Starring Suzie Johnson
Suzie is taking Oosh on the road. The hilarious comedy that is quirky, funny and all about making women feel good about themselves!!
Oosh turns heads, stops traffic and empowers small town New Zealand.  Born during a recession and raised on dynamic ideas, Oosh epitomises Kiwi can-do.  Suzie and husband Kiwi cherish family and community, celebrate originality and back all things local. With funky New Zealand designs at fantastic prices, Oosh redefines destination shopping.
Crazy Suzie happily married ex nurse, mother of five (under 7 ½) from Napier started Suzie Q Jewellery and Art Ltd (now the 'OOSH' brand), a business that was initially set up to provide an outlet for Suzie's own modern original hand painted canvas art and jewellery, Products that were funky and affordable with acceptional service with the wow factor.  From humble beginnings it has been a natural progression from a home hobbyist, to an established retail outlet. With only $5 left in the bank and the mortgages due in two weeks. It was with a real faith/ hard working commitment that the idea of funky and affordable was tested to the extreme.  But through this experience, the lesson of trusting your gut was learnt as nobody but Suzie and Kiwi thought it would work. Currently they have the 5th shop in the pipeline and Suzie is going full steam ahead fulfilling her love of public speaking and a burning desire to be a stand up comic by imparting her flair for style in an open forum. She believes that style is not only the clothes we wear, but also comes from within. Suzie will let you take a light hearted look at what we wear and how we wear it. A fun filled night that will be enjoyed by all, especially the ladies.

Chamber Music New Zealand presents Piers Lane and the Doric String Quartet

Piers Lane piano Alex Redington violin Jonathan Stone violin Simon Tandree viola John Myerscough cello In their twelve years together, the prize-winning UK-based Doric String Quartet have successfully forged a career path that places them in highly acclaimed chamber music events and series around the world, and working in collaboration with world-class artists. This tour to New Zealand, in partnership with the Royal Overseas League, sees them team up with one of our favourite international touring pianists, Piers Lane. London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career which has taken him to more than forty countries. He is in great demand as a chamber music collaborator, and in 2007 was appointed Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, held annually in Townsville. Two giants of the Romantic repertoire are presented on this tour - two piano quintets by Schumann and Brahms, both breathtaking in their scope and emotional range. Each is balanced by a Classical Haydn string quartet, and a twentieth-century masterwork. Exquisite solo piano works pay homage to Chopin two hundred years after his birth.

Programme Two

Haydn String Quartet in D Opus 64 No 5 ’The Lark’

Bartók String Quartet No 3 (1927)

Chopin Nocturne in E flat Opus 55 No 2, Ballade No 3 in A flat

Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor Opus 34

Once in a blue moon a show raises your spirits with the magic of real life. Much loved actress Miranda Harcourt's BIOGRAPHY OF MY SKIN has you in tears one minute and laughing-out-loud the next.

Set against an 80s and 90s soundtrack - and a backdrop of traffic violations, the '81 Springbok tour, GLOSS, Princess Di, true crime, and the search for the perfect skin care - BIOGRAPHY traces the role of a lifetime through four decades we'll never forget.
 
Written by husband Stuart McKenzie, BIOGRAPHY is a comedy about love, marriage and growing up. What starts as a solo show is soon anything but, as people from Miranda's life pop up unexpectedly to claim their side of the story.

From the team who brought you kiwi classic FLOWERS FROM MY MOTHER'S GARDEN, this new popular and critical triumph is outstanding contemporary theatre with a big heart. If you've been in love or come from a family, BIOGRAPHY is a must-see.

"It is funny, insightful, shocking, poignant, extraordinarily personal and finally generous. A gift. Not to be missed." John Smythe, Theatreview

The Song Company The Seasons and Sweet Dreams

Singing together a cappella since 1984, the six members of the Song Company, and their Director Roland Peelman, give around 130 concerts a year around the world. They wholeheartedly embrace music from all continents and eras, and they work with artists of the highest calibre to create a distinctive and dynamic new voice, relevant to audiences of today and tomorrow. Regular international tours to Europe and Asia have taken The Song Company to some of the most prestigious festivals and venues around the world such as the Dubrovnik Festival, MDR Sommerfest, Festival of Flanders and the Dresdner Festspiele. Their concerts have prompted great critical acclaim.

Programme Two Sweet Dreams: Including works by Wilbye, Weelkes, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Warlock, Peter Sculthorpe, Jack Body

Sweet Dreams takes us into the world of fantasy in an exploration of the subconscious mind where not only are our deepest desires and phobias hidden, but also our wildest, sweetest dreams. Madrigals and songs from Medieval and Renaissance times lead into modern-day musings, including works by Jack Body, who will be composer-in-residence with the Song Company in early 2010.

