There are three professional orchestras in New Zealand employing full-time musicians. The largest and best is the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra which is based in Wellington. The permanent oboe and bassoon sections contain three players, casual extras being hired when necessary. The current sections are:
Past players of note have been Guy Henderson, now principal oboe of the Sydney Symphony, Australia, and DeVere Moore, formerly of the Chicago Symphony and now teaching at the University of Cincinnati.
Ron Webb has studied in both England and Germany, his teachers being Terence MacDonagh and Karl Steins. His playing is very individualistic as are his reeds. Stephen Popperwell is English and also studied with MacDonagh. Luigi Ferletti is Yugoslav-Italian. He used to play in a very European style but the influence of two American trained principal oboists had considerable effect on his choice of instrument and style of reed. He plays a Conservatoire Plateau instrument but Ron and Stephen play open ring thumbplate instruments.
The bassoon section has all been trained in the United States. Gordon Skinner studied with Leonard Sharrow at the University of Indiana, Jonathon Adler is a recent graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, and Colin Hemmingsen studied in Boston.
The NZSO work a basic 25 hour week, 52 week year with a four week vacation over Christmas. Much time is spent touring, as much as 80 days a year, giving concerts all over the country. Many important artists and conductors come here during the Northern Hemisphere's off season, which is our concert season.
The other two orchestras are the Auckland Symphonia, based in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, and the Canterbury Orchestra in Christchurch.
The Auckland Symphonia is an orchestra of chamber orchestra size but performs a great deal of symphonic repertoire augmented with casual players. The current double reed sections are:
Auckland also has New Zealand's nearest thing to a Conservatory of Music, at Auckland University. Excellent general musical training can be had here in performance, musicology and composition, but for more specialised oboe and bassoon tuition one must go to Wellington where the best players and teachers are. Previous principals of the Symphonia were Colin Hemmingsen and Ted Baskin (formerly assistant first oboe of the Detroit Symphony) and they contributed a lot to the Auckland music scene.
The Canterbury orchestra is the newest professional orchestra in New Zealand, only two years old, and only employs ten full-time musicians, section principals. The intention is to gradually expand as finances allow into a 32 piece chamber orchestra. The double reed section is:
Much of the time of the professional players is spent performing chamber music, in weekly recitals and schools. The Canterbury Orchestra Wind Quintet has recently performed quintets by Schoenberg, Barber, Hindemith, Nielsen and Henze, as well as the Mozart and Beethoven quintets with piano and the Poulenc sextet. Many of these performances are later recorded for radio broadcasts. The regular weekly recitals also give the full-time players a chance to perform much of the solo repertoire. Recent performances have included the Mozart Oboe Quartet, Handel, Poulenc and Hindemith oboe sonatas and the Hindemith bassoon sonata. Projected performances include the Poulenc Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano, the Beethoven trio for flute, bassoon and piano, and the Britten Phantasy quartet.
For most of the full-time players in the Canterbury Orchestra this is their first orchestral job. Ian Falloon studied with DeVere Moore and later with Ron Webb, while Liam Gill has studied with George Goslee of the Cleveland Orchestra and currently with Jonathon Adler.
Concertos are often performed here with the three orchestras, either in concert or for radio broadcasts. Guy Henderson has performed the Strauss Oboe Concerto twice in recent years, once in Auckland and once in Christchurch. Ron Webb has recorded both the Haydn and Mozart Oboe concertos with the NZSO for radio, and the Mozart Symphonia Concertantes K.App. 9 (297B) is periodically recorded and broadcast by the NZSO.
All three orchestras are salaried and tied to the same basic rate of NZ$7.80 an hour but in effect the salaries of the NZSO are much higher because they have a more advanced career structure and work more hours in the year. Financially, the two regional orchestras aren't as secure, as their funding is by an annual government grant on a year to year basis. The NZSO has been established for over thirty years and is the orchestra of the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand.