Our 2025 Festival
Bringing the world to Martinborough.
Our ninth festival ran from 19-21 September. For the first time all the musicians rehearsed in Martinborough, strengthening our relationship with the local community. The level of musicianship and programming was again superb and attracted excellent audiences with the two of the concerts sold out.
The design for this year’s Festival emphasised the concept of ‘bringing the world to Martinborough’ with a stylised map of the local area.
New funding opportunities
This year we launched 2 new important sources of funding for our long-term planning:
- the Fortissimo Festival Fund to support our activities into the future, and
- our Commissioning Circle which will ensure we can commission and record new works in future festivals – this year it helped us commission a new work from Louise Webster, whose roots are in the Wairarapa.
We were also very grateful and excited to welcome the Lloyd Morrison Trust as a Foundation Partner, and whose generosity makes the future of Festival more secure.
Community outreach
Our community programme reached about 1,000 students from Wairarapa schools as 2 groups of professional musicians led interactive workshops with students from local schools.
During the rehearsal period for the Festival our star saxophonist, Simon Brew gave a 2-hour workshop at Kuranui College for about a dozen students studying saxophone.
Our 2025 concerts
Friday 19 September at 7.30pm
Russell Peterson (1969–)
From Trio for Alto Sax, Violin and Piano — III Allegro moto perpetuo
Simon Brew, saxophone; Donald Armstrong, violin; Jian Liu, piano
Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967)
Duo for Violin and Cello Op. 7
Yuri Zhislin, violin; Matthias Balzat, cello
Barry Cockcroft (1972–)
Beat me
Simon Brew, saxophone
Ernest Chausson (1855–1899)
Concert for Violin, Piano and String Quartet Op. 21
Natalia Lomeiko, violin; Jian Liu, piano; Donald Armstrong, violin; Wilma Smith, violin; Caroline Henbest, viola; Ashley Brown, cello
Saturday 20 September at 2pm
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Goldberg Variations for string trio (arr. Sitkovetsky)
Natalia Lomeiko, violin; Yuri Zhislin, viola; Ashley Brown, cello
Amy Beach (1867–1944)
Piano Quintet in F sharp minor Op. 67
Jian Liu, piano; Wilma Smith, violin; Donald Armstrong, violin; Caroline Henbest, viola; Matthias Balzat, cello
Saturday 20 September at 7.30pm
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969)
Quartet for Four Violins
Natalia Lomeiko, violin; Yuri Zhislin, violin; Donald Armstrong, violin; Wilma Smith, violin
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Piano Quintet in G minor, Op. 57
Jian Liu, piano; Natalia Lomeiko, violin; Wilma Smith, violin; Yuri Zhislin, viola; Ashley Brown, cello
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
String Sextet in A major Op. 48
Natalia Lomeiko, violin; Donald Armstrong, violin; Caroline Henbest, viola; Yuri Zhislin, viola; Matthias Balzat, cello; Ashley Brown, cello
Sunday 21 September at 1.15pm
Meet the composer
Our artistic directors Wilma Smith and Donald Armstrong talked to Louise Webster about her commission, shifting worlds and how her connections to the Wairarapa inspired the work.
Sunday 21 September at 2pm
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
String Quintet No. 5, K.593
Natalia Lomeiko, violin; Wilma Smith, violin; Yuri Zhislin, viola; Caroline Henbest, viola; Ashley Brown, cello
Louise Webster
shifting worlds for piano quartet
Jian Liu, piano; Donald Armstrong, violin; Caroline Henbest, viola; Matthias Balzat, cello
Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992)
Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)
Yuri Zhislin, violin; Simon Brew, saxophone; Wilma Smith, violin; Donald Armstrong, violin; Caroline Henbest, viola; Ashley Brown, cello; Matthias Balzat, cello
Encore: Astor Piazzolla Oblivion