A month of New Zealand music

New Zealand Music Month is here again. Make sure you get out and enjoy some New Zealand Music – well, more than usual, I hope!

You may remember for last year’s Music Month I wrote 31 microscores in 31 days. It was a huge success and loads of fun. Check out this post to read about the project or listen to the microscores.

This year I don’t quite have a project like that ready to go, but here are some events that my music is involved with this Music Month:

3rd May: William Green performs This Day this Thursday

As part of Auckland Central Library’s FREE Thursday lunchtime concert series, William is playing my piece, This Day, as part of his “NZ piano music of the 2000s” concert.

Thursday 3rd May, 12:10pm until 1pm. Whare Wānanga, Level 2, Central City Library, 44-46 Lorne Street – don’t be late, my piece opens the concert. Click here for the lunchtime concert series brochure.

9th May: Auckland Philharmonia Tiraki read-through

The Auckland Philharmonia reads through the first drafts of my piece, Tiraki, written for the orchestra and the Auckland Town Hall organ. You may like to check out my post on the project or my photos from a recent tour of the organ.

18th – 20th May: Making music for V48 Hours

I will be working again with Sideways Productions, making music for their production. You may like to see my post from last year’s film.

31st May: Hook Line and Sing-along

Every year the NZ Music Commission runs a competition for school students to write a song for Music Month. The song is sung by schools across New Zealand at 12pm on the last day of Music Month. The idea is to get as many people singing together as possible – for fun and to focus on the fundamental pleasures of life, music, and the importance of music education.

This year the song is 21 Degrees by Bruce Taiapa. I typeset the lead sheet and created an arrangement for a variety of instruments so instrumentalists can play along with the track as well.

Download everything you need here.

Have a good month.

2011 through the eyes of a blog

And just like that, another year is gone! Here is a look at my posts for the year.

The blogging year started in March with my favourite book arriving, “Behind Bars”, which I preordered in 2010. It is definitely the most used book on my shelf! I then talked about two approaching projects:

In April I introduced my new work, “blimp”, and reviewed two projects – a song I helped a friend create and my work at the BOP music school:

May was a busy month, so in June I talked about what I had been up to – writing 31 microscores and the premiere of “blimp”:

In July I posted the video I worked on with Sideways Productions:

In August and September I covered my involvement in the KBB Music Festival and some composition tutorials that I held in Kerikeri:

October was the kick off of the Rugby World Cup here in New Zealand, I talked about my involvement in the opening ceremony and also made a post about what exactly I do when “preparing music” and why you would need someone like me to do it:

December means Christmas and I posted some Christmas carols that I prepared for my students. I also composed a new “holiday” piece for my Christmas post:

Happy New Year everyone, bring on 2012!

Kicking off the Rugby World Cup 2011

The biggest sporting event to ever hit New Zealand is this year’s Rugby World Cup. It has been a massive success and we eagerly await the final tonight between New Zealand and France. The opening night was an amazing showcase of New Zealand and I was super proud to be involved.

Victoria Kelly was the musical director for the opening ceremony and invited me to do the copying work for all of the new music. She was writing in Logic and sent the sessions to me (via Gobbler, I LOVE Gobbler) to bring through to Sibelius where I prepared the scores and parts – tidying notation, adding articulation, dynamics and everything needed to make beautifully clear music. In three days I made:

  • 39 scores
  • 116 instrumental parts
  • 525 copies of those parts ready for the players and conductor
Here is everything on my floor, proofread and re-proofread, sorted and re-sorted, and ready to be packed up.

RWC typesetting August 2011 4

I then went to the recording sessions at York Street Studios and made sure there were parts on the stands for the beginning of each session with the Auckland Philharmonia.

What a joy!!

A concert of New Zealand wind music

I will be conducting a concert of New Zealand wind music with the Auckland Wind Orchestra on 18th October 2009. This will be a wonderful event as we present some of the finest New Zealand works for wind orchestra.

The programme will include music by Yvette Audain, Matthew Crawford, David Woodcock, Philip Norman, Christopher Marshall and myself. Further details will follow.