For this special concert, The Music Accord celebrate seldomly performed works of female composers spanning the last 200 years from the Baroque through to the modern era.

This comes in line with the 125th Anniversary of women being secured the right to vote in New Zealand. Between works, Ludwig and Darius will also present the history of the challenges and the triumphs past composers experienced as women in a male dominated industry and feature some New Zealand women composers.

New Zealand concert pianist Ludwig Treviranus and composer Darius Windec have recently formed The Music Accord. The Music Accord is a collaborative for musicians to come together, share ideas, and support each other’s artistic and professional development.

The Francis-Lee Duo conclude our Spring Series with a diverse and engaging programme spanning 150 years of wonderful music. They are Dr Charlotte Francis (violin) and Gemma Lee (piano).

Beginning with Beethoven’s energetic 4th Violin sonata, they take us into rather unfamiliar territory with “L’Addio” by New Zealand composer Raffaello Squarise - or 'Old Square Eyes' – one of 'Dunedin's chief musical assets'. The 100th anniversary of Debussy’s death is acknowledged with his colourful and vibrant violin sonata and the programme concludes on a flashy and brilliant note with Jascha Heifetz’s arrangement of “It Ain’t Necessarily So” by Gershwin.

Formed in 2016, Francis-Lee Duo consists of University of Auckland School of Music graduates, violinist Dr Charlotte Francis and pianist Gemma Lee. Both have gained individual successes in chamber music throughout New Zealand and overseas, and are rapidly gaining recognition locally as an exciting upcoming chamber ensemble.

One of the treasures of Auckland Libraries is the only known copy of The Harpsichord Master, an early form of music tutor book for “learners on the Spinnet or Harpsichord” dating from 1697. Music by Henry Purcell, Jeremiah Clark and various other composers of the period is included in this fascinating little book. Much of the keyboard music in the collection is arrangements of airs from contemporary operas and popular songs.

Peter Watts (harpsichord) and Katharine Watts (soprano) explore the music of the book. They look into the origins of the music found in it and explain how it came to be one of the treasures of Auckland Libraries. The concert will feature a complete performance of all the music in The Harpsichord Master, together with some of the original works from which the pieces derived.

Women in Song" is a well explored theme but this engaging program includes repertoire from a number of varied sources and perspectives: the ideal of love and beauty as perceived by men; women in their own words; and, the journey from girlhood to womanhood.

The students of the Classical Voice program at the University of Auckland have participated in this concert series for a number of years now, and are grateful for this most valuable opportunity to develop their performance profiles that this series provides.

The alumni performing include current semifinalists in the prestigious Lexus Songquest, current and former Emerging Artists for Opera NZ, and participants in the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Advanced Opera Training Program.

This November 2018 we feature in the Real Gold case The temple of Flora by Robert Thornton, published in 1812.

https://discover.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1969252

Georgia Prince, rare book specialist, talks about the beautiful and fantastical publication.

The items can be viewed in the Real Gold case housed in the reading room on level 2 of Tāmaki Pātaka Kōrero Central City Library.

As part of commemorations recognising one hundred years since the devastating Influenza Pandemic of 1918, we held a special extended series of talks.

Join oral historian Sue Berman as she brings together an illuminating collection of first-hand accounts demonstrating vividly the impact of the Influenza on local communities.

Recorded on Wednesday 3rd October at the Auckland Central Library

Zoe Colling talked about three cases that she curated for the Wāhine Take Action exhibition sharing details about three kinds of early childhood education in the case titled Play and Grow; and details the content selected fro Write a Letter and finally describes the case 'Make Art'.

Image: Write a letter

This letter is written to Governor Grey and is signed ‘Nā Te Rapa - Wahine nāna tēnā pukapuka’. The English translation reads ‘From Te Rapa - [The] woman whom that letter belongs to’. In the letter, she informs Grey about the names of people who should be given payment for land. This letter is one of 788 letters written in te reo Māori, mostly addressed to Grey, which form our Nga Reta Māori collection. All the letters are digitised and are accessible via Auckland Libraries’ website.

