Kia ora koutou and welcome to the Dawn Chorus newsletter for July. With events around Aotearoa well and truly having started up again, we're excited to have opened our doors here at Te Kōkī to share live music again. Our July events are listed below, but we've also managed to slip in one more lunchtime concert this Friday before the break. Haere mai! 

The pūtōrino is a unique wind instrument of Aotearoa, not found anywhere else globally. It has a distinctive shape, widest in the middle and tapering at each end, the shape suggesting the case moth. The instrument has distinctive sounds, is played on either end and on the central opening, and it combines the voices of both trumpet and flute. The instrument is closely linked to Hine Raukatauri, and this connection helps us to understand the cultural importance of the instrument. To hear the sound of the pūtōrino, check out Rob Thorne (Ngāti Tumutumu) playing one in Durie Hill Tunnel.

Events

NZSM Concerto Competition

When: Thursday 30 July, 7pm
Where: Adam Concert Room
Free entry

We're delighted to announce the 2020 NZSM Concerto Competition, adjudicated by conductor Vincent Hardaker, NZSM alumnus, and first Assistant Conductor in Residence for the group of professional orchestras of New Zealand. Our finalists are:

Isabella Gregory (flute): Carl Reinecke—Flute Concerto
Bethany Angus (cello): Ernest Bloch—Schelomo
Lucas Baker (violin): Barber—Violin Concerto
Otis Prescott-Mason (piano): Saint-Saëns—Piano Concerto No. 2

Join us on 30 July in the Adam Concert Room as these students compete for the chance to perform their concerto with the NZSM Orchestra later in the year. 

Friday Lunchtime Concerts

Student Showcase

Friday 26 June, 12:10pm 
Adam Concert Room

Classical performance students from the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī perform in this lunchtime concert, an aural journey through various instrumental timbres. More info

Ghost Trio

Friday 17 July, 12:10pm 
Adam Concert Room

Ghost Trio is made up of Gabriela Glapska (piano), Ken Ichinose (cello) and Monique Lapins (violin). Despite their recent formation as a trio, they have already gained reputation as one of the most refreshing and enjoyable chamber groups in New Zealand. More info

Beyond Darkness and Light

Friday 24 July, 12:10pm 
Adam Concert Room

NZSM is delighted to have Jenny Wollerman and Michael Houstoun perform at this special lunchtime concert. Michael Houstoun is due to retire in the next year, so we are very honoured to have the chance to hear him perform in the Adam Concert Room before he does so. More info

NZSM Jazz

Friday 31 July, 12:10pm 
The Hub
More info

Coming up in August...
The Collaborative Pianist Series

When: Thursday 6 August, 6pm
Where: Hunter Council Chamber
Free entry

The first two concerts in this series didn't take place due to Covid, so we're excited about this one happening in August! David Barnard will be joined by fellow pianists Jian Liu and Hamish Robb in a programme of Mozart, Rachmaninov, Poulenc and Kenneth Young. More info

News

Black Lives Matter

The New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī affirms its support for the goals of the Black Lives Matter movement, and its commitment to addressing systemic racism, injustice, and violence. We've been having discussions as a School as to how we can best open our ears to the conversations taking place at the moment, and are thinking about ways we can take action against any institutional racism within our walls. As these discussions continue, our programmes have come up with some immediate actions they are taking to bring about change. We welcome other suggestions from current and former students, faculty, and staff as to how we create more equitable, more inclusive, and more culturally-relevant learning environments for our students. 

All teachers will continue to actively research the artistic voices of composers and performers from underrepresented racial, ethnic and cultural heritages—especially Māori and Pacific people—within their respective disciplines, and highlight them through their choice of examples, models and repertoire presented in lecture materials.

The NZSM commits to ensuring that a significant portion of all public workshops and forums are presented by guests from underrepresented racial, ethnic and cultural heritages.

The Composition programme will contribute to the curation of resources for Performance students to help them research and locate repertoire written by composers from underrepresented racial, ethnic and cultural heritages, and encourage them to programme appropriate repertoire in their recitals where possible.

The Classical Performance programme will feature and engage more professional performers from underrepresented racial, ethnic and cultural heritages, including Māori and Pasifika performers, to connect our students with diverse role models. The programme will also encourage staff and postgraduate students to actively request and populate the university library with more repertoire from underrepresented racial, ethnic and cultural heritages.    

The Jazz Programme affirms that jazz is Black music that has become international. We join jazz musicians and composers everywhere and commit to nurturing this tradition in Aotearoa New Zealand by honouring its African American roots in course materials and programme performances, and by fostering multi-cultural jazz legacies in Aotearoa New Zealand through developing jazz pedagogies that are integrated with university and national commitments to the Treaty of Waitangi–Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  

The Music Studies programme commits to reviewing our curriculum and research practices to de-center whiteness and prioritize anti-racist approaches in music education and music studies more broadly. This will include examining the content, approaches, and perspectives taught in all of our courses, and more action is to come. 

The Music Therapy programme commits to learning about the history of the land in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington/Victoria location), and the iwi that has mana whenua, and to write a song about it. 

A psychiatrist, a composer and a string quartet

We've been devouring Elizabeth Kerr's new online collection of music writing Five Lines, and especially enjoyed this article about the NZSQ's performance of doctor/composer Louise Webster's string quartet This memory of earth. Have a read, and subscribe if you'd like further articles straight to your inbox!

Rattle release for Masters graduate

inst.19-20's eight tracks were composed as part of Jack Woodbury’s Master of Fine Arts studies at the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī. The material is largely generated using processed recordings of piano and tubular bells, alongside field recordings of Wellington’s Ohariu Valley. Compositionally, the album employs generative looping software, the juxtaposition of noise/glitch and ambient material, and terraced dynamics. Check it out here. 

Student Profile

Our student profile this week is Alysse Kanal Scott, who is studying for a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Cultural Anthropology and Music. 

What do you love about your instrument/field? 

I love being able to learn new things, and to talk about them with people who are just as passionate about music. Being able to look at all the different aspects that go into music, as well as the different types of music in general is also really cool to me and I love that it can be applied outside of the music sphere too.

Who is your favourite performer?

An old-school favourite would be Yehudi Menuhin. I became obsessed with his performance of the Bruch Violin Concerto in G minor with Karajan. It felt so human and emotional and I think it taught me a lot about playing music just from watching him on youtube. He’s always been an inspirational figure to me.

What instrument do you wish you could play (that you don’t already)?

I would really love to learn the erhu (two-string fiddle). Growing up, it was always around, but I never was able to learn much about its context. It’s a very intriguing instrument to me and I want to play it at some point since I haven’t gotten the chance to yet!

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: