Iconic chapel comes to to life with music

Colours of Futuna Summer Concert Series
Every Sunday afternoon 11 March - 6 May
Chapel of Futuna, 67 Futuna Close (off Friend Street), Karori

Karori’s iconic Futuna Chapel will play host to a series of nine Sunday afternoon concerts. Beginning on Sunday 11 March 2018 the chapel will resonate with music from choirs and instrumentalists.

The chapel designed by architect John Scott in the early 1960’s has long been celebrated as one of New Zealand’s most significant buildings of the twentieth century. It is regarded as a brilliant essay in geometry and coloured light, as well as for the way it draws on Scott’s Māori heritage.

The chapel lends special acoustic qualities that will showcase a variety of musicians from Wellington. Concert series artistic director Simon McLellan describes the event as “a colourful display of musical curiosity and intrigue”. There is a wide selection of musical genre on display.

For 2018, McLellan has gathered a stellar line-up of performers from throughout the Wellington region to reflect and reverberate against the cool stones and colourful windows of Futuna. They include choirs, chamber ensembles, solo singers, and instrumentalists.

One of the most intriguing performance will be from Klezmer with the Kugels. Klezmer music is the folk music of Jewish people from Eastern and Central Europe and is currently enjoying a worldwide rebirth of interest and popularity. The Kugels play not only the wild and haunting tunes of traditional Klezmer, but also evocative original works by our eminent NZ composer and accordionist Ross Harris.

The series opens on 11 March with the extremely popular Gale Force Gospel Choir at the annual Futuna Chapel Open Day, and includes a public talk from architect Tim Heath. A guided tour of the chapel will also be offered at 11.30am.

Friends of Futuna Trust Chair Nick Bevin said he hoped the concert series would attract new visitors to Futuna. “Futuna is an architectural gem that many Wellingtonians have not visited. We hope people will see this series of concerts as a chance to enjoy great music as well as great architecture,” he said.

Ticket prices are $10 for each concert, except Voix de femmes: Alliance Française women's choir, and will be available on www.dashtickets.co.nz as well as door sales.

Colours of Futuna 2018 Concert Programme (all concerts start at 2pm, except 11 March, starts at 1.30pm)

Further information about the musicians and the chapel is available at www.futunatrust.org.nz/

This concert series is supported by the Wellington City Council through the Arts and Culture Grants programme.

ENDS

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