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70 <strong>Style</strong> | Promotion<br />
AN AWE-INSPIRING<br />
MUSIC FESTIVAL<br />
Director of At The World’s Edge Festival and well-known New Zealand violinist Justine Cormack<br />
shares some highlights from this year’s AWE experience.<br />
chamber music festival in the heart of the Southern<br />
A Alps, At the World’s Edge Festival is for one and all<br />
– whether lifelong enthusiasts or curious adventurers new<br />
to classical music.<br />
With six intertwined festival programmes involving strings,<br />
piano and voice, this year’s festival presents 31 musical<br />
works charting an exploration of the roles that solitude and<br />
togetherness play in the creative process.<br />
Firstly, what exactly is chamber music?<br />
Chamber music is a type of classical music that involves a<br />
small ensemble of classical musicians, with one instrument<br />
to a part. This year’s AWE Festival includes both solo and<br />
duo performances, right through to groups of six to eight<br />
musicians playing together.<br />
Designed for smaller spaces, the audience experiences<br />
the musicians ‘up close’: being drawn into the most delicate<br />
of sounds yet blown away by the power of it all. It’s a<br />
wonderfully visceral experience.<br />
Where does AWE take place?<br />
We perform in three acoustically stunning spaces across<br />
the Central Lakes – The Rippon Hall in Wānaka, The<br />
Cloudy Bay Shed in Cromwell, and Te Atamira, a new arts<br />
and culture space in Queenstown. All three venues give<br />
our performers a dramatic backdrop of Central Otago<br />
landscapes: an awe-inspiring experience, to say the least.<br />
What are some of the highlights in this year’s festival?<br />
We have an incredible line-up of international festival<br />
artists coming from all over the globe. In addition to some<br />
of the best musicians from New Zealand and Australia,<br />
award-winning Polish cellist Maciej Kulakowski is performing<br />
in New Zealand for the first time. We’re also bringing back<br />
London-based Kiwi singer Julien Van Mellaerts to perform<br />
in the first three programmes.<br />
I’m excited to have Gareth Farr as this year’s Composer<br />
in Residence. We’ll be performing seven of his works<br />
through the festival, featuring the full gamut of his musical<br />
imagination, from his trademark toe-tapping and driving<br />
rhythms to his soaring and breathtaking melodies.<br />
All six festival programmes weave together the most<br />
stunning and moving music, culminating in Schoenberg’s<br />
glorious string sextet, Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night).<br />
Simply put, it’s unearthly beautiful. I predict there won’t be<br />
a dry eye in the house.<br />
Our six festival programmes across Wānaka, Cromwell<br />
and Queenstown run from October 8-16, as well as<br />
multiple free events in the area until October 21.<br />
For full event information, visit worldsedgefestival.com.
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