Music at Next Year's Festival of the Pines

Te Ao Hou, September 1966, Page 42

Music at Next Year's Festival of the Pines The Maori Suite, composed by Ashley Heenan and presented at a concert for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Wellington earlier this year, is to be performed at New Plymouth's ‘Festival of the Pines’ next February. The work, which requires a large chorus, two soloists and an orchestra, will be conducted at the Bowl of Brooklands by Mr Heenan. The choir of 50 or 60 wil be chosen and trained by Mr Frank Robinson of Hawera, who took a major singing role in Hinemoa and Tutanekai at the Bowl earlier this year. A nucleus of singers from Hinemoa and Tutanekai will be used in the choir, and all members will wear traditional costumes. The N.Z.B.C.'s Little Symphony Orchestra —35 players from the Symphony Orchestra will be featured in the one-night production. Kiri Te Kanawa, now training at the London Opera Centre, will sing at the Festival on 11 and 13 February, during her two weeks' stay in New Zealand. She will leave on 17 February to continue her studies overseas. Her return fare will be paid by the Bowl of Brooklands Trust.