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A choral celebration of Elton John
Performed by Supertonic Marsden Auditorium Saturday 10 October, 2pm and 7.30pm We hope you don’t mind if we put down in words… Supertonic’s latest choral spectacular is coming this September, and it’s their most exciting yet! After a few months away from the stage, the pitch is back with Saturday Night’s Alright - a spectacular presentation of music by prodigious singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer Elton John and equally accomplished lyricist Bernie Taupin. Including a four-part canon that would make Pachelbel blush, this concert features the full force of 50 singers, a series of powerful rock soloists from within the choir and a full rock band of some of Wellington’s best musicians. The first half showcases some of the incredible songs from beloved 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, while the second half will be composed of a range of early 70’s Elton favourites, plus a few surprises. Highlights include a full symphonic choral setting of Someone Saved My Life Tonight a trio treatment of Daniel, and of course the choir’s signature beautiful harmonies. Director Isaac Stone is a teacher of classroom music and leader of the choral programme at Tawa College in Wellington. Stone’s artistic agenda is to work with singers on choral music that is both accessible but challenging - creating concerts to captivate a new audience for choral music. This concert is extra special for Stone - Elton John’s music being what inspired him to become a musician. By sitting down at the piano and learning Elton’s music by ear, Stone remembers discovering chord progressions, the power of singing and being opened up to the worlds of choral, classical and orchestral music. “I truly consider Elton John to be the Schubert of our time - Schubert being another one of my favourite composers. As a teacher, I’m inspired by Elton’s own championing of younger musicians and his openness to working with people from across the world, across generations and across genres. Elton is the perfect vehicle for bringing people into the amazing world of music education and the wider world of music, because at its core his music always offers piano riffs that stay with you, chord progressions that feel right, and a melody that speaks to the soul.” Supertonic is a 50-strong SATB Wellington choir that takes pride in presenting a diverse range of music. Past concerts cover everything from traditional choral repertoires of early music through to modern works, strongly themed presentations such as music written solely in endangered and extinct languages, through to rock, pop and jazz extravaganzas celebrating the greatest music of the 20 th and 21 st centuries. This choir aims to take choral music to new places and greater heights, and Saturday Night’s Alright will be no exception. Supertonic’s most recent rock concert, Thunderbolt and Lightning, sold out within a few days to a 400-strong audience of Queen fans. Don’t miss out on our latest offering! Our gift is our song, and this one’s for you, Wellington.
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Supertonic presents Groundswell
Supertonic announces its next performance for 2019 – Groundswell: Songs for a Sustainable Future. Join us in the gorgeous acoustic of Pipitea Marae at 4:30pm on Sunday 17 November 2019, to commemorate the change people have caused to the Earth and to celebrate the groundswell of momentum from people eager to solve those environmental issues. After the success of the indie-pop adventure Leaving the Table, Supertonic will present an ambitious choral concert exploring our relationship with the environment around us, and the impact humans can have – both negative and positive. From the waters of Aotearoa to the Mongolian steppe, Australian rainforest, and North African desert, the audience’s journey will span the world. Through music and accompanying kōrero, Groundswell will explore climate change, the loss of biological diversity, human damage to the environment, the loss of indigenous environmental guardianship, and the global and local challenges that make addressing these issues so complicated. As Supertonic’s audiences have come to expect, this will be an immersive experience with top notch harmonies and a thought-provoking message. Supertonic is a Wellington-based choir that seeks to take choral music to different places and new heights. Supertonic is well known for its innovative and no-compromise concerts, from those exploring ways to amplify voices that are seldom heard, to its all-out rock extravaganzas that turn the concept of a choral concert on its head. Supertonic has gone from strength to strength with consistently sold out concerts. Tickets available www.supertonic.org.nz from Monday 14 October. Get in quick! Supertonic are back where they love to be - pushing the boundaries of choral music in our contemporary world. After a year of sold-out performances in 2018, their first standalone concert series of 2019 - Leaving the Table: A story of relationship, told through song - will blur the lines between choir, theatre, and abstract expression. It follows an already busy year of of gigs for the choir, including performances at the Coastella music festival and the televised ANZAC ceremony at Pukeahu.
