Take your seats: AWE festival returns
There’s nothing quite like live music to make the world around you fall away. A shared experience connecting humans across the globe, music has the power to wrap around your senses and strip everything else away - and never is this felt more than during the classical music performances of the At the World’s Edge Festival.
This spring, the AWE Festival returns to the Southern Lakes for its third year, with six interweaving programmes exploring the festival’s theme around the dimensions of identity. From the Whakatipu Basin, through the Kawarau Gorge to Cromwell and Bannockburn and along the valley to Wānaka, Aotearoa’s leading chamber musicians will be joined by international artists and emerging domestic talent to perform gripping chamber music pieces in intimate surrounds. The performances include new works by this year’s Composer in Residence, Victoria Kelly, one of Aotearoa’s foremost modern composers.
It is no coincidence that AWE has found its home in the Southern Lakes. This is a region known for innovators and adventurers who are prepared to challenge themselves and try something new, so it’s unsurprising that it has proven the perfect breeding ground for a festival reimagining chamber music. With a world-class calibre of performers, the AWE Festival offers a new perspective of chamber music alongside the region’s stunning natural backdrop.
“The thrill you get from witnessing a truly memorable performance is akin to the excitement and adrenaline you feel when you’re out and about in the natural playground of the Southern Lakes,” says co-founder, violinist and Festival Director, Justine Cormack. “As its name suggests, AWE is about invoking these feelings through music and connecting this experience with the incredible landscapes that surround us.”
The theme of this year’s festival explores the dimensions of identity, delving into new perspectives, overlapping realities and cultural realms being crossed. These ideas are fleshed out by the carefully curated programme and musicians, some hailing from as far afield as Finland, Estonia, China and Germany - no strangers to finding roots in soil far from their native lands.
“Over the course of the three festivals,” says Justine, “the programmes seem to have mirrored the journey of AWE itself. We started in 2021, finding our place in the Southern Lakes with an entirely New Zealand ensemble. Last year, with open borders, international performers were able to join our homegrown talent. This year, we’ve built on our journey so far with a celebration of the multi-dimensional nature of identity - the identity of the festival itself as much as that of the music.”
“Year on year, there is something familiar about AWE - and yet it is always changing, with new voices and new pieces that challenge the artists and audience to consider their own place within the festival,” Justine says.
Alongside the ticketed programme, this year’s AWE Festival offers an exciting array of free events and performances throughout the two-week festival. Open to all, these events include open rehearsals, composer and musician talks, a music and dance event, and an exhibition at Queenstown’s Te Atamira by Abhi Chinniah.
One Queenstown evening in particular (Friday 13 October) has been pegged as a festival highlight. Beginning with a free showcase of some of Aotearoa’s promising emerging artists, the night flows into another free event, Sei Solo, featuring the award-winning modern Pasifika dance duo CONJAH and world-leading violinist and AWE Artistic Director, Benjamin Baker.
“With Sei Solo,” says Benjamin, “we have the opportunity to reimagine an older work in a truly contemporary vein. Playing a piece by Bach alongside more modern violin works and accompanied by the dance of CONJAH just goes to show the incredible versatility of chamber music. It also seems to mirror the regional instinct to look at and try old things in a new way and push boundaries that little bit further. Our hope is to welcome newcomers to AWE and into the wonderful world of chamber music.”
For tickets and more information, head to www.worldsedgefestival.com
