composer, sound artist
Following the cancellation of the festivals in Nelson and Wellington, the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts has announced that the chamber music programme will be presented online.
Manaaki, composed with Ariana Tikao, for Horomona Horo and the New Zealand String Quartet, will be available from 18 March – see the Festival’s website for details. The concert also features music by Gillian Whitehead and Amy Beach.
I’m very happy to announce performances of a new work, Manaaki, for taonga puoro and string quartet. The piece is a collaborative composition with Ariana Tikao, and it’s great to be working together with Ariana again. Thanks also to the NZ String Quartet for commissioning us, and for their assistance with the compositional process.
Manaaki is a key concept within te ao Māori, and means ‘to support, take care of, give hospitality to, protect, show respect, and generosity for others’. This piece takes inspiration from the pōwhiri process, the ritual of encounter that typically happens on marae, where mana whenua welcome in the manuhiri. This should uphold the mana of the home people as well as acknowledge and enhance the mana of the people entering.
The premiere (Covid willing) is part of the Adam Summer Celebration, in Nelson, with Bob Bickerton playing taonga puoro.
Sunday 6 February 7.30 pm, Nelson Centre of Musical Arts
There is a second performance in the Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts, in Wellington, with Horomona Horo.
Thursday 10 March, 7:30 pm, St Mary of the Angels, Wellington
Manaaki was commissioned by Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts
Nelson Symphony Orchestra’s next concert, on 27 July, includes a performance of Ko te tātai whetū, featuring Ariana Tikao and Bob Bickerton as soloists. I’m really looking forward to another performance of this piece, and to working with Ariana and Bob to put the performance together.
The programme also includes music by Chris Adams and Douglas Lilburn.
27 July 2019, 7:30 pm
Nelson Centre of Musical Arts
Details and bookings here
Stroma’s next concert, Tātai Whetū, is a programme of works for taonga puoro and ensemble. Featuring Ariana Tikao and Alistair Fraser, performing music by Ariana Tikao, Philip Brownlee, Dylan Lardelli, Tristan Carter, Gillian Whitehead, and Hirini Melbourne.
The programme includes a new version for chamber ensemble of Ko te tātai whetū. The smaller forces have allowed us to free it up a lot, so that the ensemble players can follow the taonga puoro in improvisation. It’s striking how a second strand of taonga puoro multiplies the richness of the palette. Rehearsals are underway, and it’s sounding great.
The concert is at the Hannah Playhouse (Wellington), Wednesday 28 June, 7:30 pm.
Further details:
Stroma’s website
A video of the premiere of Ko te tātai whetū is now online:
Performed by Ariana Tikao, with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ben Northey.
Recorded at the Airforce Museum, Wigram, Christchurch, on 13 June 2015.
Audio recorded by Radio New Zealand Concert, filmed and edited by Chris Watson for the Resound Project for SOUNZ.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the project, and especially to Ariana for the rich collaborative relationship. I wonder what else we might make together.
I’ve been collaborating with Ariana Tikao on a concerto for taonga pūoro and orchestra. The piece was commissioned by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and we’re very grateful for their support and commitment to the project. We’ve also been working with Dr Richard Nunns, and it’s been wonderful to work with Richard again.
Ko te tātai whetū will have its premiere on Saturday 13 June, at the Air Force Museum of NZ, in Wigram.
Details of the concert are here.
It’s that time of year again. Ben Hoadley is presenting a concert of woodwind music by New Zealand composers at St Andrews on the Terrace in Wellington.
Rowena Simpson and Kamala Bain will be performing Night Countdown, and the programme also includes pieces by Douglas Lilburn, Helen Fisher, Robbie Ellis, James Gardner, and Ross Harris.
Wednesday 13 May, 12:15 pm
St Andrews on the Terrace, Wellington
Free entry
There’s also a concert in Auckland on Friday 15 May, with a different programme.
My friends Rowena Simpson (soprano) and Kamala Bain (recorders) are giving two concerts in Wellington next week. The programme is titled Travelling Spirits, and features old and new music for voice and recorder.
The new music includes pieces by Nicola LeFanu, John Rodgers, Karel van Steenhoven, Lyell Cresswell, Dorothy Ker, Helen Fisher, as well as the première of my new piece, Night Countdown, commissioned by Rowena and Kamala.
The concerts are:
Wednesday 29 October, 12.15-1.00pm at St Marks Church, 58 Woburn Rd, Lower Hutt
Sunday 2 November, 2.00-3.00pm at Futuna Chapel, Friend St, Karori, Wellington
There’s a review of the New Zealand Music for Woodwind concert on the Middle C site, written by Frances Robinson.
It seems she enjoyed Stolen Time:
The piece unfolded as a delicate counterpoint between the two solo voices, opening with a spare unison melody that evoked, for me, images of Fiordland bush in the dead of night. There we can indeed steal time from our over-busy urban lives, and listen to the enquiring bird calls that cut into the matchless silence of the rainforest. The recorder floated on top with light, trilling, fluid lines, over intermittent calls from a Kiwi exploring a few notes outside its normal range, and the occasional honk of a bittern. All closed into the night time silence with another spare, fading unison line…… I was left hoping that we will hear more of Philip Brownlee’s wind writing in future.
I’m intrigued by the way she’s formed an interpretation that relates the sounds of the music to something from her own experience. From the composer’s point of view, I’d call that a success, at least for this particular listener.
Ben Hoadley’s annual New Zealand Music for Woodwind concert is coming up on 14 May.
This year it features music by Kenneth Young, Gillian Whitehead, Natalie Hunt, and the première of my new piece, Stolen Time, for recorder and dulcian, written for Ben and Kamala Bain.
The concert’s part of the St Andrew’s on the Terrace Lunchtime Concert Series:
Wednesday 14 May, 12:15 pm, St Andrews on the Terrace, Wellington.
And it’s free.