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New Zealand International Chamber Music Festival

Welcome to New Zealand’s finest chamber music festival, where musicians and audiences come together in a shared passion for glorious music.

Nestled at the top of New Zealand’s South Island, Nelson is a region renowned for its stunning natural beauty, boutique vineyards, and warm embrace of the arts. Alongside the world-class chamber music performances, visitors have the opportunity to explore the natural beauty of the national parks and indulge in the region’s delectable food and wine.

Every two years, our Artistic Director Gillian Ansell  of New Zealand String Quartet, invite a selection of international and national musicians to gather for ten days of shared excellence in performance and collaboration, resulting in a programme ranging from classical favourites to new commissions, as well as artist talks and masterclasses. The Festival is housed in one of the country’s finest chamber music venues, the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts, renowned for its acoustic.

Our next festival is on 29th January – 7th February 2026 and we are thrilled to announce the first of our artists for the 2026 festival.

The visiting ensemble will be the Jupiter Quartet, acclaimed for being at once friendly, knowledgeable and adventurous, and cited by The New Yorker as “an ensemble of eloquent intensity, [that is] one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” They’ll be joined by someone they’re already performed with, one of America’s foremost pianists, Jeremy Denk, who regularly appears at Carnegie Hall and with some of his country’s most celebrated orchestras. “He remains the thinker’s pianist: bold, sensitive, and cleverly adept at manoeuvring” (The Arts Fuse). We will also welcome Canadian tenor Colin Ainsworth who has been praised for his “exquisite control and emotional directness” and has long distinguished himself internationally as a specialist not only with his interpretations of the major Classical and Baroque tenor roles but also by his performances in contemporary opera.

We’ll also be welcoming back clarinettist James Campbell, alongside fellow wind-players Todd Gibson-Cornish (bassoon) and Shadley Van Wyk (horn), which hints at repertoire we haven’t heard for some time.

More artists will be announced in September with the release of the full programme.

Join our enthusiastic audience, and experience a full immersion into a celebration of premier international and New Zealand musicians.

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