RNZ Concert gives you the gift of music from around the world to soundtrack your summer festive season.
As well as seasonal music sprinkled across the day, Music Alive presents several special concerts celebrating Christmas and the New Year in New Zealand. Here is what you can listen to, and when:
Sofi Jeannin Photo: K.Miura, ex agent website www.hazardchase.co.uk
The O Antiphons with the BBC Singers
On-air: 8 pm Wednesday 17 December 2025
Tonight’s broadcast marks a specific point in the countdown to Christmas. In the liturgical calendar, December 17th is the traditional start of the 'O Antiphons', the seven ancient titles for Christ that are sung before the Magnificat in the final days of Advent. To mark the occasion, we head to St Paul's, Knightsbridge in London for a performance that reimagines this ancient tradition through a purely contemporary lens.
The BBC Singers, conducted by Sofi Jeannin, present a sequence by British composer Cecilia McDowall with settings by eight other distinctive female voices from around the world. Accompanying the choir is organist Ashley Grote.
- Radio Exclusive
Celebrate Christmas with Auckland Philharmonia
On Air: 8pm Thursday 18 December 2025
Tenor Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono joins The Graduate Choir New Zealand and the Auckland Philharmonia for a concert of seasonal music in Auckland's Holy Trinity Cathedral. Terence Maskell & Stephen Layton conduct. (RNZ, 2024)
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Celebrate Christmas concert in Holy Trinity Cathedral. Photo: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Hodie! Christmas with The Tudor Consort
On-air: 8pm Friday 19 December 2025
The Tudor Consort begins this performance with a traditional procession into Wellington’s Cathedral of St. Paul singing the ancient chant 'Hodie! Christus natus est!', opening a concert of Christmas anthems and motets.
Music Director Michael Stewart constructed the programme around Poulenc’s 'Four Motets for Christmas Time'.
Written in the middle of the twentieth century, each motet is set in a different scene from the nativity: In the manger surrounded by farm animals, in the fields with shepherds speaking to angels, the three magi rejoicing as they follow the star, and of course, the joy in heaven at Christ’s birth.
Each of these motets sets ancient Latin texts that composers have used throughout the centuries. Paired with Poulenc’s modern settings, the concert features settings by composers from Palestrina, de Lassus, Victoria and Sweelinck are also joined by modern composers including Berg, Distler, and Howells.
There is even an opportunity for the audience sing along with the choir in some well-known carols.
- Useful things to know:
- Find out more about one these concerts or 'listen now' by clicking on the link below it on this page.
- Find out what music we're playing on the radio by visiting the RNZ Concert Schedules pages here.
- From late January 2026 Music Alive will start at the earlier time of 7pm Monday - Saturday on RNZ Concert.
Messiah - NZSO
On-air: 7pm Saturday 20 December 2025
Hundreds of years after its creation, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ is still a treasured part of the annual musical calendar. Performances all over the world offer listeners a chance to experience some of Handel’s most sublime music. This one is by Emma Pearson (soprano), Deborah Humble (alto), Lila Crichton (tenor), Samson Setu (bass), The Tudor Consort, New Zealand SO/Umberto Clerici recorded by RNZ Concert in 2022.
Jacqui Dark and Benjamin Northey Photo: Supplied
Christmas Pops from the NZSO
On-air: 8pm Monday 22 December 2025
Presented by charismatic Australian mezzo-soprano Jacqui Dark and conducted by Benjamin Northey, the NZSO perform works from classical composers Vaughan Williams, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky – including a selection from his beloved The Nutcracker – alongside the much-loved songs 'Climb Ev’ry Mountain' from The Sound of Music, 'We’re Walking in the Air' from The Snowman and 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas' from the MGM musical Meet Me in St. Louis. Whether it’s the Concert Suite from the animated film The Polar Express or 'Jingle Bells', 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', 'Silent Night' and 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer', Christmas Pops is a great way to celebrate the festive season.
Bach's Christmas Oratorio - NDR Chorus
On-air: 8pm Tuesday 23 December 2025
We head to the Great Hall of the NDR Konzerthaus in Hanover, where Bernard Labadie conducts the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in the first three cantatas of J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.
