share a complex with ballet and opera at the television studios at Avalon, but this proposal seems to have lapsed.

There is now a plan for the orchestra to have a permanent home in the new civic complex planned in Wellington. Mr Nisbet thinks there is at least a 50-50 chance of this happening one day. He believes the orchestra would be welcomed as a tenant by the Wellington City Corporation in a permanent home. “Few orchestras in the world have permanent homes of their own, and most of those do so in buildings originally built for another purpose,” he said. “Few orchestras anywhere have the privilege of rehearsing in the one place, as w’e do now. It would be marvellous if a permanent home could be built specially for us in the civic development, and I think it is distinctly possible.”