Orchestra Wellington’s largest collaboration invites a dazzling who’s who of Wellington musical organisations to join them for Berlioz’s mighty Requiem. Our tenor soloist Kyle Stegall, four Wellington Region brass bands, Te Kōkī Orchestra, and the Orpheus Choir are among the groups that will will truly make the Michael Fowler Centre resound. It promises to be a real blast!

The Requiem is more than a festival of decibels, however. While it’s true that some sections are overpowering – the mighty "Dies Irae" smites like the wrath of God, with its ten timpanists and four brass choirs — much of the Requiem is surprisingly delicate. Berlioz certainly applied the tranquility of the Papal Choir music he’d heard during his studies in Rome. His restraint is surprising considering how the invitation to write the Requiem made his brain, as he said, “boil” with excitement.

“The text of the Requiem was a quarry that I had long coveted. Now at last it was mine, and I fell upon it with a kind of fury. My brain felt as though it would explode with the pressure of ideas. The outline of one piece was barely sketched before the next formed itself in my mind. It was impossible to write fast enough….”

Berlioz was already renowned as an orchestrator since his Symphonie Fantastique of seven years before. Given how overwhelming its “March to the Scaffold” was, audiences must have feared what he would unleash with this Requiem’s enormous forces.

In fact the result is something glorious, subtle and infinitely varied. It starts with short phrases that explore the acoustic, swelling and ebbing in waves that allow the performers to adjust to the time-lag caused by the sheer size of the ensemble. The music builds like cloud towers that mound up and dissolve in the wind until arriving at full power, with the choir declaiming forcefully through great ricocheting volleys from the four brass bands.

SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music | Toi te Arapūoru is thrilled to announce Aotearoa New Zealand born Sāmoan sonic artist and composer Joshua Pearson as the recipient of the 2025 SOUNZ Tarling Trust Orchestral Commission. A joint venture between the Auckland Philharmonia, Orchestra Wellington, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, the Nicholas Tarling Charitable Trust, and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music, Joshua’s work Digital Fenua: Fakatili Te Kiloga Fou looks at the very real effects of climate change on Tuvalu as they look towards becoming the world’s first digital nation.

Fakatili Te Kiloga Fou means ‘Navigating the Changing Environment’ in the Tuvaluan Language. Joshua’s work will engage on the urgent issues of climate change that Tuvalu faces everyday, including rising sea levels, coastal erosion, drinking water shortages, and extreme weather patterns. The work will use a combination of traditional and graphic notation, and will include the use of water in the percussion section and from other musicians to symbolise the rising sea level threatening Tuvalu. The work aims to express solidarity with the people of Tuvalu.

On being awarded this opportunity, composer Joshua Pearson says:

“In my proposal for the orchestral commission, I’ve been really drawn to exploring the important issues in the Pacific, especially the atoll islands of Tuvalu. I was inspired by how their cultural identity and homeland is transforming into a digital nation in response to rising sea levels. I’ll be looking forward to bringing these ideas to life through my music as a way to amplify the voices of Tuvalu and raising awareness of their struggle."

This programme is proudly supported by concert partner the Deane Endowment Trust.

This event is presented with support from our Commission Partner, the SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music Toroa Toi te Arapūoru.

This event is presented with support from Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington.