Flea market coming to Karori

By Frank Neill

day of the concert.

The Wellington Male Voice Choir (WMVC) was formed in 1961 as the Onslow Male Voice Choir, changing its name to WMVC in 1992.

The choir rehearses in Tawa on Thursday evenings from February to November with three aims.

The first is to provide entertainment, the second to enjoy the fellowship of male voice singing and the third is to continually improve as a choir.

WMVC regularly sings at retirement villages and functions in the greater Wellington area.

It has also participated in five New Zealand festivals of male voice choirs.

The choir celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2011 with two joint concerts that also featured the Orange Male Voice Choir from New South Wales and the Nelson Male Voice Choir. In November last year they celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Nelson Male

Voice Choir with a joint concert in Nelson.

WMVC’s Music Director Mark Stamper, who lives in Wellington’s northern suburbs, has a notable record.

His choirs have consistently received accolades from critics and judges at festivals and concerts.

In 2006 – 2007, he was the Principal Accompanist for La Boheme and Madame Butterfly with the Fort Worth Opera.

Mark was the Chorus Master for Lucia di Lammermoor and Of Mice and Men in 2008, where his chorus received great reviews from the critics.

He began playing the piano when he was three, and went on to receive a Batchelor of Music in Piano Performance from Winthrop University in 1986.

Mark began his conducting career at 16 years old with a choir in his own hometown. Since then, he has worked with community choirs

A flea market to help raise money for a group of Karori boys, who are travelling overseas later this year on a Japanese exchange programme for Wellington College, will be held at the Youth Room at Karori Community Centre on Sunday 14 May from 9am to 1pm.

Tables cost $15 each and are open to all Karori community members. There is only one stall size - 1.5 metres deep by 2metres long.

Foxtail Events is hosting the flea market.

There are limited spaces available, so if you are interested email hello@foxtailevents.co.nz. Please advise if you are bringing a trestle table or clothes racks. The event page is at https://fb.me/e/ YURwg3Y1.

“Community + Collaboration”, the theme for this year’s New Zealand Music Month, has a familiar ring to it, because the staff at the Johnsonville Library at Waitohi Hub feel that this sums up their way of thinking too.

With this theme in mind, what better way to bring the world of music and community together than to have some community-based performances on the terraces at Johnsonville Library?

“The month of May really will be an ongoing celebration of music with performances from a really diverse bunch of people,” says Sue Jane, Community Librarian at Johnsonville Library.

“And we’re excited that so many individuals and community music-makers want to be involved. What’s also great is that much of the music to be performed will be original material.”

Expect to hear everything from the Waitohi Kindergarten choir to the Swing Club Ukulele Music Group, SoundsWell Singers Neurological Choir to individual artists such as Jack Hooker on acoustic guitar, Richard Prowse on double bass and violin, Floyd Marsden and Cian Ye – regular users of the HIVE Recording Studio – putting the library’s instruments and equipment through its paces – and Ethan Morrison, a Newtown librarian, playing guitar.

For more information go to the Johnsonville Library’s Facebook page or pop into the library to pick up a flyer.

All performances are free, will be performed in the library spaces, and are open to all.

He is the founder and artistic director of the professional choir Inspirare, directs Queen Margaret College Chorales and four additional ensembles: Sing Your Lungs Out Wellington, Wellington Young Voices, the Wellington Youth Choir and WMVC.

Mark began conducting the WMVC in July 2019.

The Wellington Male Voice Choir, who will sing at their first 2023 concert on 7 May. Photo: Supplied. ranging from children to seniors, high school choirs, church choirs and professional ensembles. He made his operatic conducting debut when he was granted the honour of being the first conductor apprentice to conduct an opera, Cavalleria Rusticana. Originally from South Carolina, Mark moved to Wellington in 2015.