Kiwi music icon Bic Runga will perform a special concert with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra exclusively in Wellington for one night only on 2 April 2026.

Presented by WellingtonNZ and the national orchestra, Bic Runga & the NZSO will feature songs from her much-anticipated new album Red Sunset, to be released on Friday, 13 February, and a selection of her hits and best-loved songs spanning her extraordinary career.

Bic’s songs will be transformed by the power of the NZSO, featuring 60 musicians, alongside Runga’s own band, which includes her partner and co-producer multi-instrumentalist Kody Nielson of The Mint Chicks and Unknown Mortal Orchestra fame.

Red Sunset, recorded in Paris this year, is Bic’s first full original material since 2011’s Belle, and co-produced by Bic and Kody. The album’s lead single and title track, a powerful torch song of longing and desire, is out now. It follows the singles It’s Like Summertime, released to acclaim in September, and Paris in the Rain, a cinematic soundscape inspired by the image of Paris.

Bic (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine) is a multi-award-winning singer-songwriter and the youngest inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. She shot to fame with the single Drive, first recorded in Wellington, winning the prestigious Apra Silver Scroll Award in 1996. Her 1997 debut album Drive, which included the hit Sway, won the Tūī for Album of the Year. Over her career she has won 20 Tūī awards – the most an Aotearoa solo artist, including Best Female Vocalist four times. Her second album Beautiful Collision was the biggest selling album of 2003.

A New Zealand Order of Merit recipient for services to music, Bic is also acclaimed for her collaborations and live performances with other music icons, including Tim and Neil Finn, Sir Dave Dobbyn and Anika Moa.

She’s also inspired and influenced a new generation of New Zealand musicians. Lorde described her as “New Zealand music royalty” when she performed on stage with Bic in 2019.

Bic has previously performed live with the NZSO for Nelson’s Opera in the Park in 2018. However, Bic Runga & the NZSO will be her first full concert with the national orchestra.

Bic Runga & the NZSO is her only performance with an orchestra during the New Zealand leg of her Bic Runga Red Sunset Album Tour Aotearoa NZ & Australia 2026, which kicks off at Black Barn in Hawke’s Bay on Saturday, 7 March, before heading to new venues in Hamilton and Auckland: the Waikato Regional Theatre on Saturday, 21 March, and the NZICC Theatre, Auckland on Friday, 27 March. Bic will return home to Christchurch to play the Isaac Theatre Royal on Sunday, 29 March.

Presales for Bic Runga & the NZSO are from 10am Monday 24 November until 9.59am Tuesday 25 November for NZSO Members and Live in WLG.

Presale for other dates on the Bic Runga Red Sunset Album Tour Aotearoa NZ & Australia 2026 is from Monday 24 November 10am to Tuesday 25 November 10am.

Tickets go on sale Tuesday 25 November 11am with Bic Runga & the NZSO via ticketmaster.co.nz

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