On a grey Friday morning at a Hawke’s Bay farm, members of New Zealand’s symphony orchestra dressed in their black finery and stood in the dewy grass to premiere their latest composition in front of a large, well-plumed crowd.

However, no feather were ruffled by this departure from tradition – as the audience that gathered to listen to the concert last week was in fact a couple of thousand chickens.

“They didn’t like any big banging,” Bostock said, adding that when the birds respond positively to the music, they tend to range further among the trees.

We’re not like that … we wanted to make sure that we are an organisation that can have some fun,” Biggs said, adding that it was important to the symphony to collaborate with businesses that it felt were innovative and ethical.

Seeing the orchestra set up in the grass to play for its live chicken audience was “a significant moment” for Bostock, while Biggs found it “very uplifting”.

“I hoped this music would be a bridge between baroque being from a very removed and formal world, with chickens being right at the feet of the performers … and I was glad to see that happen.”

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