Orchestra Wellington is

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's oldest professional regional orchestra, based in the capital city of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

. It hosts an annual subscription series of concerts in the

Michael Fowler Centre The Michael Fowler Centre is a concert hall and convention centre in Wellington, New Zealand. It was constructed on reclaimed land next to Civic Square, and is the pre-eminent concert site in central Wellington. Commissioned in 1975, building be ...

, performing varied repertoire from the Classical, Romantic and

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

periods. The orchestra commissions and performs works by New Zealand composers, with

John Psathas John Psathas, (born Ioannis Psathas, el, Ιωάννης Ψάθας; 1966) is a New Zealand composer. He has works in the repertoire of such high-profile musicians as Evelyn Glennie, Michael Houstoun, Michael Brecker, Joshua Redman and the New ...

the current

composer-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

. It also performs large choral works with the

Orpheus Choir of Wellington The Orpheus Choir of Wellington is an auditioned mixed-voice symphonic choir based in Wellington, New Zealand. It has over 150 members and regularly performs with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Wellington. History The Hutt Va ...

, and regularly accompanies Wellington stage performances by the

Royal New Zealand Ballet The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company. History New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danish ...

New Zealand Opera New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's only full-time professional opera company, formed in 2000 from the merger of companies in Auckland and Wellington (and later Christchurch). New Zealand Opera is headquartered in Parnell, Auckland, stages severa ...

, and

Wellington Opera Wellington Opera is an opera company based in Wellington, New Zealand formed in 2020 by the Wellington Opera Trust, a charitable organisation, with funding and support from Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council and the Kiri Te Kanawa F ...

History

The orchestra was founded by New Zealand violinist Alex Lindsay as the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra in 1948, and established as an incorporated society, the Wellington Regional Orchestra Foundation, in 1950. It was renamed the Lindsay String Orchestra of Wellington in 1967, and re-established with assistance from the

Arts Council of New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

in 1973 as the Wellington Regional Orchestra. In 1991 the orchestra was renamed Wellington Sinfonia, and in 2005 renamed again to Vector Wellington Orchestra. In 2012 the orchestra dropped the naming sponsorship from electricity company

Vector Vector most often refers to: *Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction *Vector (epidemiology), an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematic ...

and rebranded to its current name, Orchestra Wellington.

References

External links

* Organisations based in Wellington Culture in Wellington New Zealand orchestras Symphony orchestras Musical groups from Wellington {{orchestra-stub