Te Rapa. Letter to Governor Grey, 2 January 1852. GNZMA 381

Write a letter

Te Rapa. Letter to Governor Grey, 2 January 1852. GNZMA 381.

Amey Daldy. Letter to Sir George Grey, 20 September 1893. GLNZ D1.1.

The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly. 16 November 1933.

Women Against Pornography. Letter promoting a letter writing campaign, 16 October 1984. From: Auckland Women’s Centre. Records. NZMS 999.

Make art

Te Ao Hou: The new world vol. 4, no. 13, 1 December 1955. Wellington: Māori Affairs Department.

Maureen Lander. Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa’s hands. 1985. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Patterns of paradise: Cook Islands tīvaevae exhibition postcard. Auckland: Auckland Art Gallery, 1995. Ephemera Collection.

Art New Zealand no. 52, Spring 1989. Auckland: The Art Magazine Press.

Play and grow

Kindergartens

First annual report of the Auckland Kindergarten Association. 1908. From: Auckland Kindergarten Association. Records. NZMS 1275.

1916 diary used as lesson planner and notebook. 1918-1922. From: Auckland Kindergarten Association. Records. NZMS 1275.

Unknown photographer. First kindergarten children. October 1916. From: Auckland Kindergarten Association. Records. NZMS 1275.

Unknown photographer. June Gordon playing the melodica to children. October 1970. From: Auckland Kindergarten Association. Records. NZMS 1275.

Unknown photographer. Connected strip of photographs showing various kindergarten activities. Between 1950 – 1970. From: Auckland Kindergarten Association. Records. NZMS 1275.

Playcentres

Gwen Somerset. The voluntary assistant or mother helper. Wellington: Wellington Nursery Play Centre Association, 1958.

Gwen Somerset. Play and how to provide for it. Wellington: Wellington Nursery Play Centre Association, 1958.

Alexander Grey. Watch them play: first steps in understanding the meaning and the value of children’s play. Auckland: Department of University Extension, 1965. From: Auckland Playcentre Association. Records. NZMS 2164.

Alexander Grey and Helen Dickson. The play programme. Auckland: Auckland Nursery Play Centres Association, 1957. From: Auckland Playcentre Association. Records. NZMS 2164.

Gwen Somerset. I play and I grow: the nursery play centre. Wellington: New Zealand Federation of Nursery Play Centres' Associations, 1955.

Elspeth Orwin talks with Sue Berman about the exhibition case 'Run for Office'.

She discusses the stories related to Ellen Melville, Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan, Dame Catherine Tizard and Georgina Beyer.

References:

Electors of Grey Lynn. 1919. From: Ellen Melville. Election scrapbooks. NZMS 1569.

Group portrait of Auckland City Council, 1921-23. Photo ref: 7-A11634.

Elizabeth Wratislav with contributions from Lucy Hammonds and Tryphena Cracknell. Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan: travel in style. Hawke's Bay: MTG, 2014.

Georgina Beyer. Change for the better: the story of Georgina Beyer, as told to Cathy Casey. Auckland: Random House, 1999.

Cath Tizard: the Mayor for Auckland.1983. Ephemera Collection.

Cath Tizard. 1983. Ephemera Collection.

Our Mayor – Cath Tizard. 1986. Ephemera Collection.

Sue Berman picks up a conversation with curators Jacqueline Snee and Dena Jacob on their contribution to Wāhine Take Action. They discuss the case content reflecting the themes Mana Wāhine - Mana Reo - Mana Whēnua.

Mana wāhine mana whēnua

Mā te wāhine, mā te whēnua, ka ngaro te tāngata

Humanity would be lost without women and land

From Papatūānuku (the earth mother) came the first woman Hineahuone and from her came humankind.

This hand coloured lithograph shows prominent land owner and wāhine rangatira Ngeungeu, the daughter of Tara Te Irirangi, the chief of Umupuia, Hauraki Gulf in the Bay of Islands (Ngai Tai) with her son James Maxwell.

George French Angas The New Zealanders illustrated. London: Thomas M’lean, 1846.

Mana wāhine : Mana reo

Robyn Kahukiwa. Ngā Atua: Māori gods. Oratia: Oratia books, 2017.

