The founder of the Nivara Lounge with a passion for live music performance
“As far as the music goes, I love live performance, it is more a performance venue.”
It was a sunny afternoon when I first walked into Nivara Lounge. I didn’t pay too much attention to the sign on Victoria Street but the posters for the upcoming live jazz performance on the wall successfully caught my eyeballs. Walking down the 12 stairs under a vintage chandelier to the basement is like walking into a time tunnel back to the 90s, when everyone was searching the best live music performance from the underground.
“My passion is always here, I always love music”, said Ivan Muir.
He came up with the name Nivara by picking the letters from his full name back in the 90s and the current Nivara Lounge was formed in 2014. This is the only place in Hamilton that encourages anyone to perform their original songs, standup comedy and other talents on stage instead of playing cover music. Anyone can perform on the stage with all necessary equipment covered, it is also a platform for musicians to promote their own music at the Nivara Lounge by having direct contact with their fans.
“I have many kiwi artists on stage that are better than a lot of international artists”, said Ivan.
Nivara is well known as the seedbed of music in Hamilton. The lounge hosts up to 200 gigs a year, is also a stop for international musicians to perform while they are touring in New Zealand. The platform helped one unnamed band in the early stages of their career by performing at the lounge and now the 110 capacity of Nivara would no longer fit all their fans in the basement.2020 was a difficult year for Nivara when the health and safety protocols directly affected the numbers of audiences attending the live gigs. Ivan came up a new project to clear a path for Nivara: livestream. Nivara Lounge is going to launch the first livestream musical performance in New Zealand, a solution to avoid mass gatherings during the pandemic, also an effective way to reach a larger audience based all around the world instead of the Hamilton audience only.
Nivara shows Ivan’s the passion for music , how his innovative ideas adapted to changes from reality and overcame all difficulties All this has allowed him to continue to pursue his dream.
