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Story: Arts festivals

Alfred Hill at the New Zealand International Exhibition, 1906

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Alfred Hill at the New Zealand International Exhibition, 1906

A large audience fills the concert hall at the 1906 New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch. The orchestra is performing the Exhibition ode composed by Alfred Hill, the orchestra's conductor. Johannes Carl Andersen, the scholar and critic, was the lyricist. Hill and his orchestra played twice a day at the exhibition, often performing works that had never been heard before in New Zealand and introducing many people to classical music. 

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Alexander Turnbull Library, Steffano Webb Collection (PAColl-3061)

Reference: 1/1-005291-G

by Steffano Francis Webb

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Marguerite Hill, Arts festivals – Beginnings of festivals in New Zealand, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/45213/alfred-hill-at-the-new-zealand-international-exhibition-1906 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Marguerite Hill, published 13 May 2014, updated 1 August 2016.