Dame Ngāneko Kaihau Minhinnick. Establishing Kaitiaki: a paper. 1989. From: Tanya Cumberland. Records. NZMS 1818.

Concert party, Whiriwhiri, 1966. Valerie Muir, Footprints 07067.

The New Suffragettes. From supplement ‘Sunday,’ Sunday Star Times, 27 May 2018.

A prince and his people, Pakuranga, 1981. Stuff Limited, Footprints 00378.

Gil Hanly. Hilda Halkyard-Harawira with her youngest daughter Anika, 1987. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Gil Hanly. Hilda Halkyard-Harawira, 1986. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Gil Hanly. Being arrested, Bastion Point March, 1982. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Mana wāhine : Mana tāngata

Gil Hanly. Photographs. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Left to right:

Tenth Anniversary of occupation of Bastion Point. 1988.

Takaparawha, Bastion Point. Date unknown.

Waitangi Day, Waitangi. 1984.

Merata Mita. Date unknown.

Waitangi Day protest. 1986.

Waitangi Day protest Wellington. 1986.

Titiwhai Harawira, Atareta Pononga, and Hana Te Hemara at Takaparawha. 1988.

At Bastion Point. 1988.

Cloak (Kahu) with hukahuka and kiwi feathers.

Mana wāhine : Mana whenua

New Zealand Graphic and Ladies Journal. 9 February 1895.

Patricia Grace and Robyn Kahukiwa. Wāhine toa: women of Māori myth. Auckland: Collins, 1984.

Group of Māori men, women and children, Māngere. About 1905. Māngere Historical Society, Footprints 01084.

Andrew Pettengell. Protest art on Ihumatao Quarry Road Mangere. 2017. Photo ref: 1458-120.

Renee Orr talks us through the content in the cases for the Wāhine Take Action exhibition which focus on the themes 'Support your Community' and 'Start a Feminist Press'.

Much of the content for these cases was drawn from archival collections housed at Auckland Libraries.

References for start a feminist press:

Broadsheet. 1976-1990. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Circle. Issue 16, March 1975. Christchurch: S.H.E. From: Auckland Lesbian Archive. Records. NZMS 1184.

Lesbian sexuality. Reprinted from Auckland Circle, September 1974. From: Auckland Lesbian Archive. Records. NZMS 1184.

L.I.P. Issue 25, January 1992. From: Auckland Lesbian Archive. Records. NZMS 1184.

Lesbian lip. May-June 1982. From: Auckland Lesbian Archive. Records. NZMS 1184.

Donna Awatere. Māori sovereignty. Auckland: Broadsheet, 1984.

Spiral: women’s art magazine no. 3. Christchurch: Spiral Collective, 1976.

New Zealand Herstory. Auckland: New Women's Press, 1984.

Sue Lytollis. Self defence for women. Auckland: New Women's Press, 1983.

Mellow Yellow no. 8. Auckland: Mellow Yellow, 2016.

References for support your community:

Polynesian social and dance. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Auckland Women’s Health Collective. 1980s. Ephemera Collection.

Women help - we’re broke! 1980s. From: Auckland Women’s Centre. Records. NZMS 999.

A party in the back yard at 63 Ponsonby Road. 1980s. From: Auckland Women’s Centre. Records. NZMS 999.

Rina Rata and the Māori Women’s Support Group visit Stella and new baby. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Pamphlets, 1980s-2018. From: Ephemera Collection, and Auckland Women’s Centre. Records. NZMS 999.

North Shore Women’s Refuge. 1980s. From: Council for the Single Mother and her Child. Records. NZMS 1183.

Joss Shawyer and Robert Ludbrook. Everything a single parent needs to know. Auckland: Council for the Single Mother and her Child, 1981.

Pamela Were. The CSMC delegation to Parliament at height of government harassment of solo mothers, photographed in Hamilton. 1977. From: Broadsheet Collective. Records. NZMS 596.

Feminist festival. 1976. Ephemera Collection.

Women! Join the Womanline library. 1980s. From: Auckland Women’s Centre. Records. NZMS 999.