Highlights from The Big Bang
Kora
Strike
Batterie100
Toni Huata
Combined Wellington Community Choirs
On 20 February 2014, Wellington welcomed the world to the 2014 New Zealand Festival with this spectacular opening night event in a packed Civic Square.
With thousands of people taking every conceivable vantage point to enjoy the amazing spectacle, The Big Bang starred the Batterie100, consisting of 200 young New Zealanders from Wellington, Christchurch and South Auckland, together with 20 Cook Islanders in a drumming group led by internationally acclaimed percussion ensemble Strike, taking to the stage alongside 250 singers from community choirs across the region, and top Kiwi band Kora, who layered their own special blend of future-shocked funk, soul and R’n’B into the mix.
The performers, positioned on three staging areas encircling the audience, played a fully integrated program, joining in on each others repertoire, adding their own styles and flavours, and creating a fully immersive, seamless, dynamic and totally awe inspiring production.
ABOUT STRIKE:
For nearly 20 years, Strike have been New Zealand’s premiere percussion ensemble, and one of the country’s most successful cultural exports. They regularly tour throughout the world presenting their unique and exhilarating percussion stage shows – ‘In The Cube’, ‘Elemental’ and ‘Between Zero and One’.  Strike performs with groups as diverse as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal NZ Ballet, and rock band Kora. Highlight performances include the Shanghai International Arts Festival, Seoul International Percussion Festival and performing with Hayley Westenra at the 2011 Rugby World Cup Final.
Renowned also for their education work, Strike have presented their hugely popular schools shows to more than one million NZ students of all ages and their flagship BATTERIE100 programme sees them working with 100 kids from all over NZ in a year long development programme. Â
In demand as educators throughout the world, they have conducted their ground breaking ensemble class program at some of the world’s most prestigious music institutions, including the Royal Schools of Music in London & Manchester, Paris Conservatoire, Korean National University, Singapore Institute of The Arts, and the Australian National University.
Strike was awarded a medal for their teaching programs in the 2012 New Zealander of the Year Awards.
Strike won the NZ Classical Recording of the year in 2001 and they were nominated for the same award in 2010 for Sketches.
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