Grant’s Arts & Music Festival

15/03/2024

Dear followers, the concert “Beyond Words” will be available to view online for free in about 6 hours from now, live-streamed once unless you are a subscriber of NZSO+. I am very much looking forward to watching this again. I was at the concert at the Auckland Townhall last weekend and it was one of the most amazing concerts I’ve been to. Many thanks for NZ composer John Psathas for writing such wonderful and powerful music and congratulations on such a successful world premiere…

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To honour the lives lost and changed forever in Ōtautahi Christchurch on 15 March 2019, and to mark the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, we present a free concert stream of Beyond Words.

Beyond Words Concert Stream
Friday, 15 March, 8.30pm
NZSO+
Watch from the comfort of your living room, have a night in with friends and family, or enjoy just for yourself.

How to watch the free concert stream
On Friday, 15 March you can watch the Beyond Words performance by following these steps:

Go to the link below to visit the Beyond Words stream page on NZSO+.
The stream will be available to view from 8.30pm.
If you don't see the video player before 8.30pm, there's no need to worry. It will become available once the stream begins.

https://www.nzso.co.nz/plus/videos/beyond-words?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ConcertStreamBeyondWords&utm_content=version_A&promo=

Digital programme notes

https://e.wordfly.com/click?sid=NzQ3XzQ5NDZfNDkxODhfNzA0Mw&l=15144b47-9de1-ee11-a836-0050569d715d&utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ConcertStreamBeyondWords&utm_content=version_A&promo=

Watch the NZSO present Beyond Words, an expression of peace and unity through music.

31/05/2019

This is an article in the local Chinese newspaper about the Wellington War and Peace commemoration viola recital Milan Milisavljević and I played in last Saturday 25 May 2019.

We were honoured by attendance of Canadian High Commissioner and Taiwanese Ambassador (and their lovely spouses), members of the NZ String Quartet, Donald Maurice, and other musicians from Wellington. Small yet very lovely appreciative audience.

In the same article, Judy Ho’s new painting “Song/Dove of Peace”, Ruobing Wang’s 王若冰 Guqin performance and poet Keith Westwater also got special mentioning.

https://issuu.com/homevoicenz/docs/homevoice_1030?e=4416867/70244595
(see page 23)

31/05/2019

Sincere thanks to those who took part in this 2019 War and Peace Arts and Music Festival, which concluded with many happy participants and few yet very appreciative audience!

Even though the live auction did not take place in the end due to bad weather (and lack of promotion), we will host online auction from July to not only curate the artworks exhibited in this festival, but hopefully help promote the artists and sell their artworks! I want to thank the many artists and sculptors for making an effort to participate, some even painting new works for this particular festival or sending artworks all the way from Wellington!

And thank you all poets, for your enthusiasm and sharing of your beautiful poems that touched our hearts, each in his/her own way... special thanks to Sam Clements for coordinating all the poets and Keith Westwater/Aidan Howard for helping with concert programme notes.

Thank you all lovely volunteers for taking turns helping out with the festival. It wouldn’t have been possible without your assistance! Which is why a late celebration supper at 10:30pm with those who stayed behind on this final day of festival is called for!

And I’d like to thank all my musician friends for sharing your music so wonderfully. It was a great journey for me to get to know you all better through collaboration during this festival. And I hope to invite you back to perform some more in future events! Special thanks to Lily Jin for not only introducing me to many Chinese musicians, artists and photographers, but also attending the concerts almost every night after her busy teaching schedules! Also I’d love to thank Franco and Rosa Viganoni for their top quality audio recording of 5 concerts!

It’s been a great 2 months journey. A learning curve for me. It created opportunities for people from different circles to intercept and collaborate, which has always been my original intention! I think I’ve made a little spark in starting something truly special!

Off to Rome tomorrow for holiday. But you know me, I might throw a concert or two while on holiday (already convinced a local violist I have not met yet and worked out a recital programme, the only thing left is to find a venue and opportunity to perform). Tourist by day and musician by night!

31/05/2019

What the DVD screening (5:45-7:15) is going to look like this evening at the Metropolis Museum. Test run this afternoon. Followed by arts auction at 7:30.

30/05/2019

I have decided to make the door sale price $15 for all at this final concert “Voices Only”. Don’t miss the last opportunity to hear some great music at this beautiful venue, surrounded by a collection of great artworks and wonderful poetry reading!

See you at the Metropolis Museum (116 Symonds St) at 6:30 for 7pm start!

30/05/2019

There was some pretty amazing music making and powerful poetry reading in the last few days during this arts and music festival. I would like to thank all the participating musicians, poets, artists and the audience who came to share our music/arts/poetry.

Special credit to Franco Viganoni (and his lovely assistant Rosa) for audio recording most of these concerts. The CDs will be available soon after the festival for purchase.

Tonight is our final concert “Voices Only” in the 8-concert series, featuring Angus Simmons (Baritone), Anna Simmons (Soprano), Andrew Grenon (Tenor), Sarah Court (Mezzo-soprano) and David Kelly (Piano). I can finally sit down and enjoy the concert!

I have performed 6 concerts in the last 7 nights. I hope you have enjoyed the show I put on, with only the best musicians/artists/poets I could find! Next time I organise another festival, I will have more experience and a great team behind me! This whole event was work within two months from invitation in March to actual event in May!

29/05/2019

I’m very excited to announce that for tonight’s Mostly Strings concert, I’m very lucky to be joined by the amazing APO principal violist Robert Ashworth in the second half of the concert, performing the beloved Rebecca Clarke and Hindemith Op.11 No.4 viola sonatas.

The Waiheke Trio will perform Mozart Trio K563 in its entirety in the first half. We are joined by poets Aidan Howard and Naima Idris Akbar

Don’t miss it! It will be a great concert and the sixth and final concert I perform in during this “War and Peace” festival.

See you at 7-9pm at the Metropolis Museum, 116 Symonds St, across the road from Cordis. Student/Child rush door sale $15 from 6:15pm.

25/05/2019

Apart from attendance number due to clash with the Orchestra Wellington concert, our final (Wellington) viola recital last night went pretty well, and was very well received like the two previous concerts.

Among the audience we had the Canadian High Commissioner and Taiwanese Ambassador attending with spouses, and even three members of the New Zealand String Quartet!

Everyone enjoyed the programme and the playing, which is what really mattered. We might have touched some hearts and I sincerely hope that we could invite Milan back to NZ in the future for more wonderful performances...

Thanks Donald for assistance in organising masterclass and during the concert, Keith for reading poems, artists Anita Yang/Judy Ho/Paul Gadsby for their artworks, and Ruobing Wang for exquisite Guqin performance.

Putting on concerts like this is hard work, having to invite and coordinate musicians/artists/poets but this is all done within two months and even though it could have been better promoted, I was happy with the end product. Even though this is all done without external funding or sponsorship...

There are five more concerts when we fly back to Auckland. Straight back to the stage for me! (I’ll be performing in 3 of them.) Hope more people come to Chinese concert because it’s a really amazing lineup of musicians, with as many Chinese instrumentalist as I could gather in such a short time! It’s tonight 7-9pm at the Metropolis Museum (116 Symonds St, Auckland).