This concert series will be presented with two performances at Te Whaea in Wellington at 5:30pm and 8pm on Saturday 22 June. A relationship between two people can take many forms, and can bring much joy. But what do you do when you need to get out - when it feels like you no longer belong - when you've forgotten where you end and the other person begins? How do you reconcile your desire to be alone in a world that can’t accept solitude? This concert will explore this emotional journey with a repertoire of music from the indie-pop genre, reimaged in glorious harmony to tell a story that can be painful, heart-wrenching, but ultimately uplifting. Musical Director Isaac Stone says “the music of indie artists is unique with its raw, unfiltered emotion, its creative use of tone colours not heard in mainstream pop or classical music, and its close personal connection between composer, performer and listener". The programme includes music from Imogen Heap, Bon Iver, Damien Rice, Florence Welch, Depeche Mode and The Beach Boys, among others. Dramatic performances from Wellington actors Cassandra Tse and James Cain will steer the story, with scenes between the songs to characterise the choir’s poignant lyrics. Together, this becomes a uncharted exploration of what can be achieved when this style of music is channeled through the live vocals of a high quality choir. Supertonic is a Wellington-based choir that seeks to take choral music to different places and new heights. Supertonic is well known for its innovative and no-compromise concerts, from those exploring ways to amplify voices that are seldom heard, to its all-out rock extravaganzas that turn the concept of a choral concert on its head. Supertonic has consistently gone from strength to strength, with all its 2018 concerts sold out. Tickets available www.supertonic.org.nz from 22 May 2019. Get in quick! It seems hard to believe that it’s that time already, but Supertonic wish to joyfully announce their final concert of 2018, In the Key of Christmas.
This choral concert will be held at 7pm on Tuesday 4th December at Wesley Church, Wellington. While things start to get a little frantic in the lead up to the festive season, with end-of-year parties, gift shopping and travel planning aplenty, Supertonic hope to offer their audience a moment of calm. Take a moment to soak up the sounds of Christmastime with an evening of choral melodies to inspire merry memories of years gone by. The programme includes classic and contemporary works, including Ola Gjeilo’s modern arrangement of the dearly-treasured Christmas carol Away in a Manger, the delightful Somewhere in my Memory composed by John Williams for the classic Christmas film Home Alone, and Handel’s stirring Hallelujah Chorus. Sure to be a highlight is Pō Marie, a kiwi setting of Silent Night arranged by Terence Maskell, with lyrics in te reo Māori and in English. Pieces by Mendelssohn, Holst and Tchaikovsky will also feature. There will be a number of small ensemble and solo performances, together with the sounds of 56-voice-strong Supertonic that audiences have grown to love. This concert will be conducted by Hazel Fenemor. A member of Supertonic choir since 2015, Hazel is an exceptionally talented musician. Previously music director of Wellington Youth Choir, Hazel is excited to return to directing for this concert. So why not treat yourself to an evening of delightful music and festive cheer? Tickets are available at www.supertonic.org.nz. Supertonic is a Wellington-based choir amed at singers in their 20s and 30s that seeks to take choral music to different places and new heights. Supertonic is well known for its innovative and no-compromise concerts, from those exploring ways to amplify voices that are seldom heard, to its all-out rock extravaganzas that turn the concept of a choral concert on its head. Tickets available www.supertonic.org.nz Supertonic, together with ELIM, are over the moon to announce they are going where no choir has gone before (probably) with Space: A Choral Odyssey, one-night-only at Hannah Playhouse, Wellington, 6:30pm Sunday 16 September. Even before tohunga kōkōrangi used the night sky to navigate great distances across the ocean to Aotearoa New Zealand, people have been fascinated with the stars. Space promises to take the audience on a multimedia, musical journey through time and space, exploring the wonder and mystery of what liesbeyond Papatūānuku. The first half of the concert will feature contemporary choral works including Whanau Marama by David Hamilton, which uses text from the 1922 publication “The Astronomical Knowledge of the Māori”, and Fly to Paradise by prolific composer Eric Whitacre. The beautiful harmonies of Sara Teasdale and Erik Esenvald’s Stars will be a glorious addition to the programme, while Robin Salkeld’s I Am Voyager will bring the personality of the Voyager 1 space probe - the first human-made object to enter interstellar space. In the second half, together with atmospheric rock band ELIM, Supertonic will present a concept album- style performance, inspired by the work of the visionary physicist Stephen Hawking. This world premiere, called A Brief History, features original compositions from ELIM, choir members David Williams and Ben Gray and Music Director Isaac Stone, alongside established settings of Ave Maris Stella. Supertonic is a 56-strong Wellington based choir aimed at singers in their 20s and 30s that seeks to take choral music to different places and new heights. Supertonic is well known for its innovative and no- compromise concerts, from those exploring ways to amplify voices that are seldom heard, to its all-out rock extravaganzas that turn the concept of a choral concert on its head. ELIM are a Wellington-based 3-piece instrumental band that plays ambient and post-rock style music. As a band, they are fascinated with space and the universe, and this collaboration with Supertonic has afforded the opportunity to explore this theme in a new way. Following on from Supertonic’s first concert of 2018, the sold-out Shakespeare’s Sister, Space: A Choral Odyssey promises to test the bounds of contemporary choral performance in Aotearoa New Zealand, and will truly be a delight for the senses. Concert Details 6:30pm, Sunday 16 September, 2018 Hannah Playhouse Adults $25 / Seniors, Students and Children $20 Tickets available via supertonic.org.nz from Thursday 16 August For further information or comment please email [email protected].  Supertonic is pleased to present our first concert of the year - Shakespeare's Sister - to be performed at Pipitea Marae, 6:30pm, Sunday 20 May.
