KBB Music Festival 2010, thumbs up

Posted on 30 August, 2010 by Ryan Youens

As of last night, the 2010 KBB Music Festival is officially over. Today I’m sure many musical directors are joining me in breathing a well-earned sigh of relief.

If you’re wondering what I am talking about, here’s what the festival website has to say:

“For the past 25 years, the KBB Music Festival, in association with The Edge® Public Programmes, has been showcasing the best in secondary school orchestras, concert bands and jazz bands in Auckland. From the small numbers in the original Auckland Secondary Schools Band and Orchestra Festival, the KBB Music Festival has now grown to see over 100 groups competing from more than 40 schools across the greater Auckland region.”

It was a fantastic few days of music. I saw two full days out of the four days of the festival. Always interesting to see what others are doing, taking a mental note of ideas for next years’ possibilities and also observing how others lead their groups.

I had three groups competing in the festival this year – the Carmel Chamber Orchestra, Carmel Orchestra and the Kristin Symphonia. All did reasonably well and each picked up a Bronze award at last night’s (three hour epic) gala concert.

On the last day I had the pleasure of working with four groups at the Fringe Festival. These are groups under development or not quite meeting the full festival requirements. The whole point is to provide encouragement and constructive feedback to get them primed, pumped and ready for year ahead.

Big thanks to administrator and chairperson David Squire for another seamlessly run festival and for his eighteen years on the committee. This was his last year of involvement with the festival. Also, of course, much thanks to these two:

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Three pieces performed by Brazil’s Sphaera Ensemble

Posted on 29 July, 2010 by Ryan Youens

On July 9, the Sphaera Ensemble performed three of my pieces, The Attic, Reclusion and In Their Light, in a concert at the Sesi Theatre, Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. I conducted these three and other pieces with the ensemble while I was there in December/January. They first performed The Attic in 2008. Reclusion and In Their Light have been added to their repertoire this year.

Here are some photos of the concert and a video of The Attic performance (taken by Laira Dalileia):

Sphaera Santos Brazil 6

Sphaera Santos Brazil 12

Sphaera Santos Brazil 5

Sphaera Santos Brazil 4

Sphaera Santos Brazil 1

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Wild Daisies premiere

Posted on 12 July, 2010 by Ryan Youens

Last year Kristin School commissioned a piece from me for their amazing award-winning choir, Euphony, to include in their 2010 repertoire. They premiered it at the Auckland Town Hall on Wednesday 16th June 2010. See the video below:

It uses the text from Bub Bridger’s poem, Wild Daisies.

The choir was once again successful in getting through to The Big Sing Finale, along with many other choirs from around New Zealand. You can see the full list of these choirs at The Big Sing website.

Wild Daisies is notated for SSA choir and if anyone is interested in buying a copy please let me know.

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The winds recede

Posted on 23 October, 2009 by Ryan Youens

Sunday’s concert, “North Winds, South Winds”, was a success. Thanks very much to all those who came and supported – it was a very impressive, receptive and appreciative audience.

It was a challenge putting on such a demanding programme, but the orchestra definitely rose to the occasion and did a fantastic job. It is horrifying to realise that the time signature changes totaled around 160, and the tempo changes also added up to something drastic. Looking back, I thought it was a shame that we didn’t get to run the pieces more during the rehearsal period and hear them in their entirety, as some certainly aren’t done justice until done so. But I guess, we always have the best intentions.

North Winds, South Winds 2

It was very refreshing seeing so much New Zealand music being performed, AND with five of the eight composers being present. It was great having the older works which have been widely performed, alongside two premieres, and other works by younger composers. I had a few comments saying that NZ music is in very safe hands … which it is … of course. Judging from feedback, it seems the audience had a great time. I think they really enjoyed the balance in the programme, the top standard and of course the intros (thanks Harold).

It was a joy working with the wind orchestra. They have a wonderful committee which seem to take care of absolutely everything. The standard is excellent and I hope that I can work with them again sometime in the future.

North Winds, South Winds 1

My piece, Guardians of the North, went well. I placed it at the end of the programme, which could have been trouble after the workload before it, but it sounded great. I had made several revisions since its premiere in 2007, including a new ending, which I was very happy about. It now seems to sit more comfortably with the players, which is definitely a good thing.

The “North Winds, South Winds” have definitely receded, but what a breath of fresh air! Another concert down, more New Zealand music is in the mix – that makes me happy.

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Christian Kolonovits, give me some more of that!

Posted on 19 July, 2009 by Ryan Youens

I just saw The North Face (Nordwand) at the NZ International Film Festival. It is a new film that’s come out of Germany, Austria AND Switzerland and is fantastic … but I’m not here to talk about the plot!! The score was by a Austrian composer, Christian Kolonovits. Oh my. It was quite something. I got it off iTunes as soon as I got home and I’m listening to it again now. Far out.

It is a fully orchestral score and he does a great job of suiting it to its 1936 setting, but still, musically it is so fresh and very relevant to today. It is very nice to hear the orchestra still being used purely by itself, with no modern technology helping it along. The BEST thing is that there is no Hollywood influence in his music, which is so refreshing. Perhaps I need to be keeping an eye out for more European film composers. In the film it adds so much to the already hugely powerful scenes, but listening to the music now, it could so easily be moulded together to create some sort of 45 minute masterpiece in it’s own right.

Here is the trailer where you get a sneak peak of the film, but as for the music … it’s a trailer, so uses other music … you might notice the opening passage is from James Horner’s score to A Beautiful Mind. This is the original trailer (not english version with subtitles):

Christian Kolonovits really did a great job. I can’t wait to hear more of his work. If anyone has heard of him or knows any of his music I’d be interested to hear from you. Go find some music online from this film, it’s worth it. Here is Christian’s website: www.kolonovits.com.

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Heedless Conclusions … the week in review

Posted on 8 March, 2009 by Ryan Youens

Well, last Sunday my new piece “Heedless Conclusions” was premiered by The Souls, who are a chamber choir here in Auckland. It was quite a week actually.

I turned up to the first rehearsal, all set to relax and listen to all the wonderful work they had been doing, when they dragged me in to sing. Very happy to, especially to make everything well balanced, but gee, I haven’t sung in a choir in years. lol Anyway it was absolutely wonderful. Of course I made it to the rest of their rehearsals for the week, and because of that I learnt so much about my piece that I never would have known otherwise. Partly by simply singing a part by myself, but also just going through the choir on that final journey. It was marvelous.

The acoustic where the concert was held was very wet!! Anything said, just bounces around for seconds after … wonderfully exciting. I wrote the piece with this in mind, so there were some magic moments to make the most of it. So anyway, dress rehearsal was fantastic and I couldn’t wait for the concert.

Concert came, and … just amazing. It’s a piece that flows very nicely in some ways, but has a few twists and turns that can easily catch you. But they caught no one and the audience loved it, the players seemed to enjoy putting it together and said it was well worth the effort. I think I was spoilt coming in right at the end, after all the hard work was put in, just to experience the choir finally understand it as a piece and start to really enjoy singing it.

Well the score is now available at SOUNZ, go check out … you’ll love it. When I have the recording back I’ll put a sample up also.

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