Bravo! The NZSCO at 50

Joy Tonks

On 24 October 1946 the first rehearsal took place of the National Orchestra of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service.  Fifty years later, in 1996, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra celebrated not only a half-century of development and achievements, but survival through its tumultuous fifth decade, when it was cut loose from Broadcasting funding and faced new challenges as the world's first limited liability orchestral company.
But this is no dry official history.  It is a vivid account of what happens behind the formal facade of a great orchestra: the highlights and the lowlights, the personality conflicts and the sound of a 90-stong ensemble playing with passion.

About the Author:

Joy Tonks is the NZSO's historian, archivist and former personnel manager. She was born in Wellington and educated at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School. She attended Victoria University as a mature student, graduating with a degree in English Literature in 1983. Most of her working career has been spent in broadcasting, for the NZBC/BCNZ in New Zealand and the BBC in London. Joy became a full-time writer in 1993 and is the NZSO's company historian and archivist.

260 x 255mm | cased with jacket | 232pp