Calling Home this week is Dunedin-born tenor Nicholas Madden. He's a Lay Clerk at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and lives in the castle grounds.

That beautiful Christmas tune - Prokofiev's Troika - and others will be played live this weekend and next by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in their interactive family concert series APO 4 Kids Christmas. The concerts are designed especially for the little ones, they're full of Yuletide favourites AND audience get the chance to walk through the orchestra while they're playing Nathan Rarere asked APO's Thomas Hamill what to expect.

Sound artist and composer Jesse Austin-Stewart has created an album of music vibration compositions, designed to be felt rather than heard. By holding a PlayStation Dualsense controller, the music can be experienced through the way changing patterns feel against your palms. Jesse is one of the 2022 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard award winners, and has produced music with more than 1 million streams. For Music for PlayStation he's worked with the hearing-impaired community to create these works which will be available on streaming sites from 25 November. As someone with a disability, he tells Lynn Freeman that he wanted to create music that offers a shared experience for everyone.

The Mosgiel Brass Band celebrated their 150th Anniversary over the weekend. Front and centre was Barbara Cooper, who's been playing in brass bands for 70 years. Barbara speaks to Jesse.

When immigrants arrived in New Zealand in the Nineteenth Century, they brought with them some enthusiastic musician / composers. Their success rate was a bit hit or miss, according to composer and musicologist Philip Norman, who's about to deliver a talk about our early composers.

Wellington based, Filipino-born bassist and composer Seth Boy often combines the musical influences of his home country and of jazz greats like Duke Ellington, and John Coltrane in his work. Seth has a new work commissioned for Wellington's upcoming Jazz Festival. Farewell, Sweet Stranger is the name of the piece that touches on his feeling of being disconnected from the Philippines, and his concern about losing touch with his roots. Lynn Freeman speaks with Seth Boy - who's also the principal bassist of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band. Seth Boy is performing as part of Sunday Mixtape - three different commissioned performances one after the other, at the Opera House on Sunday 23 October, as part of the Wellington Jazz Festival.

Winning this year's $50,000 Dame Malvina Major Award is allowing Christchurch tenor Oliver Sewell to live the dream and forge an international career. Oliver's currently in Europe after recently winning first place in the Vincerò Worldwide Opera Competition in Naples, competing against 30 finalists in front of an international panel of judges. It was the award money that made it possible for him to attend the competition in Italy, and will help to fund his plans to move to Europe next year, with all the associated costs of travel, lessons and accommodation. Lynn Freeman spoke to him on the line to Dresden in Germany, and he explained why the Dame Malvina Major Award and the competition win have come at a pivotal point in his career.

Grounded in the Celtic musical traditions, multi-instrumentalist Rennie Pearson is about to head around the North Island as he releases his new solo album filled with traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and Maritime.

Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha University of Canterbury Librarian Lisa Davies (Kai Tahu) is determined to make te reo more accessible. She's also a jazz musician, so she's brought both together. She's part of Nga Reo Tioriori, a collective of Maori jazz musicians who'll be performing a gala concert at the Christchurch Big Band Festival next month.

NZ Barok - New Zealand's Baroque instrument orchestra is about to reunite after a lengthy hiatus, putting their own spin on famous and lesser-known examples of Baroque - classical music of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. . Graham McPhail is co-artistic director of NZ Barok, and a professor in early music at University of Auckland's School of Music. The orchestra members are leading Baroque specialists from all over the motu and are coming together to play three concerts alongside eight Baroque singers. Lynn Freeman spoke with Graham about Baroque music, in particular the music of Bach and Handel. NZ Barok's Court to Cathedral concert takes place at St Luke's Church in Remuera in Tamaki Makaurau for 3 nights starting on September 30.