Featured Music Stories
Brass bands: "like a family"
British-born trumpeter, teacher and conductor Vickie van Uden talks about embracing the brass music whanau of Christchurch. Video, Audio
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The complex work of a conductor
13 Nov 2024Vasily Petrenko returns to Aotearoa to lead New Zealand Symphony Orchestra concerts in Wellington and Auckland. He talks with RNZ Concert's David Morriss about the complex job of a conductor, which involves much more than the work onstage in front of an orchestra. Audio
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Soprano Breony Bearman finds her second wind
12 Nov 2024The winner of this year's Lockwood NZ Aria competition talks about why she came back to singing after giving it away for a decade. Audio
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Vintage flight for classical tourists
11 Nov 2024Mark Oremland mixes classical music with classic planes. Video, Audio
RNZ Concert
RNZ Concert is New Zealand’s fine music network. Concert promotes New Zealand music and composition and features live broadcasts of concerts and recitals, as well as international content from other public radio broadcasters, podcasts, and on-demand programmes.
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Is the music critic an endangered species in Aotearoa New Zealand?
about 4 hours agoMusic critic and commentator, Elizabeth Kerr recalls feisty New Zealand music writers from last century, outlines her journey in a media landscape where arts coverage is demonstrably shrinking, and offers some ideas for the restoration of a species in danger of extinction, in the 2024 Lilburn Lecture. Video, Audio
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New Horizons: 'Ono' from Moana & The Tribe
about 3 hours agoWilliam Dart celebrates the return of Moana and the Tribe after a decade of recording silence with their new album Ono. Audio
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Hymns on Sunday, 17 November 2024
4:15 am todayMarking World Day of the Poor in Hymns on Sunday this week. Pope Francis established this day in the Catholic liturgical calendar in 2017 - a Sunday set aside to reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel. This year's theme is "The prayer of the poor rises up to God". Audio
Featured Music Programmes
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Nashville Babylon: 16 November 2024
16 Nov 2024This week's Nashville Babylon features classic soul from Anne Peebles and Alabama Shakes, blues courtesy of Earl Hooker and Howlin' Wolf plus birthday tunes for… Audio
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Nashville Babylon: 9 November 2024
9 Nov 2024On this week's show there's soul from Esther Phillips, Nina Simone covering a Prince classic, blues from Taj Mahal and John Lee Hooker plus reggae courtesy of… Audio
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Nashville Babylon: 2 November 2024
2 Nov 2024On this week's show there's reggae from the Heptones, classic soul courtesy of Al Green, blues from Elmore James and Big Joe Turner plus a classic Cole Porter… Audio
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Nashville Babylon: 26 October 2024
26 Oct 2024On this week's Nashville Babylon there's classic soul from Candi Staton and Bettye Swann, blues from Albert King plus Merry Clayton covering the Rolling Stones.
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Recent Music Stories
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The Musical Outlier: Diverse sounds from the electronic underground
The sheer diversity and invention of electronic music today in Aotearoa is evident in a list of sounds at the upcoming electronic sonic arts festival Outlier in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Curated…
Coming up
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Fazerdaze: 'I'm very much reclaiming my fierceness'
16 Nov 2024On her new album Soft Power, Christchurch musician Amelia Murray (aka Fazerdaze) leaves people-pleasing in the dust. Video, Audio
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The Mixtape with muso and music academic Rob Burns
Our guest on the RNZ Mixtape is Dr. Rob Burns, an English born musician who played professionally in the UK from an early age and eventually emigrated to New Zealand where, until recently, he was an… Audio
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Why Bic Runga's 'Birds' is an essential NZ album
16 Nov 2024Want to forget yourself for a while? Listen to Bic Runga's often-overlooked third album, Nick Bollinger writes for Music 101. Audio
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Mousey: Live session on Music 101
Christchurch-based songwriter Sarena Close, who performs under the name Mousey, is an artist who doesn't shy away from sharing what's real in her life. Her new EP is called The Dreams of Our Mothers'… Audio
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'This is me in my vulnerable state': Singer Aaradhna on her new album
16 Nov 2024Taking the reins as a producer has enabled RnB singer Aaradhna to dig deep on Sweet Surrender - the follow-up to her chart-topping 2016 album Brown Girl. Video
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Musical Chairs with Shihad
Dipping back in time, a youthful Tom Larkin and Jon Toogood from Shihad talk to Malcom Young in 1998 for an early edition of Musical Chairs. Earlier this week the Wellington band announced they were… Audio
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Fazerdaze on new album: 'People forget there's a human at the heart of it'
Fazerdaze, the artist name of Christchurch-based musician Amelia Murray is back with her long awaited second album Soft Power. After receiving glowing reviews for her earlier releases including her… Audio
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Nick Bollinger's NZ Essential albums: Bic Runga - Birds
16 Nov 2024If it were Bic Runga's goal, as she once suggested, to make music that would "alter the listener's mind in some way" she achieved it with this record more than any other. Birds is an album with a… Audio
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Essential Albums: Good Shirt - Good
16 Nov 2024Goodshirt combined classic pop influences with a D.I.Y sensibility learned from Chris Knox, to make one of the essential New Zealand albums of the early 2000s. Nick Bollinger discusses Goodshirt's… Audio
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Essential Albums: Ladi 6 - The Liberation Of...
