Peter Walls - Music Director Peter Walls has been Music Director of Opus Orchestra since 2004. He is currently also Music Director of Nota Bene, a Wellington chamber choir. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, and various other choirs including the Civic Choirs in Hamilton, Tauranga and Rotorua. Peter was Music Director of The Tudor Consort from 1993-1999, a position he resigned to take up a Visiting Fellowship at Magdalen College, Oxford. His CD with that choir of motets by Peter Philips was listed by Neue Musik Zeitung as one of the top early music CDs released in 2002 and received a CHOC award from Le Monde de la Musique (the highest award from one of the leading French magazines for Classical music). Classics Today wrote “Conductor Peter Walls understands the overall period style and he obviously cares a lot about ensemble balance and uniformity of tone and colour.” He has conducted many opera productions including Jack Body’s Alley in the New Zealand Arts Festival in 1998, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for Southern Opera in 2009, Verdi’s La Traviata for the Gisborne Opera Festival and Leoncavallo’s Cavalleria Rusticana for Opera Wanganui (these last two productions with a young Simon O’Neill as Alfredo and Turridu respectively). Peter is Emeritus Professor of Music at Victoria University of Wellington. He was Chief Executive of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra from 2002 until 2011 and held that same role with Chamber Music New Zealand from 2015 until January 2019. He was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music in 2012. Elena Abramova - Concertmaster Russian born Violinist, Elena Abramova, holds a Masters Degree from the State Conservatory of St Petersburg, Russia, and a Doctorate in Violin performance from the University of Auckland. Elena has lived in Auckland since 2003 where she is a sought after freelance violinist, chamber musician, and teacher. she has played with the NZSO, APO, ACO, NZ Trio and other professional ensembles. She has been a concertmaster of Waitakere Orchestra for 10 years and has led a number of other orchestras including Aorangi Symphony, NZ Concerto Orchestra and the St Petersburg University Orchestra. Elena and her husband Greg McGarity founded Auckland Trio which plays concerts both as a traditional classical string trio and also as a cutting edge fusion ensemble exploring non-classical virtuosic string music.
Find out more: www.orchestras.org.nz
