Hey everyone.
Well last weekend Wendy and I headed down to Wellington for this year’s readings with the NZSO. It started with a lovely weekend, we chilled, ate great food and experienced Wellington. Then it was Monday.
I was first up in the morning session and so all the players were fresh and ready for anything. “Rakaia” is not too much of a challenging piece, although plenty of notes for the strings. First read through they did fantastically well. The huge brass and percussion sound was just fantastic. After working with Ken Young and clarifying a few things both he and I wanted to work on, they pulled it apart a little and started work. Was wonderful seeing them work on my music once again. This piece is very clearly written and is enjoyable for the players and this definitely show through the rehearsal.
Later in the day was the recording session. After the long day this final run through and recording wasn’t as tight as they had it earlier in the morning, but still a remarkable performance.
I had wonderful feedback from the players. Complimenting the colourful textures, energy and effective writing. Also a comment about the likeliness of this piece to the music of Don Davis. A bit of a surprise, but came from a guy who used to play in Don Davis’ scoring orchestra, so I gratefully took his word.
The rest of the workshops were enjoyable. Was nice to get mine out of the way. Monday had a selection of other young composers which were shorter works. All very different and extremely well written. Tuesday had two longer works.
Check out photos from the workshops here.
Thanks heaps to SOUNZ and the NZSO for the wonderful two days.
Okay so I’m at the stage where a number of projects have now concluded … so what’s next? Well I had a good “getaway” on the weekend – definitely not a holiday though. We went on a two day tramp in the Hunua Ranges and now … I am VERY sore. lol Anyway was good to get out of the city for a bit.
So now I have numerous projects to get back to which I have been dying to get some time for over the last month or so. These include various compositions – some piano pieces, an orchestral work plus revisions to Rakaia and Guardians of the North. Also needing to finish a string arrangement for Rhian Sheehan which will hopefully be leading to some more work, and have another scene coming through to orchestrate from Scott Hunt.
So I’m looking forward to spending some good quality time on these projects over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for ongoing details.
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 …
