Arts and culture news for Sunday 7 April.

What does it take to be an effective cultural translator? Yang Fan will tell you that the language is just the beginning.

If you think of your favourite film, chances are there’s a pivotal scene driven by music or a killer soundtrack. Either way, you can thank the work of a music supervisor.

A $3.9 million dollar multi-purpose arts and cultural space, Te Atamira, opened in the burgeoning commercial district of Frankton near Queenstown in May 2022. It’s a hub for creative work from the communities that surround the three lakes of the wider Queenstown-Lake District: Whākatipu, Hāwea and Wānaka.  

Te Atamira director, Olivia Egerton, says the strength of that community cultural life has been demonstrated by the centre’s use - up to 2000 people and 35 arts groups use it every week.

“If opera doesn’t tell stories about right now or about who we are now, then eventually it’s just going to die out,” British composer Jonathan Dove tells Culture 101’s Mark Amery. 

Jonathan Dove should know. With 32 operas to his name he’s one of the most performed living opera composers of our time.

Slavic culture crosses from Eastern Europe and the Balkans through to Asia. It encapsulates a real diversity of countries but which share  strong cultural roots in Slavic languages. 

Their commonalities are apparent in Aotearoa New Zealand today through gloriously rich musical traditions often heard on festival stages.

Celebrating the cultures of Slavic peoples who have settled here, festival SlavFest 2024 is a one-day festival in Poneke Wellington 13 April.

Food is perhaps one of the easiest ways to bring people together. But what about when it's painted? In the case of young Pōneke Wellington-based artist Alice Toomer’s hyperrealistic paintings, it can be striking, evoke emotion and even appeal to all the senses.

Masterchef New Zealand winner 2022, author, and Instagram star Sam Low joins Culture 101 to share his inspirations and cultural favourites.

Arts news for the week from RNZ's Culture 101.

Raised in the countryside, north of Tamaki Nui-A-Rua and Dannevirke in the lower North Island, Nui Stretch has the distinction of having two parallel careers in wood. One as a luthier, or guitar maker - trained by some of the world’s best - and the other as a carver, now based at Karehana Bay, Porirua near his tūrangawaewae, Hongoeka marae.