The Friday of AWE is always a popular evening with two wonderful free AWE+ events before the main festival programme.

Radiance explores music drawn along the threshold between presence and distance, memory and vastness. From the incomprehensible scale of deep space to the intimacy of nocturnal reflection, musical lines drift, suspend, and hover between what is present and what is remembered, what is near and what lies beyond the reach of human scale. 

Programme

• Michael Norris Deep Field II for violin and live electronics
• Franz Schubert Notturno for violin, cello and piano 
• Krzysztof Penderecki String Quartet No.3 ‘Leaves from an Unwritten Diary’
• Arvo Pärt Summa for string quartet
• Caroline Shaw Entr’acte for string quartet

Performers

• Benjamin Baker, Justine Cormack, Florian Donderer, Marike Kruup & Monique Lapins- Violin
• Matthew Lipman & Julia Joyce - Viola
• Tanja Tetzlaff & Matthias Balzat - Cello
• David Fung - Piano 

AWE+ | Emerging Artist Showcase, 4:45pm - 5:30pm

 An AWE+ Free Performance showcasing our 2026 Emerging Artists.

Free entry

AWE+ | Winterstellar: At the Edge of the Universe, 6:30pm - 7pm

 
An AWE+ Free Talk from Emeritus Professor Brian J Boyle exploring why Otago is such a special place on the planet for astronomy. Experience the majesty of our night skies, with a little bit of astrophysics and cosmology thrown in.

This talk will take place prior to the evening’s Radiance performance at Te Atamira, Queenstown.

Free entry