Little Prayers is presented at Lōemis Festival on Saturday 13 June 2026 at 6:00 pm, in the Hall of Memories at the National War Memorial, Pukeahu Park, Pōneke.

One of this year’s most powerful events is Little Prayers, which includes a song cycle piece by pianist and composer Norman Meehan, performed with vocalist Hannah Griffin and a small chamber ensemble in the Hall of Memories at the National War Memorial. The work sets poems by Bill Manhire, centred on his 2016 sequence Known Unto God, written for the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, and framed by Huia and Little Prayers – texts shaped by profound loss, the extinction of a native bird and the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.

For MNZ interview with Norman Meehan