Performing school productions and shows in front of their home town has always been something youngsters in Queenstown have loved to do.

Basing its final concert for the year on Sunday around the theme of a German Christmas was a shrewd move for Bach Musica.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra came to town with an early Christmas present: a Gershwin cocktail that capitalised on Freddy Kempf's recent CD.

The Royal NZ Ballet's season of Giselle is wowing audiences with its revitalised version of the classic story of love, betrayal and revenge. Raewyn Whyte reports.

Handel would have been heartened by Viva Voce's Solomon on Sunday, one of the finest of his oratorios, cannily written to appeal to the tastes of his (and all) time.

Bach's D minor Double Violin Concerto is a score of peerless beauty, its many contrapuntal threads woven with inevitability and rightness.

A theatre in Catalonia has started selling carrots in lieu of tickets in protest against a 13 per cent rise in VAT on cultural activities in Spain.

There was festivity in the air at Holy Trinity Cathedral for Auckland Choral's Magnificat concert.

The Southside Arts Festival premiere event Southside Gig is taking place at the TelstraClear Events Centre today. Hip-hop, B-boy breakdance and graffiti-art competitions are being held throughout the 12-hour event, which concludes at 9pm tonight.