New chamber orchestra for Auckland

Significant support from Auckland City, through its Arts Alive programme, has led to the creation of the new Auckland Chamber Orchestra.

The orchestra will provide Auckland with an essential complement to the city's large syphonic orchestra.

Conductor of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra is musician and composer Peter Scholes, extreme left of picture. As founder of the new orchestra, he has attracted a large number of professional players, many returning from studies or training overseas. Orchestra leader, including Natalie Tantrum, who has recently returned from the United Kingdom.

This Sunday, July 25, Auckland Chamber Orchestra will present its first of four Sunday concerts in the Auckland Town Hall's Concert Chamber as part of the Concert Collection Series.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>