At the end of last year I had the opportunity to create a soundscape for a new contemporary dance work “Whenua” by Karen Barbour.
The work was premiered at a conference at Waikato University.
In the recording and creation of this piece I had the privilege of working with Alistair Fraser playing his selection of taonga puoro. We recorded his parts at the University of Otago Music Department Albany Street Studios with Stephen Stedman.
Have a listen to an edited remix version of the piece below:
Yesterday marked the start of a week for premieres including:
– He korokoro tūī : a soundscape for a site-specific dance work by Karen Barbour, featuring taonga puoro by Alistair Fraser. This will be premiered at a conference held at Waikato University.
– Flutter and Cut Away the Masts on Saturday at the Otago Museum.
But first, was the premiere of a new vocal piece L.O.Q.Shun premiered on Radio NZ on Sunday afternoon during the Standing Room Only show. It was part of a larger interview about my ongoing work as the Mozart Fellow.
You can check out the full interview here:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/remote-player?id=20158331
This piece was developed through discussions with the singer Julia Booth about the work of Alexander Melville Bell on the study of elocution. We started talking about creating a loop-based performance piece in November 2013, and finally ended up in November 2014 with a completed recording of the work!
Here the work in the audio player below:
Monday 22nd September was the day I submitted my PhD. After 4 years and 205 days; many hours of music; multiple thousands of words – I am very pleased to have this thing done… or at least done until the examiners look at it.
Now that I have some extra time on my hands it means I can really get stuck in on a few new projects, and finishing of some older projects… like the live recording of the premiere performance of ‘Late Song’.
Late Song: was commissioned by the Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship Programme – a cross-disciplinary multimedia piece to be performed by a range of Hillary Scholars.
The work is based on the poem ‘Late Song’ by Lauris Dorothy Edmond, and the performance was directed by Karen Barbour.
Featuring: Blaire White, Andrew Leathwick, Lauren Grout, Rachel Twyman, Nathaniel Smorti, Anne Mahon, Jonathon Eyres, Niamh Lovelock, Hannah Martin, Megan Harrop, Leah Parkinson, Samantha Rowe, Te Tira O Rangi Nikora, Kaharau Keogh, Hannah West, Cian Gardner.
Here is the mix from the live recording of the premiere performance:
And here is the background visuals (by Hannah West) from the performance synced with the live recording:
