Auckland Heritage Festival 2020
Freemans Bay Community Hall
2:30pm Sunday 11 October
We are thankful for being able to hold three rehearsals before this concert after Covid rules were relaxed allowing gatherings of 100 people. However, this necessitated reprising some music from our August concert in Warkworth to reduce the number of new items in the programme we had planned to include.
Leys Orchestra's Heritage Festival concert celebrating Auckland's musical heritage and over a century of community music making.
The concert illustrated the orchestra's role in Auckland's musical fabric, highlighting some of the personalities and stories from the orchestra's long history.
Formed with the major benefactor Mr Thomson W Leys as its first chairman, the orchestra has served the community under the auspices of the Leys Institute in Ponsonby for over a century. However, following the sudden indefinite closure of the Leys Institute buildings by Auckland Council as an earthquake risk last Christmas, the orchestra is now without a home.
The orchestra is committed to supporting community and local body efforts to restore this valuable facility to public use.
David Hamilton at the premiere performance of 'Pohutukawa', a new work written specially for the concert. A former conductor of the orchestra, David dedicated 'Pohutukawa' to Leys Orchestra. Photo credit: Barry Yuan.
