Here are some photos from the day of the premiere as Rakaia was given a final run through: (photos thanks to Neil Shepherd)
Everybody … almost.
Counting like crazy!!
GO CYMBAL GO!
Fantastic percussionists!!
Some of the brass!!
Me giving a few final comments!
Hmmm I look worried.
Well well well. This afternoon was the premiere of “Rakaia” and it went very well. I wasn’t playing in it so could really enjoy it. The percussion finally got it all together and sounding fantastic and the strings got (almost) all of their notes in. Everyone gets a little excited as it goes through … including the conductor, so the tempo pushed a little but overall it was fantastic and had heaps of great feedback from the audience.
Above is a photo of Auckland Symphony during the premiere.
By the way I just want to clarify … it said in the programme that I won the 2006 Young Composer Award. This was in fact not the case, I was commended at these awards. I hope no one is mislead by this. Not sure who wrote my programme bio up.
If any of those reading this went to the concert, I’d love to get your comments and feedback. Please send them through to me here.
I’m looking forward to next week’s concert at the Bruce Mason Centre. For details see the news.
Okay so as per my last entry, yes we spent a good amount of time on “Rakaia” on Wednesday night. It was fantastic. Everyone finally got their head around it (… it seemed so anyway). I think many of the players are not familiar with this sort of music, so it has taken a while for things to sit naturally. Technically it is not too challenging but things just do not sit as you may expect as a player. Anyway after that rehearsal I went home a happy composer.
Then … today was the final rehearsal. We ran it twice and it was FANTASTIC!! I am so pleased with how it is sounding. I’ve been pretty pedantic about how I want it, and only today I felt that all of that paid off. Of course on concert day (tomorrow), it will rise to another notch so I can’t wait.
By the way, if any of the members of Auckland Symphony are reading this, then THANK YOU so much. It is sound fantastic and I know a lot of personal practice and perseverance has gone into it. Many many thanks.
Stay tuned for how the premiere went.
Well we’ve have a few rehearsals now for “Rakaia”. It is definitely coming along nicely. Finally the percussion are getting into it so they are driving it which is fantastic. The violins are getting more notes in every time we play it as well. lol Anyway big rehearsal tonight where hopefully we will be spending heaps of time on it so looking forward to it. Stay tuned …
Hey all … well just a quick note, we had first rehearsal of Rakaia on Monday night and it wasn’t too bad at all. We mainly just ran through it a few times to introduce to the players, so (fingers crossed) this week they will go home and practice as next week we’re pulling it to bits and REALLY rehearsing it. lol Musically everything worked very nicely, a few balance issues which we will fix next week. I’m waiting on a recording of this first rehearsal so will be good to have a listen of that too. Anyway will keep you posted.
Okay so over the last two months have had so much work coming in, I haven’t had a chance to post any blogs or in fact to much else at all. So what have I been doing?
Rakaia is a new piece I just finished last week for the Auckland Symphony Orchestra. It is for their “Rivers” concerts in August. For the dates and venues check out the news. The Rakaia river heads east from the Southern Alps here in New Zealand and reaches the sea just south of Christchurch. Thanks to my friend Wikipedia you can check out more details here. Anyway it was an interesting piece to write as the orchestra’s audience is not my usual type of audience. But anyway I ran through it all with the conductor Gary Daverne and he is happy so that’s good. Rehearsals start Monday night so will keep you posted. If you’re in Auckland on the concert dates, come along and I’d be so keen to get your post concert thoughts.
Chicken Cargo is an independent film based in Chicago. Scott Hunt is composing the score and I am orchestrating. The film is kind of a sci-fi comedy and the bits I’ve been seeing are quite good. We’re just finishing the opening scene at the moment and the whole “living on the other side of the world” thing is proving no problem at all. Anyway this is a long term project (film released mid ’08) and so will I’m sure be posting regular updates on how everything is going.
North Shore Junior Orchestra is a second orchestra I have picked up. It is a junior orchestra and so will be heaps of fun. Have got our programme all sorted and am about to do a mailout which will kick us off for term 3. I’ve just updated their website here.
Have also had a heap of engraving work which isn’t too strenuous but is time consuming. So its good to have work flocking in, and with very little sleep I’m managing to get through it all. Woohoo.
