Laurel Devenie and Kelly Johnson from Company of Giants talk about Rangitahua: the Stopping Off Place. The Whangarei based theatre collective created the work to complement the exhibition Kermadec: Lines In The Ocean when it was on at the Whangarei Art Museum last year. Now they bring Rangitahua: the Stopping Off Place to the Academy Galleries in Wellington. Laurel directs and Kelly plays the patriarch of the Bell family who made Raoul Island their home in the nineteenth century.

Royal New Zealand Ballet Artistic Director Francesco Ventriglia on the world premiere of The Wizard of Oz ballet, which he created. The story based on L. Frank Baum's story features music by Francis Poulenc and stunning scenery by Gianluca Flaschi.

Juliette Sivertsen goes behind the scenes at the Founders Theatre to discover how its closure has impacted the musical theatre and artistic communities in the Waikato.

Hamilton based conductor Repert d'Cruze is helping develop classical music in the Waikato; he's set up a Sistema programme for children and is involved in a orchestral trust to foster music performance after the closing of Founders Theatre.

New Zealand born organist Katherine Dienes-Williams is the first woman to hold the most senior musical post in a Church of England cathedral. The accomplished organist is home on holiday with her husband Patrick Williams, librarian of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and daughter Hannah who's a chorister.

Violinist Haihong Liu and cellist Robert Ibell from the Aroha Quartet dip their toes in the world of Argentinian tango by Astor Piazzolla. The Tango Ballet Suite programme is beautifully planned including work by New Zealand composer Anthony Ritchie as well as classical masters Haydn and Mendelssohn.

Peter Hoar reviews last week's Degenerate concert by Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, with guest violinist Michael Barenboim and guest conductor Johannes Fritzsch. The concert featured works by Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Mendelssohn, which were all considered degenerate by the Third Reich.

Dan Shanan, the founder of Doc Edge Film Festival introduces the 2016 event which features some of the best music documentaries on offer this year. The festival opens with Be Here Now which follows late Spartacus star Andy Whitfield through his cancer diagnosis.

One of the big cliches about this little country of ours is our Tall Poppy Syndrome - the famous Clobbering Machine that reduces our so-called betters to the mundane and ordinary. To which critic Iain Sharp can only say "if only"! He complains that our literary critics tend to be "tame, dull, lazy, cowardly and predictable" and wrote about it for The Spin Off.

Christophe Rousset is the founder of French baroque ensemble Les Talens Lyriques about to undertake a tour of the country for Chamber Music New Zealand. The internationally renowned harpsichordist talks about his passion for the music of Versailles.