Written by Len Salt and Anna Dunwoodie
A concert by highly acclaimed and award winning Breton harpist and singer, Kevin Le Pennec, on 20 March saw a small but really keen audience turnout at the Monkey House Lounge and Cabaret.
Kevin is in Aotearoa primarily as a guest at Harp Fest NZ 2026, which is organised by Harps Aotearoa Foundation. Harp Fest NZ Artistic Director Anna Dunwoodie is also responsible for lining up tours for visiting harpists, which is a fantatstic chance to get world class musicians into our smaller centres.
We are incredibly lucky to have the wide variety of musical and visual art experiences that are offered to us on the Coromandel Peninsula. You don’t have to drive to the city for world class local and international performers – they are brought to us.
We often hear from local community groups and venues that the turn out wasn’t that great.
“What’s going on? Has the internet, pay-TV and easy access to online entertainment, combined with post-COVID-times, weather events and the price of petrol made staying at home and commenting on social media the best alternative to actually getting out and engaging with the arts?”
With our close and extremely talented community everyone knows of someone who is involved in the arts – be it the venues, the organisations or the artists themselves. Getting by in this climate is incredibly hard for them. So let’s support them, get out there, and take advantage of the priviledge of all the talent at our doorstep!
For the Monkey House concert Kevin was supported by SaltWood (Len Salt and Anna Dunwoodie) and it was clear to see the audience was completely enthralled by Kevin’s sparkling performance, complete with ‘Elton John’esque glasses and shimmery purple shirt and shoes. And language was no barrier with every song sung in French, Kevin’s introductions prepared the audience for the general storyline and the musical elements, such as specific Breton rhythms or traditional idiom.
At the Monkey House, Molly and Kaspar do an amazing job supporting the artist, and managing to just keep themselves afloat at the same time, providing a huge range of entertainment options from clairvoyants to punk rock bands and everything in between, with a licenced bar and food options, inhouse sound system, fantastic promotion of the artist, these guys a handle on how to make the best of any great entertainment that comes to Whitianga.
Another international guest from Harp Fest NZ 2026 will be performing at 2pm, at St George’s Church on Sunday 12 April for the Thames Music Group. Anne-Marie O’Farrell (Ireland) specialised in both traditional Celtic harp, and classical pedal harp. Don’t be surprised to hear her perform a jazz number, complete with very complicated changes of levers, or sing and accompany herself in a traditional Irish song. Anne-Marie’s impressive range of harp skills extend beyond that of most harpists, and she is an award winning composer of harp, voice, choir and orchestra music – and any combination of these things.
The Thames Music Group has 49 years of supporting the local music community and while you can expect to pay upwards of $50 in the city for any of the performers or ensembles appearing in the Sunday concerts, an adult ticket for the concerts is only $20, with the members price of $15 and under 18 years can attend free. It’s surprising not to see more young musicians attending Sunday concerts at no cost. It may be in this busy world that we don’t truly appreciate the value of some of these things unless it comes with a hefty price tag. Check out the Thames Music Group concerts in 2026 on their website – Friday lunchtime concerts are koha only, and Sundays are the aforementioned ticket prices. There is a good variety of different genre, and the local musicians are well represented.