The Guru of Chai

Once every millennia there comes a teacher who awakens us all to the power of the divine. But if you can’t wait that long, book a special audience with the Guru of Chai! Our Guru will mesmerise you with his crooked teeth and entrance you with a tale that takes away all that is wrong with your life. A young girl is abandoned at an Indian railway station and brings the place to a standstill with the beauty of her singing. A young policeman falls hopelessly in love with her but is rejected in favour of a poet. A cock fight loving tea seller and a stuffed parrot do battle in this story about the dangers of keeping your soul locked in a cage. Award-winning actor Jacob Rajan combines with musician David Ward to bring this rich brew of characters to life against the backdrop of modern India. The Guru of Chai has humour and it has darkness, the characters are three dimensional and the morality is complex. This is a story of the many layers of love and all the promises that love makes. "The Guru of Chai showcases Jacob at his very best and reinforces him as one of NZ’s most hard working, deserving, disciplined and gifted theatre artists. ...Guru’s magical elements all add up to a very captivating, moving piece of theatre." --Kate Ward Smythe, Theatreview

New Zealand Chamber Music presents Schubertiade - Michael Houstoun and the New Zealand string Quartet

Michael Houstoun piano, Helene Pohl violin ,Douglas Beilman violin, Gillian Ansell viola Rolf Gjelsten cello, Join us in celebrating Chamber Music New Zealand’s 60th anniversary with an evening of music by Schubert. Our ’unofficial subscriber survey’ in 2008 voted five Schubert works into the top 20 most popular chamber music pieces. Two of these all-time favourites feature in this programme; the Trout Quintet and the Notturno. Schubert lived for his friends, enjoying not only their vibrant intellectual conversation and appreciation for the arts, but also their personal support of his career. Meetings to discuss literary works soon included musical events, or Schubertiades; informal social events which grew from Schubert’s love of poetry and song, and his skilled combination of the two. Schubertiades were very popular events, whether or not the composer was present, and they remain so to this day, with regular Schubertiade festivals and series being presented all over the world. The New Zealand String Quartet are this country’s premier chamber ensemble. As well as performing their innovative programmes around New Zealand and teaching at the New Zealand School of Music, they have also forged a major career in the busy international chamber music field. Recent highlights include a nine concert tour of Europe including first visits to Poland and the Czech Republic and a debut concert in the prestigious Library of Congress series in Washington DC. Michael Houstoun has made a unique contribution to New Zealand music as a concert pianist and chamber musician of the highest calibre over the past thirty-five years. He performs tirelessly all over the country in recitals, with orchestras and in festivals to critical acclaim and the great delight of audiences.

Programme:

Schubert: Notturno in E flat D897

Schubert: String Quartet No 15 in G D887

Schubert: Piano Quintet in A D667 ’The Trout’

Once again, The Napier Operatic Society is proud to present that entrancing embroglio of efficacious entertainments, the CANTERBURY ARMS MUSIC HALL!

Yes! We will bring you at enormous expense an adulatory and absorbing amalgam of accomplished artistes, advantageously arrayed to assay the very acme of admirable aspirations!

Bold, bawdy, brassy: entertainment for people who want to let their hair down - or to forget that they haven't any hair left. Laugh at the comics, shed a tear for the tragediennes, hiss the villain, have another glass of wine and join in with lustful fervour on the choruses.

Your withers will be wrung with a melodrama worthy of the Bard himself! Marvel at the wonder of the new French invention - the Kinematograph! Join in with songs such as Don't Do it Again, Mathilda!, Are We to Part Like this, Bill?, Let the Rest of the World Go By, Has Anybody Seen My Tiddler? and You Don't Want to Keep on Showing it, Mary! We might even convince dear old Mother Brown to have a bit of a knees-up!

After a twelve year absence from Hawkes Bay, director Robert Hickey, veteran of many Canterbury Arms entertainments, returns with plans to revive some old favourite Music Hall acts, create a few new surprises and generally throw around lots of sequins, feathers and silliness.

Scottish born singer-songwriter Isla Grant returns to New Zealand  in 2010 with a fresh look and brand new songs, as well as old favourites.  The popular singer will be touring with her equally as talented husband Al Grant and band members.  Her beautiful voice together with an ability to write sensitive songs that cross over from country/folk to easy listening have now established her as a major recording artist in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. 

NEIL DIAMOND - The Super Hits Show

Featuring Steve Cummins as Neil Diamond

Remember songs like Sweet Caroline, Cherry Cherry, Cracklin Rosie, Kentucky woman, Solitary Man, Beautiful Noise, I'm a Believer, Crunchy Granola Suite & I Am I Said. Well Neil Diamond music is still as popular today as it was when it was first released, so popular in fact there is not enough of Neil to go around.