What have we in store for audiences and students in 2012?

Here is a taste.

We will hold the second NZSM Jazz Festival for New Zealand Secondary Schools from 16-18 August, including another fantastic Gala Jazz Concert on Friday 17 August. This year it will be based at the St James Theatre in Courtenay Place.

2012 will be something of 'A Year of the Piano'.
NZSM will shortly take delivery of a number of new Steinway pianos direct from Germany and we have masterclasses and recitals scheduled through the year. Spanish pianist Guillermo González will present a concert on Friday 23 March that features the Iberia suite by Isaac Albéniz. Research Associate Diedre Irons will perform the Beethoven Emperor Piano Concerto with the NZSM Orchestra in their first 2012 concert on Tuesday 3 April. Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak will perform on Saturday 28 April direct from the NZ International Piano Festival in Auckland, a Festival in which our own Jian Liu will be taking part. Jian has a very busy year that includes a 9-concert tour for Chamber Music New Zealand. He will also share the bill with Chinese pianist Xiang ZOU in a concert on Sunday 29 July co-hosted by NZSM, the Wellington Chamber Music Society, the Confucius Institute at VUW and the Chinese Embassy. The concert will feature the performance of the complete set of virtuosic Etudes by both Ligeti and Debussy.

'Debussy' is another 'theme' in 2012. Jian Liu will also be piano soloist in a work by Debussy in the NZSM Orchestra's Town Hall Concert on Tuesday 22 August, the 150th anniversary of the French composer's birth. The orchestra are also scheduled to perform both his Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, with soloist Debbie Rawson, in their 2012 concerts and the September Friday at 5 concert will feature his violin sonata, cello sonata and trio. 

The Friday at 5 concerts will return but in a 'new & mproved' format. You can have some input into the 'reformation' of the series by taking part in a survey about this and the Hunter series of concerts  – see below. 

As we plan and schedule NZSM performance events in 2012 we want to make sure that we are giving our audiences the best possible experiences and opportunities. In particular, we are considering making some adjustments to the Friday at 5 and the Hunter series of concerts. 

It would be of tremendous help to us to have your opinion about these series. Click on the link below to go to a 10-question, online survey form. The survey is limited to 100 responses over the next fortnight, so don't delay if you want your opinions to count. The survey will remain completely anonymous (unless you choose to include your contact details).

Click here to take the survey.

Thank you in anticipation.

We recently welcomed two new lecturers onto the staff at NZSM.

Opeloge Ah Sam will be Pasifika Music Coordinator at NZSM in an appointment co-sponsored by the Pasifika Team (Academic Office) at VUW. The Samoan-born composer, performer and educator will be teaching PERF 251 and PERF 351, papers in Pacific Island Music which promise to include lots of singing AND dancing as the students experience music from across the Pacific Islands.
Read more about Opeloge here. 

Dr Erin Helyard is Lecturer in Period Performance. The Australian-born scholar-performer will be working across the Music Studies and Classical Performance programmes and bringing his in-depth knowledge and experience in historically-informed performance practise to students, staff and public audiences.
Read more about Erin here.

Several other 'visiting staff' will arrive over the next few weeks: Jennifer Post is Visiting Lecturer in Ethnomusicology; Fulbright Scholar Prof Claudine Bigelow will be Visiting Lecturer in Viola Performance and Chamber Music while Prof Donald Maurice is on sabbatical leave; Dr Loren Ludwig will be Visiting Lecturer in Musicology (returning after taking a short course in Trimester Three) and Dr Jonathan Berkahn will be Visiting Lecturer in Theory and Analysis.

David Downes will be joining us in July as the 2012-2013 Creative New Zealand/Jack C Richards Composer-in-Residence at Te Koki, New Zealand School of Music. While David has much experience with electronic music, multi-media and animation, working with dance performance and exploring the sonic possibilities of new instruments, he intends to use the residency as an opportunity to get back to "pure music-making".

Read more about David and his music here.

