Orchestra Wellington


Orchestra Wellington is New Zealand's oldest professional regional orchestra, based in the capital city of Wellington. It hosts an annual subscription series of concerts in the Michael Fowler Centre, performing varied repertoire from the Classical, Romantic and contemporary periods, as well as commissioned works by New Zealand composers. It also regularly accompanies Wellington stage performances by the Royal New Zealand Ballet and New Zealand Opera.

History

The orchestra was first established by New Zealand violinist Alex Lindsay as the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra in 1948, renamed the Lindsay String Orchestra of Wellington in 1967, and re-established with assistance from the national Arts Council in 1973 as the Wellington Regional Orchestra. In 1991 the orchestra was renamed Wellington Sinfonia, and in 2005 renamed again to Vector Wellington Orchestra. In 2012 the orchestra dropped the naming sponsorship from electricity company Vector and rebranded to its current name, Orchestra Wellington.