Welcome to New Zealand’s finest chamber music festival, where musicians and audiences come together in a shared passion for glorious music.

Every two years, our Co-Artistic Directors, Gillian Ansell and Helene Pohl of New Zealand String Quartet, invite a selection of international and national musicians to gather for ten days of shared excellence in performance and collaboration, resulting in a programme ranging from classical favourites to new commissions, as well as artist talks and masterclasses.

The Festival is housed in one of the country’s finest chamber music venues, the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts, renowned for its acoustic.

The 2024 festival will feature international guests Takács Quartet (Hungary/USA), clarinetist James Campbell(Canada/USA), contrabassist Hiroshi Ikematsu (Japan), violin/violist Sergey Malov (Russia/Hungary) pianists Dénes Várjon and Izabella Simon (Hungary) alongside local artists New Zealand String Quartet, Bob Bickerton, Justin Bird, Simeon Broom, Justin DeHart, Gabriela Glapska, Rachael Griffith-Hughes, Jian Liu, Alexander McFarlane, Arna Morton, Helen Webby, Jenny Wollerman, Heather Lewis and Adam Troubadour Quartet.