Welcome to the April issue of the Dawn Chorus events newsletter. We’re looking forward to the orchestra performing its first concert for the year on 17 April, and are delighted that the Te Kōkī Trio, New Zealand School of Music’s ensemble in residence, will perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto under the baton of conductor Kenneth Young.  

Some of our visitors this month include one of Austria's pioneers of electronic music, Elisabeth Schimana; Shlomo Mintz, one of the foremost violinists of our time; star young musicians Jason Bae, Jun Hong Lo and Tony Chen Lin; Hanno Leichtmann, Berlin curator, musician and sound installation artist; Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke; and B3 master Michael Benebig. Phew - grab hold of your pens and get your diaries out!

NZSM ORCHESTRA - TE KŌKĪ TRIPLE

When: Tuesday 17 April, 7:30pm
Where: St Andrew's on the Terrace
Tickets: Presale tickets are $10/15 on Eventfinda, or $15/$20 on the door (NZSM students and staff free)

The Triple Concerto has had a hard time in the past - there's an infamous dysfunctional Herbert von Karajan recording from 1969. Sviatoslav Richter demanded an extra take, but Karajan apparently said they didn’t have time as they still had to do the photographs. Richter: 'To him, this was more important than the recording. And what a nauseating photograph it is, with him posing artfully and the rest of us grinning like idiots.' Check it out for yourselves.

In this performance, the soloists will be the much more amiable Te Kōkī Trio, which comprises three full-time staff members from NZSM’s Classical Performance programme –Martin Riseley (violin), Inbal Megiddo (cello) and Jian Liu (piano). 

Brahms’ turbulent Tragic Overture provides a moody opener, with Debussy’s Nocturnes 1&2 and Lilburn’s Suite for Orchestra of 1955 completing the programme.

ELISABETH SCHIMANA

When: Thursday 5 April, 8pm 
Where: Adam Concert Room 
Free entry

Elisabeth Schimana (Austria), composer and musician, premieres Virus #2.4 for electronics, taonga pūoro (Rob Thorne), violin (Tristan Carter) and cello (Charley Davenport). This new piece, composed while in residence at the New Zealand School of Music, builds on her extensive Virus series, which Schimana describes as "a struggle and synthesis between… resonating bodies. Together they stay alive." The concert will also feature Into the Sun (2016), for multichannel live electronics. Schimana’s composition of the new work is supported by the Bundeskanzleramt Österreich and Austro Mechana.

IMAfiction

When: Friday 6 April, 5:30pm
Where: Room SU310, Student Union Building
Free entry

Elisabeth Schimana introduces and screens films from the IMAfiction portrait series dedicated to female media artists with a focus on sonic art. Schimana has been pivotal in realising the ongoing series, in collaboration with the Institute for Media Archeology (IMA). The screenings are presented as part of the NZSM’s XXMT Women in Music Technology initiative.

MASTERCLASS WITH SHLOMO MINTZ

When: Wednesday 11 April, 5:30pm
Where: Hunter Council Chamber
Free entry

Virtuoso violinist, violist and conductor Shlomo Mintz takes a public masterclass at NZSM. Critics, colleagues and audiences regard Shlomo Mintz as one of the foremost violinists of our time, esteemed for his impeccable musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique alike. Born in Moscow in 1957, he immigrated to Israel and studied the violin with Ilona Feher. At the age of 11, he made his concert debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and at the age of 16 he made his debut in Carnegie Hall with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, under the patronage of Isaac Stern.

HANNO LEICHTMANN AT THE PYRAMID CLUB

When: Saturday 14 April, 8pm
Where: The Pyramid Club

Hanno Leichtmann (Germany) brings his Berlin-tinged minimal electronica to the Pyramid Club, 8pm Saturday April 14. Leichtmann is a curator, musician and sound installation artist. He has won praise for his work under the moniker Static, and in groups such as Denseland (with David Moss and Hannes Strobl) and Groupshow (with Jan Jelinek and Andrew Pekler). Hanno is the Goethe Institute 2018 Artist-in-Residence in Wellington, in partnership with the New Zealand School of Music.

NZSO FOUNDATION MASTERCLASS: SASHA COOKE (MEZZO-SOPRANO)

When: Monday 16 April, 7:30pm 
Where: Adam Concert Room
Free entry

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke has been called a “luminous standout” (New York Times) and “equal parts poise, radiance and elegant directness” (Opera News).

She is in New Zealand to perform Berlioz’s song cycle Les nuits d’été with the NZSO in April, and presents a masterclass for NZSM students with the support of the NZSO Foundation.

PIANO DUO AT THE THIRD EYE

When: Friday 20 April, 6pm
Where: The Third Eye
Free entry

Pianists Hamish Robb and Beth Chen perform beautiful 4-hand and solo classics from Russia, Austria and France. The concert will be held upstairs at The Third Eye, and food and drink is available from the bar. Free entry - turn up early to get a seat.

MICHAEL BENEBIG WITH THE NZSM BIG BAND

When: Thursday 26 April, 9pm
Where: Rogue and Vagabond
Free entry

Have Hammond Organ will travel. B3 master Michael Benebig visits New Zealand from New Caledonia once a year, and this time teams up with the New Zealand School of Music Big Band for a concert at Rogue and Vagabond.

