New General Manager for Adam Chamber Music Festival

MEDIA RELEASE
Saturday May 28, 2011

New General Manager to take the stage for Adam Chamber Music Festival

The Nelson Music Festival Trust has today announced the appointment of a new General Manager for Nelson’s Adam Chamber Music Festival.

Acclaimed local musician and recording engineer Bob Bickerton has accepted the role for the biennial festival, which will make its mark in Nelson for the 12th time in 2013.

Bickerton was the Director at the Nelson School of Music when the Adam Chamber Music Festival had its first ever show in 1992, and he has staged managed the last three Festivals.

He says he will draw on his eclectic experience within the music industry to enhance the event’s popularity further ashore.

“The Adam Chamber Music Festival is regarded as the country’s only professional chamber festival and has a reputation for attracting high calibre chamber musicians from within New Zealand and around the world,” says Bob.

“I’m looking forward to building on that reputation to increase our overseas visitor numbers to the event, and to firmly cement Nelson in the international arena, as a key destination for lovers of classical music.”

“The format of our Festival is unique to Nelson, which makes it very special,” he says. “It is an intimate festival, where audiences really get to interact with highly skilled chamber musicians – musicians who thrive in the relaxed and fun atmosphere to perform exciting works in new collaborations. Nelson should be extremely proud of this Festival.”

Chair of the Nelson Music Festival Trust Colleen Marshall says she is confident Bickerton will ensure the festival is once again a huge success

“We are delighted to have Bob on board and excited to see what changes he has in store for the festival in 2013 and beyond,” says Colleen.

“Bob has known the festival since its infancy, and has had years of experience within the wider music industry, including in management, recording, performing and composing,” she says. “The festival is very special to Nelson, and it is our goal to continue making the festival a huge success, so that we get to keep it here in the future. We are confident that Bob will help us do that.”

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About Bob Bickerton

Bob Bickerton is a former director of the Nelson School of Music, and is a multi-instrumentalist performer, recording artist, composer, producer, and recording engineer.

He specialises in Celtic music and performs regularly around the country, and has helped manage Celtic music festivals in New Zealand . He also runs a professional recording studio in Nelson and produces live sound for festivals and concerts.

For more information go to www.bickerton.co.nz

About the Adam Chamber Music Festival

The Adam Chamber Music Festival celebrated its 10th anniversary at the beginning of 2009.

It has been described as a “bonfire built by artists working together – to which audiences come because they are attracted by the sparks and the glow.”

The story goes back to 1991, when five musicians, Gillian Ansell and Douglas Beilman of the New Zealand String Quartet, flautist Alexa Still, pianist Susan DeWitt Smith and cellist James Tennant, got together to create an opportunity for musicians to explore the full and wonderful range of chamber music. Their first Festival was an event of five concerts in five days in Nelson in the summer 1992.

Wellington 's Dominion Post reviewer Lindis Taylor said it is “a major festival in international terms and the only music festival in New Zealand that can foot it with the best in Europe ."

For more information about the festival go to www.music.org.nz

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