Saturday 27th-Sunday 28th July 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Join internationally renowned pianist Dr. Michael Tsalka and cellist Elgee Leung in their soul-searching quest to perform the complete cycle of the seven sonatas for piano and cello by Beethoven and Brahms. Composed between 1796 and 1815, Beethoven’s five sonatas for piano and cello were not only the pioneers in the medium where the two instruments play as a duo with equal significance, but also a concise journey through the composer’s three compositional periods. The baton of continuing the German music traditions with this genre in the Romantic Period was then passed to Brahms, who composed two sonatas for piano and cello in 1862-65 and 1886 respectively. From the young Beethoven to the pinnacle of the Late Romantic Period, the cycle spans the first 90 years of development in one of the most exquisite chamber music genres.

Sunday 28th July 2024, in Music & Performing Arts, Sports, Youth

One of the most high energy events you will ever see. Cheerleaders from around the country compete for the South Island title.

Based on gymnastics tumbling, dance and stunting it is being considered as an Olympic sport. Not a pom pom in cheerleaders are real athletes and you will be amazed.

Apart from the athletic and performance skills acquired through the sport, competitive cheerleading provides athletes with an opportunity to develop life skills such as a strong work ethic, discipline, teamwork and communication

Cheerleading attracts all genders between the ages of 4 - 40 and you will be impressed by how they flip and tumble and lift and throw.

In 2024 for the first time we have added Hip Hop to our schedule to showcase the best talent that the top of the south has to offer.

https://www.trybooking.com/nz/SHT

Sunday 28th July 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

‘A Box of Birds’ is a collection of original modern folk songs and traditional mandolin tunes brought to you by Nathan Torvik and Siobhan Sweeney.
With "a voice of pure Islay single malt" Siobhan sings musings on the idiosyncrasies of human nature, observation of patterns, with "thought provoking" lyrics. Accompanied by Nathan’s deep instrumental skills; simultaneous guitar and basslines and fine mandolin picking, these two create a full and encompassing sound.
Given their unassuming delivery and relaxed presence, Nathan and Siobhan’s performances are warm, heartfelt and enchanting.

Friday 2nd-Sunday 11th August 2024, in Festival

Illuminate Light and Sound Experience returns for 2024

Join us for an unforgettable night at the Illuminate Light and Sound Experience! This year, we’re back with interactive lighting installations, exciting NEW amusement rides, and a variety of delicious food trucks.
Enjoy a dazzling evening filled with entertainment. Grab a meal from our food trucks as you wander through the park, gazing at thousands of lights and engaging interactive features. Cap off your night with a thrilling ride on our brand NEW amusement attractions!

Tickets are just $12 + BF per person, with discounted group deals available. There’s fun for the whole family! Children under 1 are FREE!

Event Dates:
August 2nd - 4th
August 9th - 11th
Gates Open: 5:45 PM - 9:30 PM
We can't wait to see you, Nelson!

TICKETS ON SALE SOON

Friday 2nd-Saturday 3rd August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Wakatū Dance Theatre proudly presents Chase The Dream.

The theme for this year’s show is CHASE THE DREAM, encouraging our students to look ahead to the future and realise their dreams. The music suggests hope and happiness, which gives a positive lift to the dance and choreography.

Some of our music choices include; ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon, ‘Take the First Step’ from Elmo in Grouchland, ‘A Million Dreams’ from The Greatest Showman. We want our audience to enjoy an hour and a half of uplifting music, song, drama and dance.

Three shows only! Friday 2 August @ 7pm, Saturday 3 August @ 1.30pm & 7pm, at the Theatre Royal.

As Walt Disney once famously said “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them”.

Saturday 3rd-Sunday 4th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

This exciting concert will feature the worldwide choral hit – Mass in Blue by Will Todd. This is a contemporary fusion of the traditional Latin Mass with elements of jazz and blues. Mass in Blue has quickly established itself as one of the most treasured of all recent choral works.

It’s a brilliant blend of driving jazz grooves and clear, strong, choral writing against which the solo piano and solo soprano voice weave and blend in a delightful aural tapestry. This central work is complemented by beautiful musical settings of religious texts, infused with a highly individual and melodic style, bringing the composer’s lifelong love of traditional choral music into the 21st century with spiritual sensitivity and a contemporary edge.

Enjoy other jazz standards and performances from the Choir, the Quartet as well as solos from Tom Rainey on piano with Tessa Quayle, Jazz Soprano.

This will be a standout concert not to be missed.

Sunday 4th August 2024, in Markets, Shows & Fairs

I am a retired teacher, now author, born in Christchurch and raised in Whanganui. My life has been eventful, rather like Snakes and Ladders, taking me to England, the USA, Australia and back to New Zealand, my career often guiding me to work with Indigenous people.

