Between the Lines: The Art of Conversation with Orchestra Wellington

Thursday 30 April, 5:30pm at Te Matapihi, Wellington Central Library (first session to take place on the Bleachers, ground level)

Between the Lines: The Art of Conversation with Orchestra Wellington

30 April, 5:30pm

Theme: The Art of Conversation

Music to be performed:
Mozart Serenade #11 k.375 and Serenade #12 k.388

The Art of Conversation explores music as dialogue, a meeting of voices, ideas, and personalities. In the Enlightenment salons of thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau, conversation was an art form: a space where wit, debate, and curiosity shaped intellectual life. Mozart’s serenades belong to this same world.

Written for social gatherings, these works were the sound of that culture, music designed to sit alongside conversation, to reflect it, and at times to elevate it. Each instrument becomes a voice, offering ideas, responding, interrupting, and elaborating, as the music unfolds like a living exchange.

Serenade No. 11 moves with elegance and charm, echoing the lively, sociable energy of a salon in full flow. Serenade No. 12 shifts into darker, more introspective territory, a deeper conversation, where ideas become more searching and complex.

Like great literature, these works invite us not just to listen, but to read between the lines and in doing so, to experience something of the sound of intellectual life itself.

Between the Lines is a FREE monthly early-evening chamber music series and book club that brings music and literature into conversation. Presented in the beautiful setting of Ngā Pou Ruahine in Te Matapihi, the series invites audiences to listen, think, and chat. No prior knowledge of music or literature is required, just a curious mind.

Taking place monthly from April to October on the final Thursday of each month, Between the Lines has been co-created by New Zealand String Quartet, Orchestra Wellington, and New Zealand School of Music.

Each month these organisations will take turns presenting a talented group of musicians to perform music and host discussion on a different literary theme. From devil’s bargains to language games, the obsessive tortured artist to the intimate private lives of writers and composers, this book club will delve deep into themes that span across artforms.

Each session will feature carefully selected music and a reading list highlighting the theme of the month. So, arrive solo or bring your book club to Te Matapihi for a new kind of conversation.

This event is FREE to attend, but we ask that you please register via the button below.

SERIES SCHEDULE

Between the Lines series monthly concerts will be held at 5:30pm on the final Thursday of every month from April to October. The dates for the series are:

Thursday 30 April, 5:30pm – Orchestra Wellington – The Art of Conversation (first session to take place on the Bleachers, ground level)
Thursday 28 May, 5:30pm – New Zealand String Quartet – Obsession
Thursday 25 June, 5:30pm – New Zealand String Quartet – Private Lives
Thursday 30 July, 5:30pm – Orchestra Wellington – The Devil’s Bargain
Thursday 27 August, 5:30pm – New Zealand String Quartet – Outsider
Thursday 24 September, 5:30pm – NZSM – Te Kōkī – Theme to be announced
Thursday 29 October, 5:30pm – Orchestra Wellington – Language Games

Check out the series

Upcoming events

From the enthralling performances at the prestigious Michael Fowler Centre to dynamic street concerts in iconic Wellington locations, every interaction with us is an immersive journey into the heart of live orchestral music.