Shakespeare’s Sister takes inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Woolf argues that the disadvantages faced by women throughout history have fuelled the assumption that they are inferior writers or subjects. She imagines what kind of ‘thwarted and hindered’ life a talented sister of Shakespeare might have lived. We present this programme of works by women in honour and celebration of those who created art in the shadows of their male counterparts. Hosted by Clarissa Dunn, the audience will hear not only the music of underappreciated composers, but also hear their stories, and what held them back from their dreams. Clara Schumann’s talent was controlled and micromanaged by a domineering father, while Amy Beach’s marriage contract stipulated that she was to end her career as a pianist. Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn) was overshadowed by her brother Felix, despite her own extraordinary creative abilities. Alma Mahler, Francesca Caccini and Lili Boulanger are also among the forgotten prodigies we will feature in this concert. This performance will also celebrate New Zealand music. Dorothy Buchanan’s Five Vignettes of Women is inspired by prominent women writers, including Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield. Buchanan is renowned as one of Aotearoa’s most prolific composers, and was the first woman to join the Musicians’ Union. The centrepiece for Shakespeare’s Sister is a commission from one of New Zealand’s future star composers, Rosa Elliott, who was approached by music director Isaac Stone because of her “incredible way with haunting melodies, matched perfectly with choral colours”. Elliott has masterfully set three poems by Mary Ann Evans, who used the pseudonym George Eliot to escape the stereotypes of women writers. Supertonic is a 56-strong Wellington based choir aimed at singers in their 20s and 30s that seeks to take choral music to different places and new heights. Supertonic is known for its innovative and no-compromise concerts, exploring topics from endangered and extinct languages to works written by those suffering imprisonment. With Shakespeare’s Sister, we wish to offer hope for current and future generations of women who will create art in their own image and with their own names. Shakespeare’s Sister 6:30PM, Sunday 20 May, 2018 Pipitea Marae $25/$15 Note: This concert is now sold out. If you are still interested in attending please email [email protected] and we will let you know if a ticket becomes available. Sing. Paint. Dance. Write. Dedicated to the muses of music, Love The Arts is Supertonic’s final concert series of 2017, completing a remarkable year of sold out concerts that defied the normal boundaries of choral music. In keeping with the concert theme, Supertonic will be sharing its love of the arts by donating the proceeds from the concerts to local cultural organisations: Hamilton’s The Meteor Theatre, Feilding’s Coach House Museum and Wellington’s New Zealand Portrait Gallery. The concerts will feature four sets of music, each showcasing choral music inspired by a different art form. ‘Write’ will include musical settings of some of the world’s most celebrated poems, including Finnish composer Rautavaara’s mystical interpretation of four poems by the master Spanish writer García Lorca, and Vaughan Williams’ beautiful Rest, with words by Christina Rossetti. With ‘Dance’, the choir will demonstrate its classical and romantic chops with some music from Schumann, Elgar and the audience favourite Polovtsian Dances by Borodin. In a moment of introspection, ‘Sing’ will delve into the very essence of music itself. Perhaps this is showcased best by The Awakening, Joseph M. Martin’s epic rhapsody that begins by imagining a world without music and develops into a stirring anthem pleading to “let music live”. Finishing each concert will be ‘Paint’, a set including Don McLean’s poignant Vincent, Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim, and a special take on the late David Bowie’s Andy Warhol. Now in only its fourth year, Supertonic (under the direction of Isaac Stone) has cemented its place amongst Wellington’s thriving musical community, with a reputation for combining accessible, provocative and enjoyable concerts with a rich, vibrant and immersive sound. The 56 strong choir of young professionals and recent graduates is built on the ethos that strong friendships, trust in one another, and building enduring relationships is what creates special music for both its singers and its audiences. Love the Arts will be toured across the North Island, with concerts in Hamilton (3pm, November 25 at the The Meteor), Feilding (3pm, November 26 at the Civic Centre) and Wellington (7pm, November 29 at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery). Tickets are $20/$15 and will be on sale from Wednesday 25 October via supertonic.org.nz.  