High Notes: seven decades of a musical journey.
2 Sept 2026
In a career spanning over seventy years, musician Peter Averi was involved in many aspects of the arts in New Zealand and abroad. "High Notes" is a record of those years as a performer, conductor, broadcaster and arts administrator.
His special interest in encouraging young musicians involved adjudicating for many organisations, including the National Youth Orchestra, Mobil Song Quest, and Television Young Musicians competitions. Internationally he was twice on the jury of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and adjudicated at the Canadian National Music Competitions in Ottawa. Now a nonagenarian, his recollections reveal much about the New Zealand musical scene and the many artists he encountered.
Throughout those years, Peter was never far from choral music, most significantly, as the Music Director of TVNZ’s Praise Be from 1999 to 2016.
As an organist I played with many church choirs in the early years. It was at a time when choral societies tended to operate in isolation, competing for audiences and inclined to be independent. That all changed when the NZCF was established in 1985, thanks largely to Peter Godfrey’s vision of a national organisation specifically to support choral music. Since then, so much has been accomplished, especially with the wonderful opportunities for conductor training, courses for singers, regional co-ordination for participating choirs, improved access to hire and purchase music, and a huge advancement in choir management, and of course the great success of The Big Sing has been a major achievement. None of that existed before 1985.
TVNZ’s Praise Be benefitted from the many choirs who were recorded around the country. It was my happy experience to be Music Director for 16 years, during which every major choir was recorded, together with many vocal groups and school choirs. The statistics proved that New Zealand is a singing country. Over the 30 years of the programme, 530 choirs and groups were featured, totalling around 24,900 singers. Adding the congregational component, the total number of singers was about 85,3000, impressive by any standard. Choirs who contributed gained in status too, their appearance on television enhanced their reputations. There was one town where there was no community choir before a Praise Be programme was offered. Such was the enthusiasm that local singers rallied to form a new choir, complete with uniforms. They continued long after the recording and are possibly still performing.
On a personal level, it is difficult to pick out any particular association, except to say that I enjoyed accompanying so many choirs on the organ. Memorable concerts include the first Wellington performance of the Britten War Requiem, the Monteverdi Vespers with the Deller Consort and Orpheus Choir. My 50-year friendship with Peter Godfrey began in the 1960’s by accompanying the Dorian Singers in Auckland Cathedral, an exhilarating experience, and the first time I encountered a choir that began rehearsals with warm-up exercises. Our association in Kapiti was a marvelous era of many concerts with the Kapiti Chorale, which continued after Peter’s retirement with Marie Brown’s imaginative programmes. I particularly remember a performance of the Brahms German Requiem, using the superb two- piano arrangement written by the composer. Judith McDonald and I were the piano duo for that unique performance.
Since the establishment of the NZCF there has been an amazing development of choral music, challenging repertoire is now performed taking choirs well beyond the standard choral fare that previously was the staple diet when I began working with choirs.
Peter Averi's book "High Notes" is a fascinating and important book that chronicles 70 years of NZ’s music and musicians, and is available here - High Notes - The CopyPress