New Zealand Symphony Orchestra festival coming to Napier in April

A new three-day New Zealand Symphony Orchestra music festival, Immerse 2021, is coming to Napier in April. Photo / Supplied

A new three-day New Zealand Symphony Orchestra music festival is coming to Napier.

Orchestra-loving audiences will be spoilt for choice at the Immerse 2021 festival in April with performances of the best baroque and symphonic works, a leading New Zealand soloist and more.

Due to run from April 16 to 18 at the Municipal Theatre, the festival will include Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, pianist Diedre Irons playing Mozart's best-known works and a collaboration with young Hawke's Bay choir Project Prima Volta performing Broadway songs.

Prima Volta charitable trust programme director Anna Pierard said it was a privilege to embark on the group's first multi-city tour with the country's premier music ensemble.

"Taking part in the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra's Immerse Festival will be a defining moment in their performance journey," she said.

"This high calibre of musicianship will inspire our young singers, further demonstrating what can be achieved when they strive for excellence."

The Broadway Matinee with Project Prima Volta marks the first collaboration between NZSO and the Hawke's Bay-based initiative. Photo / Supplied

The festival will also run in Tauranga, Wellington, Palmerston North, Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch throughout the year.

The Broadway Matinee with Project Prima Volta marks the first collaboration between the NZSO and the Hawke's Bay-based initiative – a weekly singing programme that uses opera as a tool to engage, educate and empower teenagers.

The show, due to take place at 2pm on April 18, will see Broadway hits from The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Beauty and the Beast, Annie Get Your Gun, A Little Night Music, My Fair Lady and Gypsy.

The concerts will also include New Zealand-born Canadian composer Juliet Palmer's spirited Buzzard, inspired by Stravinsky's The Firebird and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, as well as four NZSO violinists – Anna van der Zee, Malavika Gopal, Simeon Broom and Alan Molina.

Immerse 2021 also includes Open Doors – a series of free community events for all ages in Napier on April 17.

Tickets are available from ticketek.co.nz now.