16 Nov 2024When the single 'Like Water' hit the New Zealand top ten in early 2011 it established Ladi6 as this country's major R&B star. But that success was just one milestone in a long journey, and the song… Audio
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Essential Albums: The Phoenix Foundation - Buffalo
16 Nov 2024Buffalo was the album that lifted the profile of Wellington band The Phoenix Foundation both here and internationally. It saw their collective approach reach new heights - in the sophistication of the… Audio
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Essential Albums: Doug Jerebine - Is Jesse Harper
16 Nov 2024Recorded in London in 1969, these recordings provided classic material for Kiwi rockers The Human Instinct yet the originals remained largely unheard until their discovery and release in 2012. Nick… Audio
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Essential NZ Albums: Bic Runga - Birds
16 Nov 2024If it were Bic Runga's goal, as she once suggested, to make music that would "alter the listener's mind in some way" she achieved it with this record more than any other. Birds is an album with a… Audio
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Essential NZ Albums: King Kapisi - Savage Thoughts
16 Nov 2024Hip-hop is a musical form invented by African Americans, and yet here is a version that could only have come from deep in the Pacific. It has a proud sense of place and yet it looks outward. To quote… Audio
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Sweet Surrender with Aaradhna
16 Nov 2024Award-winning soul singer Aaradhna is back with a much-awaited new album Sweet Surrender - her first in eight years. Susie joined Aaradhna in her studio to see where the magic is made, and learn more… Video, Audio
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Spreading climate change message with Coldplay
A group of Pasifika Climate Change warriors has been using their musical voices to advocate for the protection of their beloved Pacific Islands facing rising seas. Audio
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Out Lately with Finn Johansson
Tonight, with music from Dogo du Togo, Weirs and Magic Tuber Stringband and skymning. Audio
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Ruby Solly: (Pū)oro Exhibition
15 Nov 2024Ruby Solly demonstrates the pūtangitangi (small Māori instruments made of clay) she's created for an exhibition this weekend. Video, Audio
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NZ Live: Sin City
Today Jesse is joined by five-piece band Sin City. They released their second album "Another Round" in April. Despite being from Auckland, the band is now based over in Aussie, but they're finally… Audio
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Music reviewer Grant Smithies
15 Nov 2024Grant says it's time for uplifting music, so plays dancefloor friendly gems from Detroit's Aged In Harmony, South London indie trio St Etienne and Los Angeles gospel diva, Betty Griffin. Audio
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The mysterious crew trying to revive Wellington's nightlife
15 Nov 2024A team of young music and visual artists are creating spaces in the capital city for people to get goofy and dance.
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The supergroup made up of Turkey's and Nukes
Taranaki folk band Turkey the Bird and ukulele trio The Nukes have teamed up to release a brand new song "These Birds". Turkey The Birds Andrea Manella & Ben Collier from The Nukes join us to give it… Audio
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Harper Finn & Where's Jai
On Today's show we chat with Harper Finn who is back in NZ for some Mahi after spending most of the last few years over in New York! We also catch up with Where's Jai who have had a busy 2024. Both… Audio
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