New Membership Fee

We would like to kindly remind you to renew your membership for 2008. To cover the expenditure of our activities, the membership fee for 2008 is changed to:
$20.00 single
$27.50 family
$12.50 unwaged/pensioner/student
You can renew your membership at our meeting in March, or you can send a cheque made out to Dante Society, to our Treasurer: Robyn Black, 48 Huntsbury Avenue, Christchurch, with all your details to update our mailing list.

We would like to thank all the members for the supports over the years, and we hope that you could continue supporting us. Your contribution is our only support!

Dante Event - Italian Concert & Dinner at The Akaroa Music Festival

Gaiety Hall, Akaroa, Wed.30 Jan

This Festival is a brand new concept, set up by teachers of the University of Canterbury School of Music. It’s a one-week event, with music master classes, and concerts, each concert featuring a country: French, Spanish, Korean, and Italian nights.
During the interval, a national themed buffet will be available, with separate ticket (you can go to the concert without the dinner, but you cannot go to the dinner without the concert).
As fund raising for the Children School, the Dante Society has undertaken the task of catering for the event for the Italian night. Tickets can be purchased through Tiketek, or as door sale.


Italian Night with "Il racolto" and Brigitte Murray
Italian music - brightly coloured, individualistic, coonfident, stylish, arrestingly decorated bubbling with enthusiasm and spirit. Il Raccolto will perform most popular and famous composers of the Italian period authentic in an authentic Baroque style. Maurice Till, one of NZ's most accomplished pianists who has appeared on stages all over the world for the past 60 years with artists such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopt and Pierre Fournier will accompany the stunning soprano Brigitte Murray in the second half of this concert. Dinner: a selection of pasta dishes, mixed salad, panettone.
Tickets: $20 adult, $18 senior, $12 child & student. Italian dinner: $25. Cash Bar available for drinks.

Please make your reservation as soon as possible. Dinner reservation closes 3 days before the event, door sales are available for the concert. Please come to support our Children’s School, and enjoy a wonderful night in charming Akaroa! For more information, please visit: http://www.akaroafestival.org.nz

Gusto Italiano - Canterbury Farmers Market

Come and visit the Canterbury Farmers Market on Saturday mornings and you can purchase the wonderfully cooked authentic Italian dipping/pasta sauces (sugo alla norma, pesto genovese etc.) and calzoni there for very reasonable prices from Andrea and Brunella.

Canterbury Farmers Market is held at the Riccarton House and Bush (opposite to Christchurch Boys' High School) every Saturday morning from 9am to 12pm. Click here for the map.

UC Summer Course - ITAL 101 Beginners' Italian

For any current Canterbury student who wishes to get some extra credits in university during the summer and get a solid foundation in the Italian language, the "ITAL 101 - Beginner's Italian" is offerred again this year.
Starting from 7 Jan, This 1.5 month long course offers a serious introduction to Italian language in reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension.
For more information, visit the course website.

If you wish to enrol, please go to the Registry on 7 Jan. The enrolment has to be complete on that day.

Dante Event - Luca Manghi's CD

The CD recording of Luca Manghi and Madoka Ochi's successful concert "Italy Meet Japan" is released now. It was a recital of Italian and Japanese music, classic and contemporary, by Auckland based Italian flautist Luca Manghi and Paris based Japanese pianist Madoka Ochi.
For those who’ve missed the concert in September, and for those who were there and just loved it, this professional recording CD is available for only $20 ($3 of which are donated back to Dante Society). It makes a wonderful Christmas gift!
The easiest way to get a copy of your own is to come and visit the Dante stall at the Arts Centre Christmas Festival on 9 Dec., or contact Wilma (laryn@xtra.co.nz; 3379337) or Luca (lucamanghi@yahoo.fr).
Listen to the Cartolina program on 12 and 17 December for Luca’s presentation of one of the most engaging pieces in the concert: Romanzo d’Orcia, inspired by the Val d’Orcia in Tuscany which is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Life Membership - Fiona Macmillan

At the AGM Fiona Macmillan was awarded a life membership for her services to the Dante. Fiona has been a member of the Dante since its inception in 1960. She was the Dante Librarian for nearly thirty years and she has also been the Treasurer and the President. Her first period as librarian was from 1960-1963, before she left to live overseas. She took up the position again in 1978 and carried on through to the end of 2003. For many years she stored the library books in her house, and she would bring a selection of books to the monthly meetings. Older members can remember Fiona arriving at the meetings with several bags of books and taking them home again afterwards. In 2004 after she had retired as librarian she helped with a project to catalogue the library, and did most of the cataloguing work.

Fiona was presented with two certificates at the AGM, one in English and one in Italian. The text of the Italian version was:

La Società Dante Alighieri di Christchurch è lieta di conferire a Fiona McMillan il titolo di membro onorario a vita del Comitato Dante di Christchurch. Fiona ha svolto varie ruoli nella Dante come Membro del Comitato, Tesoriere, e Presidente. Ma è soprattutto con la sua ventennale attività di Bibliotecaria, che Fiona ha conquistato la riconoscenza e l'affetto di tutti gli Amici della Dante, andando ben oltre quanto richiesto da tale carica.