Let the songs begin. Let the music play. Get ready for Supertonic’s next gig Thunderbolt and Lightning, an epic tribute concert set to rock Queen fans and choir buffs alike at the Hunter Lounge this September. This choral spectacular has it all - the choir’s powerful sound from its 56 singers, a full rock band, exciting solos and quartets, and heart-stopping takes on your favourite Queen anthems. Thunderbolt and Lightning aims to be as diverse as Queen’s extensive catalogue - from the light pop shuffle of You’re My Best Friend to the epic pastiche of musical styles in Bohemian Rhapsody. A quartet of our talented operatic singers will tackle Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe’s collaboration in Barcelona, written for the 1992 Olympics, while The Prophet’s Song from their progressive album A Night At The Opera features the choir imitating their looped sample recording techniques in this mammoth and lesser known track. You’ll hear the full force of our rich sound in the unforgettable harmonies of Somebody to Love, and in Who Wants To Live Forever the choir starts with a single note that flows and grows into a spine-tingling 24-part chorus. Supertonic (and its director, Isaac Stone) aims to take choral music to new places and new heights with its innovative and no-compromises concerts, and this one promises to be the most exhilarating yet. We’re gonna make a Supertonic fan out of you! Update: This concert is now sold out, and the waitlist for tickets is also full. If you have purchased a ticket that you are no longer able to use, please email [email protected]. We can then refund your ticket and pass it on to someone on the existing waitlist.  Supertonic is excited to announce its first concert series of the year, Vanishing Voices: Music honouring our endangered languages. Vanishing Voices showcases seven languages that have suffered periods of decline, through colonial invasion, assimilationist government policy and economic desperation. Each one of the world’s 6000 languages is a window into our communities, our souls and our history, yet every two weeks we lose another forever irretrievable tongue. Every language has its own unique beauty, poetry and cadence, and deserves to have its story told and its people heard. For some of these languages, like Welsh, cultural pride has allowed its people to fight for their right to speak and experience their mother tongue; others, such as Nahuatl in Mexico, are struggling to survive outside of small rural communities where literacy is rare and the majority of native speakers are elderly. The harrowing account of the Guanches people, natives of the Canary Islands near the north-western coast of Africa, can be heard in the piece Aicá Maragá, where the singers lament the brutal murders of their families and the destruction of their villages by Spanish conquerors, with no option left but to give up all they know to marry their invaders, lest they too be destroyed. And much like the families of those who lived and loved through it, the Guanche language has left this world forever. Snowforms depicts the snowy, icy northern region of Canada inhabited by its First Nations people, painted by a slow, slinking, haunted melody through a graphic score of flowing lines and beautiful shapes. Stephen Leek’s popular Ngana contrasts sharp accented textures with legato lines and complicated polyphony, while Naye-e Sin takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride of atonality, soundscaping vocalisations and body percussion. Aotearoa has our own beautiful and endangered language in Te Reo Māori, and the centrepiece for the concert is a new setting of music written as a collaboration between Supertonic, its director Isaac Stone and young Maori scholar Vincent Olsen-Reeder. Vincent has provided his beautiful original poetry in Te Reo to form an all-new song cycle, to be premiered by Supertonic in Vanishing Voices. In keeping with the theme of empowering Maori youth, the concert will be hosted by two Maori rangatahi: Marama Butler and Kaylim Poese-Nathan, both Year 12 students at Tawa College. Now in only its fourth year, Supertonic has cemented its place amongst Wellington’s thriving musical community and is known for combining accessible, provocative and enjoyable concerts with a rich, vibrant and immersive sound. The choir believes that strong friendships, trust in one another, and building enduring relationships is what creates special music for both its singers and its audiences. By honouring our endangered languages through the universal language of music, Supertonic hopes to present its most thought-provoking and captivating concert yet.  Supertonic and The Wellington Footlights Society are proud to present Showmance, a concert celebrating friendship, community, and musical theatre. A first-time collaboration of the choir and musical theatre society, these two groups will bring their own strengths to two performances at Te Whaea Theatre on December 10. Audiences of Showmance can expect to be wowed by old favourites and newer show tunes alike, with the excitement of 80 performers giving it their all. The two groups are excited to bring you this special, two performance only show under the musical direction of Supertonic director Isaac Stone, and Footlights’ Michael Stebbings (Legally Blonde) in a concert showcasing the strength of musical collaboration, feel-good vocal power and theatrical spectacle. See you there!  |