FRIDAY LUNCHTIME CONCERTS

JUN HONG LO (VLN) AND TONY CHEN LIN (PNO)

JASON BAE

NICK GRANVILLE GROUP

When: Friday 20 April, 12:10pm
Where: Room SU310, Student Union Building, free entry 

The Nick Granville Group performs at this lunchtime concert, with Lance Philip (drums) and and Tom Warrington (bass) joining Nick Granville (guitar). They will play some of Nick's original tunes and arrangements in our jazz performance room in the Student Union Building. 

MUSIC FORUM

SHIFTING GROUND: AN INTERCULTURAL JOURNEY IN MUSIC AND HEALTH

Wednesday 11 April, 4:15pm, Room 209
Associate Professor Sarah Hoskyns, New Zealand School of Music, Victoria University of Wellington

We have recently changed the time of Music Forum – this year it will be held on selected Wednesdays, 4:15–5:30pm, in Room 209. We hope you can join us – all welcome. 

OUTREACH

NZSM JAZZ PROJECT

The NZSM Jazz Project takes place on 7-8 June in Wellington during the 2018 Wellington Jazz Festival (6-10 June). The Jazz Project provides performance, workshop and competition opportunities to support and inspire both the next generation of jazz musicians and their band directors and teachers. Guest artists for the Jazz Project in 2018 will be Robben Ford (guitar/vocals), and Lydia Pense (vocals), who play a headline concert in the Wellington Jazz Festival on 7 June.  

Download an application pack HERE. Applications due 27 April. 

QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND

Hosted by the New Zealand String Quartet, the Queens Birthday Chamber Music Weekend offers chamber music groups expert professional coaching, culminating in a final concert. We welcome applications from existing chamber groups of performers of any age, especially secondary school chamber groups preparing for the NZCT Chamber Music Competition.

Download an application pack HERE. Applications due 13 April. 

NEWS

MASTER OF FINE ARTS (CREATIVE PRACTICE) MUSIC SHOWCASE

Music students from Victoria University’s first Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) programme showcased their final projects in a special screening on Friday 16 March. Representing the culmination of a year-long intensive study of creative practice, excerpts from four films were shown focusing on the soundtracks composed and recorded by the students. Read about their work here.

NZSM AT CUBA DUPA

We invited random passersby to have a go conducting our orchestra at Cuba Dupa, and they all took on the task with style, sass, and on occasion, zen. You can check out more of the photos here. The NZSM Big Band also played to a packed audience, Gamelan Padhang Moncar, led by our gamelan teacher Budi S Putra, gave a magical shadow puppet performance, and many of our jazz staff and students were playing in the various street bands around the city. We also spotted our graduates starring in the lineup at Anthony Ritchie's Eagle has Landed opera. Great stuff everyone!

SOUNZ VIDEO CHANNEL

SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music have a new channel showcasing music filmed as part of the NZ On Air-funded Resound project. You can catch many NZSM performers and composers on the channel - it's well worth having a peruse. Check out the trailer at the link above. 

SNIPPETS

Congratulations to Dave Lisik, whose book '50 Years at the Village Vanguard' was named best in the JazzTimes readers poll. 

Dave Lisik has also just written the music for Our Country's Good, a play by Timberlake Wertenbaker directed by his wife Joanne Lisik. It is being presented by Wellington Repertory Theatre, 4 - 14 April. Dave has composed and recorded a score and the sound design for the play which also involves the stunning talents of NZSM faculty Martin Riseley, Inbal Megiddo and students Zane Berghuis, Sam MacKenzie and Alexandra Woodhouse Appleby.

It was great to see Lisa Harper-Brown, Margaret Medlyn, Martin Riseley, Mark Dorrell and Jian Liu at number 7 on the RNZ Classical Charts a couple of weeks back for Stephan Prock's album 'Sojourn'.

Some terrific reviews of Mechanical Ballet: 
'I can’t praise enough of the efforts, expertise, talents, inventiveness, innovativeness …. in short, the brilliance, of the team': https://dmsreviewblog.wordpress.com/…/nzf-mechanical-ballet/
'Stunning works. A real festival highlight.': https://offthetracks.co.nz/gig-review-mechanical-ballet-ma…/

Jazz graduates Drax Project have just finished 3 nights of stadium shows supporting Ed Sheeran - check out this pic of them posing with the giant crowd. 

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Did any of you catch NZSM student Will King in the excellent OrphEus - a dance opera at the NZ Festival? Read about his experience below. 

WILLIAM KING

I grew up playing the violin, but I starting singing when I was around eight by joining boys' choirs. Most of my singing experience was through choirs, such as New Zealand Secondary Students' Choir and National Youth Choir. I really only started taking solo singing seriously when I started my undergraduate in Performance Voice in 2015. I’m studying Honours in Classical Voice this year.

When I first came to university I was studying commerce and musicology.  However, seeing the students at the music school making connections with like-minded people was inspiring and this brought about a change to full-time performance. 

The most enjoyable aspects of studying music are the opportunity to explore all kinds of repertoire and being surrounded by people who are knowledgeable about said repertoire. Also having a safe space to share artistry and observe others means that you can grow as a musician.

After I graduate I want to wait for a few years for my voice to develop (lower voices always take the longest!) and then audition overseas for a Masters programme in opera performance.

The best (musical) thing I saw last year was probably Julliard415 playing their programme of Bach in the Nelson Cathedral; hearing such a polished Early Music ensemble was something I had never heard before.

Support the musicians, composers and scholars of the future

For some of New Zealand's most talented musicians, the only thing that stands in the way of their dreams is the lack of funds to make them real. For further information on how you can provide support for students at the New Zealand School of Music, please contact either: