APRAP WEB June 2005..

New Zealand’s Bio and Musical diversity celebrated
in California
It is a little known fact that the largest collection of New Zealand
plants outside of this country is to be found in the Ed Landels
New Zealand Garden of the Arboretum at the University of
California, Santa Cruz, USA.
May 15 was declared ‘New Zealand Day’ there and in a
collaboration between NZ composer Jack Body, the New Music
Works performance ensemble from the USA and the Arboretum
at UCSC a celebration of the ‘Culture, Music, & Botanical Diversity
of New Zealand’ was held. Throughout the afternoon and evening
visitors wandering in the NZ Garden heard recordings of New
Zealand birdsong as well as Glass Music (Douglas Lilburn) and
Aeolian Harp Sounds (Chris Cree Brown) among the plantings.
Richard Nunns informed visitors of the use of indigenous plants
for medicine and food before joining the Arboretum Choir, New
Music Works, Hera Black-Taute and Mareta Taute in a performance
entitled Encounters with Indigenous Aotearoa! The programme
included a karanga and waiata, and works by David Farquhar,
Gillian Whitehead, Philip Brownlee and Jack Body, several
involving Richard Nunns on taonga püoro. Following a hangi and
New Zealand wine, patrons experienced a concert of film and
electro-acoustic work called Confronting Inscapes / Landscapes.
Works included The Return by Douglas Lilburn, City Respirations
by Matthew Lambourn, Mosaic (Water) by Ross Harris, Soundscape
with Lake and River by Douglas Lilburn, Say, by John Cousins, a
finalist in the 2004 SOUNZ Contemporary Award, and Generation,
David Downes’ award-winning experimental film.
Voices of taonga püoro gathering in strength
After decades of being barely audible the voices of taonga püoro
are gathering in strength and resonance. Richard Nunns together
with instrument maker Brian Flintoff and the late Hirini Melbourne
spent much of the last 30 years travelling the length of New Zealand
talking to elders about traditional ways of Maori music making.
Through expert craftsmanship and musicianship they gave breath
to over 90 voices that hadn’t been heard for generations, and
dispelled the notion that there were few if any traditional Maori
instruments. Richard’s involvement in the Santa Cruz NZ Day was
part of a ‘world tour’ for taonga püoro! During May he also visited
several major centres in Germany and included a visit to Poland
as the guest of the Polish Institute of Ethnology. In November /
December he will join the New Zealand String Quartet on one of
their North American tours which will also include performances
of Hine-pü-te-hue by Gillian Whitehead for taonga püoro and
string quartet.
Here in New Zealand, a ten day conference - Kei Kona Te Ha
Me Te Wairua - There the Breath with the Spirit - was held in
Rotorua in March and Concert FM has also launched a new radio
series called He Ara Püoro (A Pathway of Song) comprising a
series of audio portraits of taonga püoro, each about eight minutes
long. The series is being broadcast nation-wide on weekdays just
after the news at midday and at 5:00 pm.
New Zealand Music Month
New Zealand Music Month 2005 has come and gone. The SOUNZ
website listed some 45 events in ‘contemporary classical’ music
for May - many of them with multiple performances and including
18 world premieres! The month really started with a kick with six
premieres in the first week.
Sneaking in on the eve of NZ Music Month, Maria Grenfell’s
Hutia te rito o te harakeke helped officially launch MENZA (Music
Education New Zealand Aotearoa). On the following day the New
Zealand String Quartet gave the world premiere of John Psathas’
new work, Kartsigar. A commission from the Wellington Chamber
Music Society in honour of their 60th Anniversary year the piece
is based on transcriptions of traditional improvisation-based Greek
music and incorporates a
wonderful and exciting blend of
Greek traditional, jazz and
contemporary classical elements.
On the same day, southward in
Wanaka, the inaugural Festival of
Colour wound up with concerts
in the afternoon and evening.
1
Pianist Michael Houstoun
presented a ‘Home’ concert
playing works by Douglas Lilburn,
Michael Norris, John Psathas and
the premiere of Kenneth Young’s
Five Pieces for piano. In the
evening, a concert by the Central
Otago Regional Choir and Central
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Otago Regional Orchestra
presented the world premiere of
Rachel Clement’s Taking Off. This
work was a SOUNZ Community
Commission, an annual project
managed through SOUNZ, in
which professional composers and
community groups are brought
together. Wanaka’s own Hannah
Curwood also had a world
premiere at the concert with a
choral work called High Country.
3
The celebration of New Zealand
music exemplified in NZ Music
Month was also expressed superbly in an extraordinary concert
in Wellington on Friday 6 May. The NZSO performed a Made in
NZ programme to a highly appreciative and diverse audience in
the Wellington Town Hall. The programme comprised of Vulcan
by John Rimmer, Maria Grenfell’s flute concerto Maui Tikitiki A
Taranga (played with considerable authority by Bridget Douglas),
the iconic Harbour Nocturne by Larry Pruden, Michael Norris’
2004 Lilburn Prize-winning piece Rays of the Sun, Shards of the
Moon and the self-conducted premiere performance of Kenneth
Young’s Second Symphony. By turns these works revealed not
only what fine musicians and composers this country is nurturing,
but also just how far NZ music has come in the last few decades.
Centre for NZ Music (trading as SOUNZ)
PO Box 10042, Wellington, NZ.
Street address: Level 1, 39 Cambridge Terrace
Phone: 64-4-801 8602, Fax: 64-4-801 8604
Email: info@sounz.org.nz Website: www.sounz.org.nz
1 THE NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET, (FROM LEFT, STANDING) HELENE POHL, DOUGLAS BEILMAN, GILLIAN
ANSELL (OBSCURED) AND ROLF GJELSTEN INVITED COMPOSER JOHN PSATHAS TO INTRODUCE HIS NEW
WORK KARTSIGAR. THE WORK, COMMISSIONED BY THE WELLINGTON CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY IN CELEBRATION
OF THEIR 60TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR, WAS ONE OF FIVE WORLD PREMIERES OF NEW ZEALAND MUSIC HELD
IN JUST THE FIRST WEEKEND OF NEW ZEALAND MUSIC MONTH 2005. 2 NZ COMPOSERS IN A NZ GARDEN
IN THE USA! NZ DAY IN SANTA CRUZ. 3 RICHARD NUNNS – PERFORMER AND PROTAGONIST FOR TAONGA
PÜORO. CREATED IN NZ, HEARD AROUND THE WORLD!
APRAP June 2005
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