Do You Come From the Other Land Down Under?
Marvin Rosen has a very special program coming up this Wednesday on his always brilliant radio program. John Psathas, one of New Zealand’s leading composers, will join Marvin live in the WPRB studio on April 23, 2008, from 8:30 am ET until 11:00 am ET during a special extended edition of Classical Discoveries. The entire five hour program starting at 6:00 am ET is titled: “In The Land Of Kiwi” will be totally devoted to music from New Zealand. The program can be listened to on line at www.wprb.com
Quick, without looking it up, name 5 New Zealand composers.
Here’s a video of the late and sorely missed Michael Brecker premiering Psathas’ Sax Concerto:
[youtube]OI_eLbkYzKg[/youtube]
Larry Pruden and myself probably share common distant ancestry, my mother’s family name being Prujean. Both these surnames originate from Brittany’s northern coast, and Larry’s grandfather would have been born there: he was fascinated with his French heritage and wrote a work called “Dances of Brittany” (which I remember playing).
I’ve just performed a piece by Anthony Ritchie (“Whakatipua”) here in Paris along with “Pastorale” by Martin Lodge, another NZ composer. And in 2006 my orchestra, Orchestre 2021, commissioned and performed “dans la nuit” by young NZ composer Robin Toan.
Actually I can think of 10 female composers from NZ,
Annea Lockwood, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Gillian Whitehead, Helen Fisher, Leonie Holmes, Yvette Audain, Anna Griffiths, Ruth Buchannan, Lissa Meridan, Erika Fox.
(…well….I must admit I am originally from NZ)
No trouble with the composers :- Dougles Lilburn, Gareth Farr, Eve DeCastro Robinson, David Farquhar, Tony Ritchie, Kennth Young, Larry Prudhon (think that’s how its spelt) and yes these are from memory. OK living in New Zealand helps :-)) and some of these people have done some amazing stuff.
No, David. … Nor does Helen Clark.
Frankly, while I was stumped thinking of five (or two) New Zealand composers without a reference guide, I can think off-hand of five distinguished Australian composers. Can others?
(Who wrote a powerful ‘Fly’ opera before Howard Shore?)
Does Howard Shore count?
I know one… my friend Nigel Keay! 🙂 http://www.nigelkeay.com/
Anyone feeling a little challenged about the New Zealand scene can browse SOUNZ:
http://sounz.org.nz/
See here for the activities for one of the primary advocates of new music in New Zealand…
Well let’s see… Douglas Lilburn and I believe Gareth Farr. There’s two more for you.
New Zealand composers: I can name at least one (without consulting anything): Anthony Watson. I have a disc of his string quartets (and I found out that he also killed himself). They can be found on iTunes (I got mine from the Berkshire Record Outlet (http://www2.broinc.com/)).