Rounds in the Square

04/10/2026

We almost forgot the picture! So sorry to the few who'd departed by the time we took this snap 📸🌞🎵

01/10/2026

This Sunday! we'll give this another sing through in Te Ngākau Civic Square 2pm ⛴️

16/09/2026

Please write a letter to express your opposition if you can 🙏
This change would add significant financial burdens to choirs, brass bands, orchestras, and many other musical communities across the country

The National Library is planning to axe its Music Hire Service completely on 30 November. The plan became public on 2 September. That is 89 days’ notice to the choirs, orchestras, bands and other music groups across Aotearoa that rely on it. Orpheus Choir Wellington is one of them. We cannot do what we do without this service.

Many concertgoers will never have heard of this service. Behind the scenes, it supports choirs, orchestras and bands across Aotearoa with New Zealand’s largest collection of performance material: more than 3,000 choral sets and 5,000 orchestral sets.

That shared collection means we can hire the music we need without buying a copy for every singer.

Buying entire sets or hiring from overseas could put major works beyond our budget. Programmes we want to perform could become programmes we have to abandon. Our singers would lose opportunities, and our audiences would miss out.

The proposed changes are due to take effect by the end of November. WE MUST ACT NOW.

PLEASE WRITE

Ask the people below to keep Music Hire running and pause the proposed closure until the choirs, orchestras, bands and other organisations affected have been properly consulted.

Tell them what these concerts mean to you.

Copy all five into your email:

Brooke van Velden, Minister of Internal Affairs
[email protected]

Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage
[email protected]

Paul James, Chief Executive, Internal Affairs
[email protected]

Rachel Esson, National Librarian
[email protected]

Jessica Moran, Chief Librarian and Director of Library Collections
[email protected]

PLEASE SHARE

Help us reach the people who fill our concert halls, sing in our choirs and play in our orchestras and bands.

If you value the music our choirs, orchestras and bands bring to communities across Aotearoa, please help us keep this service running.

06/09/2026

Singing in the library ☺️🎵🌬️🌧️

14/08/2026

🎵⚓❤️

02/08/2026

Singing in the sunshine! 🌞🎵

01/08/2026

Sunny weather forecast! 🎵🌞😎🧣🧤

24/07/2026

Some extra singing in the next few months 🛳🎶

Mayday Mayday on the ferry
Mayday mayday on the ferry
Mayday mayday on the ferry
She ain’t gonna float no more

We sailed the Interislander into the Marlborough sounds
And if you remember that is where she ran aground
The passengers and crew were all afraid that they’d be drowned
She ain’t gonna float no more

We’ve sailed the Kaitaki far beyond its useful life
And rumours of it breaking down have started to get rife
The future of this ferry, it balances on a knife
She ain’t gonna float no more

We searched for a replacement, looking both east and west
Sorted out a contract that was better than the rest
But the new finance minister decided she knew best
She ain’t gonna float no more

Yes Nicola Willis dispensed with the idea that was planned
She said she’d get cheaper - she’d get it second hand
But none were on the market so the idea sunk like sand
She ain’t gonna float no more

Now the government's looking desperate while the opposition gloats
Seems as though, I reckon, they’ll buy anything that floats
The minister’s earned the nickname “Nicky no boats”
She ain’t gonna float no more

Well now it’s Winston’s Peter’s turn - he’s minister for rail
With all his lived experience, he surely cannot fail
If the boat we get is half his age it’s bound to have a sail
She ain’t gonna float no more

G
C G
G Em
Am D G

18/07/2026

$224.30 going to the curtain bank at Sustainability Trust from tonight's concert 💖
Let's sing again soon!
Pōneke Shanty Club Sustainability Trust

21/01/2026

A lovely new sign! 📢