TESS JAINE
Thank you for the music, Colleen Colleen Marshall is a central figure in the national celebration of chamber music in Nelson. She tells Tracy Neal they’re putting Covid on the backburner and tuning up once more for a short season of summer concerts in Nelson.
A
s the waves of Covid began to break on our shores almost two years ago, locking up audiences in their homes and cancelling multiple events, some managed to score a break in the weather.
The festival had its beginnings in the mid-1990s and has become what Colleen says is a highlight of her life. She says prior to Covid, surveys revealed it brought economic benefits to the region of around $5 million.
Last year’s Adam Summer Celebration - a mini version of the internationally renowned Adam Chamber Music Festival went ahead without a hitch, beating another lockdown. The trust which runs the event has been planning since then for this year’s celebration, scheduled to begin next month.
“It was an early, long-term ambition to turn it into an international festival, to be part of the international circuit and having the name Adam in the title was a great help.”
Colleen Marshall chairs the Nelson Adam Festival of Chamber Music. She says the support from competent and dedicated trustees has helped the event grow into a large and sophisticated festival, attracting musicians and audiences from around the world. She says support from New Zealand audiences for last year’s trimmed down Adam Summer Celebration meant it maintained considerable momentum.
The Nelson City Council is the festival’s principal sponsor, with long-time supporters, the late Denis Adam and his wife Verna Adam as naming rights sponsors through the Adam Foundation. Its reputation has been upheld through the work and dedication of the festival’s artistic directors, musicians Gillian Ansell and Helene Pohl who curate the programme.
“We were astounded. We sold 100 season tickets for the fourday festival within the first two days of the ticket launch.
Colleen, who was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2014 for her services to the arts, says preparation for the festival has helped ease the loneliness since the death of her husband, former Nelson Mayor Kerry Marshall in March 2020.
“This time around it’s even more spectacular. It tells us so much about the talent we have in New Zealand but also about the sophistication of music appreciation in Nelson.”
Colleen and Kerry were childhood sweethearts, having first met when she was aged 14. She says widowhood is a shock she never anticipated would be so tough.
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