Festival shows a winning formula at work

Intimate audience watches String Sextet play Schoenberg masterpiece Verklärte Nacht.

“It’s a highlight of our year!” “Our first Festival and we LOVED it!” 

Audience reactions such as these after this year’s Martinborough Music Festival are giving trustees a real boost as they start planning for next year’s concerts.

After each Festival, the organisers survey concertgoers for their thoughts on how it all went. “It’s exciting to get feedback from those who attended the performances,” said Festival trustee Sharon Cuzens. 

“It’s great to hear how much enjoyment the concerts bring to so many people. However, there’s always room for improvement and we certainly get plenty of suggestions!”

This year nine musicians from New Zealand, Australia and Finland presented four concerts over three days at the end of September. 

Artistic directors Wilma Smith and Donald Armstrong (violin) were joined by Festival favourites from previous years – Harry Bennetts (violin), Gillian Ansell and Christopher Moore (viola) – and Festival first-timers David Griffiths (clarinet), Svetlana Bogosavljevic and Timo-Veikko Valve (cello), and Paavali Jumppanen (piano).

One concert-goer noted that their Festival highlight was “meeting new music from new composers played by exceptionally talented musicians in an intimate venue with great acoustics.”

“We are very grateful for the strong support the Festival receives from the local community,” Sharon Cuzens said. “Over half our audience comes from Wellington and beyond, so it brings real economic benefits to the community—as well as the pleasure of having world-class artists performing here in Martinborough.

“One response to our survey said that the quality of the musicianship and the programming was excellent, and encouraged us to keep going with this winning formula. We intend to!”

Next year’s Festival will be held on 19 – 21 September.