The Adam Chamber Music Festival – building a bonfire

A festival 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.

In February 2011 the 11th Adam Chamber Music Festival took place in Nelson. Have you ever wondered how and when this special Festival bonfire began?

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 fill a gap – 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.

“It was always repertoire-driven” says Doug Beilman, “and in those early days key support came from Bob Bickerton, then Director of the Nelson School of Music. Nelson is ideal for this kind of Festival – it’s small and easy to walk around, there are good intimate venues and wonderful summer weather.”

Musicians have always been the prime movers. Violinist Stephen Managh came on board for the 1994 event, and he and Beilman and Tennant founded an organisation called the Nelson Music Festival Trust. Nelsonian Cindy Flook also joined the group and became part of an organising trio with Beilman and Managh. The third festival was in 1995 and it has continued as a biennial New Zealand chamber music festival ever since.

The central ensemble of the Festival throughout its 20 year history has fittingly been the New Zealand String Quartet and in the early years they were joined by top musicians from New Zealand, including Michael Houstoun, Diedre Irons, Alexa Still, Peter Scholes, Margaret Medlyn, Carolyn Mills, Douglas Mews and Terence Dennis. The event soon had its own Nelson-based board and in 1997 the Adam Foundation was welcomed as Principal Sponsor, giving its name to what is now known as the Adam Chamber Music Festival.

In 1997 Australian violinist Dene Olding and violist Irina Morozova crossed the Tasman to join their New Zealand colleagues, violinist Ellen Jewett of the Audobon Quartet and violist Uri Wassertzug came from the US and from then on international musicians became a regular part of the programme. Golding returned with the Goldner Quartet in 2001 and in the ensuing decade each Festival has included distinguished artists from around the globe, including Anton Kuerti, Piers Lane, Nobuko Imai, Atar Arad, Colin Carr, Péter Nagy, the Michelangelo and Pražák Quartets and James Campbell. The special atmosphere of Nelson and that exciting artistic bonfire has meant these artists have relished their visits and many have returned more than once.

Helene Pohl and Gillian Ansell took over as artistic directors in 2001. The artistic leadership of the Adam Chamber Music Festival has always come from the New Zealand String Quartet, whose members are able to use their international networks to ensure top musicians participate. The “repertoire-driven” beginnings, that motivation to explore the many ways composers have written for small ensembles, has remained and now, as well, several new works by New Zealand composers receive their world premières at each event.

The Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson and environs is now firmly fixed as a major event in New Zealand’s musical calendar, and audiences come from all around this country and increasingly from further afield.. With professional management and a committed local board, with the loyal support of the Adam Foundation as well as public funding and many other supporters, it seems well-placed to delight these audiences for many decades to come.