Tag Archives: this day

A month of New Zealand music

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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.

“This Day” … and THAT day!!

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Well as I’m sure many of you know, a few weeks ago I got married. For the occasion, along with some arrangements, I wrote a piano piece called “This Day”, for the arrival of my bride, now wife … Wendy. It was played live by one of my groomsmen, Andrew Cochrane. It is a great little piece, only about three minutes long, and because it was something pretty unique, here is a link so you can listen to the full version online.

This Day by Ryan Youens

Enjoy, Ryan

January update

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Hey everyone, well it’s been AGES since my last post so this is a little update on what has been going on.

I just noticed the last post I did actually, the one about the recording with four bass clarinets and four contrabass clarinets. Well a few weeks later the composer Austin emailed with some recordings which I said I’d love to hear in the blog. So thanks for that Austin.

Had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, if you missed our Christmas video, check it out here. Have been back working long days for two weeks now as have a lot of work to get through which is fantastic. Of course I have my wedding approaching fast so want to clear as much work as I can before then. To save waffling on too much, here is a list of what’s been going on:

 

  • Have been typesetting two works for New Zealand composer Anthony Ritchie. Have completed his Flute Concerto and am working through a choral work.
  • I wrote “This Day”, a new piano work. This is for the “entry of the bride” at my wedding. Have also been preparing some other backing tracks for use at the wedding.
  • Have been MIDI orchestrating some tracks for Alexandros Pappas in Greece.
  • Am writing a new choral work for the “Souls of the Righteous” for premiere next month I think.
  • Next week I’m conducting at the Opononi Summer school up north. Should be great fun, and I’ll be sure to post a blog following that.
  • Have been discussing several exciting projects with Alexey Kurkdjian and his Sphaera Ensemble in Brazil. Stay tuned for info here.
  • Have been MIDI orchestrating a track for Vladimir Krasojevic also.

 

So it’s a good start to the year so far and of course expecting it to only get busier from here. By the way I got the video from “In Their Light” premiere in Athens last November. I’ve added the video below:

 

Speaking of YouTube, I’m planning to get a bit more modern this year, so am starting my video blog. More details soon, but it will be all linked into this blog so can just see it all here.

Alright well that’s all for now. Stay well and make some AMAZING music for the world!!