Prof John Psathas is enjoying a high-profile start to 2012.
In the South, the Salman Rushdie short story that is being published as an eBook by Booktrack, was released in the USA today. The eBook features a soundtrack composed by John and recorded by the NZSO, giving readers an enhanced experience of the literary work.
In addition John has been nominated as a finalist in the Global Greek of the Year Award. Fellow nominees include Jennifer Anniston and Loukanikos the Athens riot dog! You can register your vote online here.
And it has just been confirmed that Good for Nothing, the NZ-made 'pavlova western' feature film for which John has written the soundtrack, will have its cinema release in New York on 9 March. It will be in New Zealand cinemas from Thursday 3 May and the soundtrack will be released on CD.
Read more here.

While Trimester 1 does not begin for a few weeks yet, there is still plenty of activity among NZSM's many 'Friends and Relations' ... our staff, artist teachers, students and alumni.

Handel's opera Alcina is being produced by Opera-in-a Days-Bay-Garden. The production features NZSM graduates Bryony Williams, Bianca Andrew, Kieran Rayner, Tom Atkin, and Olga Gryniewicz along with Rhona Fraser and countertenor Stephen Diaz. It is directed by Sarah Brodie with musical direction by Michael Vinten, the pair who brought you Semele in 2009 and A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2011.
Performances (11),12, 16, (17) February, Days Bay
[Hurry! The 11th and 17th are already fully booked.]

Countertenor Xiao Ma gave a short recital at a reception at NZSM last week and the audience response was enthusiastic. The Chinese singer displayed a strength and purity of tone that was truly remarkable. He gives two more Wellington performances, the first accompanied by an early-music instrumental group, and the second with NZ countertenor Stephen Diaz accompanied by composer/pianist Gao Ping. Xiao Ma is artist in residence with the Confucius Institute at VUW.
Wednesday 15 February, 7:30pm, St Mary of the Angels, Boulcott Street
Admission $30 ($20 concessions)

Saturday 18 February, 4pm, Soundings Theatre, Te Papa
Admission free

NZSM Artists in Residence, the New Zealand String Quartet, are embarking on a significant musical journey this year: the performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets. They will spread the performances over the year through three paired programmes in twenty-seven concerts over thirteen centres. The first pair of programmes in Wellington, 'The Age of Enlightenment', are on Saturday 25 February at 6pm and Sunday 26 February 7:30pm, both in St Mary of the Angels Church on Boulcott Street. 

The pair of Beethoven String Quartet performances mentioned above are part of the 2012 New Zealand International Arts Festival – 300 Arts events over 24 days – truly something for everyone. The Quartet also include a work by former NZSM lecturer Ross Harris in their performance with Jonathan Lemalu on Sat 4 March. Ross Harris's klezmer group Kugeltov team up with fellow composers/performers Jonathan Besser and Chris Prosser in a programme called New Klezeland. And one of the highly anticipated music events of the Festival will be the world premiere of former staff member Prof Jenny McLeod's opera Hōhepa, with performers including our own voice lecturer Jenny Wollerman and graduate Bianca Andrew.

But wait! There's more! The Wellington Fringe Festival will run almost concurrently (10 Feb – 3 March) AND the Wellington City Council's Summer City Festival runs from January through to Saturday 31 March, both with a host of extra-ordinary events. The former includes the Orpheus Choir singing Mike Nock, Ruth Armishaw and the Honest 3, Adam Page in Chairman of the Beard, the 'anti-Valentines Day' Hot Toxic Love and much, much more....

WELCOME TO 2012 !!!

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.

By making a lifetime donation or a gift in your will to the New Zealand School of Music, you can help young musicians to fulfil their ambitions.

For further information on how you can provide support for students at the New Zealand School of Music, please contact:

Elizabeth Hudson
NZSM Director
Ph: 04 463 5860
Email: elizabeth.hudson@nzsm.ac.nz

or

Diana Meads
Development Manager -- Planned Giving
Victoria University of Wellington Foundation
Ph: 0800 VIC LEGACY (0800 842 534)
Email: diana.meads@vuw.ac.nz

www.victoria.ac.nz/foundation