In the mid 70s, I married an African American guitarist from the English funk group, Heatwave, where I experienced life in the fast lane, attending the Grammys alongside stars like Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand, and where Count Basie actually sang to me. Our daughter was born in LA at Cedars Sinai Hospital with Elizabeth Taylor just upstairs, and it was there that I was first exposed to racism.
My life took a drastic turn in my late forties when, newly divorced and returning to NZ, I met my current husband online, neither ever expecting to actually meet as he was living in the Arctic Circle and I was teaching in Balclutha, South Otago. What then happened has been described in my popular trilogy Walking on Ice, Nesting on the Nushagak and Dancing on the Tundra.

Tuesday 6th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Presented by: Century and NZ Comedy Festival

From the quote attributed to Mark Twain, humour is defined as Tragedy Plus Time. Come and join Ed as he tests that formula by mining the most tragic event in his life for laughs.

Edinburgh Fringe 2023 was a bumper five-star review year for Ed. They came in thick and fast alongside outstanding critical acclaim for this exceptionally funny, ‘Best Reviewed Stand Up Show at Edinburgh 2023’ (British Comedy Guide).

Century and NZ Comedy Festival are proud to present Ed Byrne: Tragedy Plus Time.

“Hilarious, extremely dark, profoundly touching and resolutely unsentimental. Ed Byrne has plumbed the very depths of his soul and found something verging on greatness.” ★★★★★ Rolling Stone

“Poignant, touching, spiky and laugh-out-loud funny… beautifully written and flawlessly performed.” ★★★★★ Edinburgh Reviews

Wednesday 7th-Thursday 8th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Hot off its Off-Broadway premiere, ‘A Taste of Ireland―The Irish Music & Dance Sensation’ hits stages across New Zealand, performing the show that has entertained thousands around the globe. Laugh, cry and jig into the night with a production that is Celtic, for this generation.

Performed by former World Irish dance champions, and featuring dancers from the West End’s Lord of the Dance and Riverdance, ‘A Taste of Ireland’ transports the audience through the story of Ireland’s tumultuous history delivered with a pint of Irish wit. Watch world-class performers blend melodic folk mash-ups, live jaw-dropping acapella tap battles and heartwarming story telling.

Featuring revamped classics of Danny Boy, Tell Me Ma, Wild Rover, and many more well-known songs, the show’s reimagined contemporary score blossoms alongside the brash Irish charm of the live dance cast. ‘A Taste of Ireland’ merges cultural traditions, modern flair, and craic galore, to deliver a performance that has been leaving audiences across the globe jigging on their feet for the last decade.

Wednesday 7th August 2024, in Community Events, Education, Heritage & Culture

Get to know how to use Find My Past and British Newspaper Archive.

Booking recommended.

Thursday 8th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Valeriy Maksymova and Anna Maksymova are a Dad and Daughter Duo from Christchurch.

The seriousness and inner intensity of Bach for solo violin will be contrasted with melancholy and nostalgia of Chopin, in whose music we can hear that his heart was longing to be back in Poland, while living in Paris during wartime in his home country.

To end the programme both musicians join forces to play beautifully lyrical violin sonata no.1 for violin and piano by Brahms. Composed as a gift for Clara Schumann to support her emotionally during a time, when her child died, this sonata is nicknamed ‘Raindrops’ because of the repeated note patterns in the last movement and has a tenderness that perhaps reveals how much Brahms cared for Clara.

Valeriy Maksymov made his musical career in New Zealand as an opera singer and a viola player with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. He is currently teaching full time and does string instrument repairs as a hobby. He started playing regularly with his daughter in 2017 and this collaboration gives them both the opportunity to explore repertoire for violin and piano.
Anna Maksymova also teaches piano and performs with many local musicians.

Wednesday 14th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Sicily’s beloved King Enzo is dead. Now Princess Rosa, a stroppy spinster, must navigate the tempestuous waters of belching Step-Fathers, lusty suitors, popping cod pieces and menopausal witches, to face her destiny.

Award-winning comedian Penny Ashton (Promise and Promiscuity, Olive Copperbottom, Austen Found, The Panel RNZ) presents her latest literary solo musical with this Shakespearean frolic. She’ll spark 11 characters into life in an Elizabethan tale of magic, meddling and puffed bull’s pizzles.

“Incredibly clever, the script is just so smart.” RNZ

“She’s such an entertaining storyteller and huge fun. The audience loved it.” Theatreview 2024

“…an excellently written script that Shakespeare himself would be proud of. There’s no need to be intimidated by the use of Shakespeare’s language for Ashton is clearly a master of it. She cleverly weaves modern phrases into the style of Elizabethan speech with precise comic timing, and hides lines ripped straight from Shakespeare throughout this new text. Every line is clear and each character is distinct – which is saying something, considering Ashton brings to life no less than eleven over the course of the story.” Theatrescenes

Thursday 15th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Flautist Tony Ferner joins cellist James Donaldson and pianist Kyoko Takashima in two varied, fun and energetic Trios.

The staunch baroque-era Lutheran J.S. Bach wrote his Sonata in E Major while visiting his son in the 1740s.
The free-wheeling Ukrainian jazz pianist Nikolai Kapustin wrote his Trio between gigs for the Oleg Lundstrem Big Band in 1998.

Their lives could hardly have been more different, but both men shared a lifelong fascination with capturing folk music and dance in structured musical forms.

Thursday 15th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Bachian Elegies: Capriccios, Sonatas, Concerti by J. S. Bach and C.P.E. Bach
(And works by Prof. Joan Josep Gutierrez Yzquierdo, Prof. Aspasia Nasopoulou, Prof. Leonardo Coral, Prof. Diana Blom)

Friday 16th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

It has been 4 years since the groups last NZ tour was unexpectedly cut short due to Covid19, forcing the trio to cancel its remaining shows and scramble for the last seats on the last flight out of the country back to India.

In the interim the trio has maintained a distant working relationship and there have been reunions in India for tabla player Saptak’s marriage and in 2023 for a successful tour of India.

For those who are new to the group, this will be a chance to experience two of India’s top young Hindustani Classical musicians melding their ancient style together with Western Classical, Folk and modern Singer songwriter traditions.

Consisting of Saptak Sharma (2019 All India Tabla Comp. winner) on Tabla and percussion, Mayank Rainer on Bansuri (Flute) and Sitar, and Mike Hogan (NZ) on Guitar and Vocals, PANGAEA covers a wide range of styles in their shows. From Indian Classical through to Irish, South American, Bollywood, Blues, Folk and more, the group showcases the diversity of its musicians and follows the ethos of PANGAEA, a universal musical continent where all genre of sounds can reside.

Friday 16th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

NZ’s award-winning hit tribute show Elton John vs. Billy Joel returns to the Theatre Royal in Nelson, after a stellar sold-out performance there in 2023, as part of a NEW NZ-WIDE TOUR 2024!

After wildly successful sell-out shows across New Zealand, join Cam and Sam as they wow audiences both young and old, performing the greatest hits of Elton John and Billy Joel LIVE! ‘Piano Man’, ‘Rocket Man’, ‘Uptown Girl’, ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’, ‘We didn’t start the fire’, ‘Bennie and the Jets’, ‘She’s always a Woman’, ‘Crocodile Rock’ and many more.

Your favourite Elton and Billy songs are in safe hands with Cam and Sam. These professional touring NZ musicians have performed on live television, commercial radio and featured in the NZ Music Charts in careers spanning more than two decades.

This amazing Piano Man vs. Rocket Man extravaganza features astonishing costumes, two grand pianos in black and white, a world class lighting show, plus plenty of banter and all the songs you love!

Saturday 17th August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

The Cat Video Festival is back!!
It’s fun, it’s weird, it’s the Cat Video Festival Fundraiser for NCMA.

Join us for a paws-itively hilarious evening as we showcase the internet’s most a-meow-zing cat videos and help raise funds for NCMA. Expect non-stop giggles with live entertainment, spot prizes, exciting raffles, a fabulous costume parade, Flossie Balloons, and so much more!
It’s a night of feline fun that’s simply purr-fection for the whole family!

Event Details:
5pm Doors, 6pm Videos
$1 from each ticket donated to SPCA Nelson

Wednesday 21st August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

The Kids Sing is a festival of song for primary and intermediate students.

Students learn some new vocal warmups before they do their school performances during the day with a Guest Adjudicator.

Family and friends are invited to this Evening concert to hear the individual school and massed choir performances.

Thursday 22nd-Friday 23rd August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Gillian Francis’ Nelson Academy of Dance presents an evening of delightful, enchanting dance.

Young Marie, with her brother and mother, visit a Doll Shop to see the dolls dancing. The children have a wonderful time watching all the different dolls; Drummer, French, Poodle, Fairy, Can Can dancers, and many more. However, they cannot decide which one they would like, so go home empty handed.

Later, Marie dreams about the dolls and suddenly finds herself back at the shop, having a splendid time dancing with all the dolls. But really it was all a dream.

Join Marie and all the other young dancers for an enchanting, not to be missed evening.

Thursday 22nd August 2024, in Music & Performing Arts

Nelson Youth Choir is an independent, auditioned choir of young people from the ages of 12 – 23 years old from schools in the Nelson/Tasman area as well as home schooling, NMIT and paid employment, and sings a mixture of songs in three or four parts.

Their programme includes After The Wind by Canadian composer Nicholas Ryan Kelly, a song about finding peace amidst change, and Marta Keen’s gentle, nostalgic anthem Homeward Bound. A change of mood follows with songs from Jekyll & Hyde, a 1990 musical loosely based on the 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Found/Tonight, a mash-up charity single of two popular musical theatre tracks from Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen. Proceeds from the single were donated to the anti gun violence movement. The choir sings the lively gospel song By an’ by, and the haunting Frozen Choral Suite of Heimr Arnadalr, Vuelie, The Great Thaw, used in the Disney animated film Frozen, together with other favourites.