- Radio Exclusive
Christmas From Around the World with Abel Selaocoe and the BBC Singers
On-air: 8pm Wednesday 24 December 2025
It is Christmas Eve, and we are transporting you to Milton Court in London for a celebration that spans continents. The BBC Singers conducted by Grace Rossiter join forces with South African cellist and vocalist Abel Selaocoe.
Alongside traditional medieval carols, there will be a host of festive repertoire with collaborations between the Singers, Abel and guest instrumentalists, including African drums, piano, double bass and choir.
From the Renaissance polyphony of the Praetorius family to the vibrant rhythms of Nigeria and South Africa, this is a festive journey like no other.
- Radio Exclusive
Photo: New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
Summer Brass from the NZSO
On-air: 8pm Thursday 25 December 2025
Acclaimed Australian conductor and trumpeter Yoram Levy showcases the power and precision of the NZSO brass and percussion musicians in music to stir the soul and ignite the holiday spirit.
Be swept away by Christopher Mowat’s vibrant arrangement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Samuel Barber’s haunting Mutations from Bach, and Henri Tomasi’s theatrical Fanfares Liturgiques, a work that moves between solemnity and splendour with theatrical flair.
To celebrate the festive season, Summer Brass also includes beloved Christmas classics reimagined through the warm, golden tones of a brass ensemble. From jubilant carols to heartwarming melodies, the orchestra delivers holiday favourites like Winter Wonderland, Sleigh Ride, Jingle Bells Swing-a-Ling-Ding, and Joy to the World in all their seasonal glory.
Pictures at an Exhibition - NZSO
On-air: 8pm Monday 29 December 2025
Enjoy a concert where music and art converge. Internationally acclaimed flautist Emily Beynon makes her New Zealand debut in the world premiere of Danses Concertantes - a dazzling flute concerto by French composer Guillaume Connesson.
Then, immerse yourself in Mussorgsky’s timeless Pictures at an Exhibition, a vivid musical journey through the works of Viktor Hartmann.
Auckland Philharmonia during concert with Troy Kingi Photo: Adrian Malloch
Troy Kingi and the Auckland Philharmonia
On-air: 8pm Wednesday 31 December 2025
Our New Year's Eve concert offers a slightly surreal experience which some might find appropriate as a farewell to 2025. This orchestral setting of Māori actor and musician Troy Kingi's psychedelic-soul album, Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way To Zygertron is full of great tunes, fun songs, beautiful orchestrations and infectious beats.
Four Seasons - Pekka Kuusisto with the NZSO
On-air: 8pm Thursday 1 January 2026
New Year's Day RNZ Concert brings the encore broadcast of Settling the Score: Your Choice - listen to music chosen by our audience all day.
For Music Alive today we present one of the most talked-about concerts of 2025 starring a global phenomenon in his Aotearoa debut. Finnish violinist and conductor Pekka Kuusisto performs one of music’s best-loved works, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and he leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in its first ever performance of a glorious symphony by pioneering 19th-century composer Louise Farrenc.
The Four Seasons by Vivaldi is a musical depiction of lazy summer afternoons and brisk winter winds which continue to delight. Kuusisto knows its popularity means audiences come with a variety of expectations.
“If it would be possible to measure what people expect stylistically, my guess is something rather ‘round and soft, gentle’ is still what most people think Vivaldi should sound like. Who am I to say that’s wrong? [But The Four Seasons] is not in a museum. This is like super-active, explosive, aggressive music. Sometimes it needs to be exactly that… I can only play it convincingly the way I think and feel it.”
Mana Moana - NZSO & Signature Choir
Listen on the RNZ Concert website anytime by clicking here
Signature Choir and the NZSO perform songs from Tonga, Samoa, Niue, Tokelau, Fiji and the Cook Islands - popular songs of love, of faith, of Pasifika pride, songs that will bring a tear to your eyes, and make you want to move. Signature Choir conducted by Helen Tupai, NZSO conducted by Brent Stewart
