The Wonderfish Collective live with strings!

Tomorrow night is the first of two ‘Songs from the Wonderfish Collective’ shows… with a 16-piece string section!

I’ve been chipping away at this project for a few months. Basically, these guys are a bunch of singer-songwriters who perform several gigs a year, usually at The Victoria Theatre in Devonport and Galatos in the city. Frequently they include a string duo or quartet, plus a horn section… often making them a 15-piece on stage. Funky as.

On this occasion they decided to go big, getting a full 16-piece string section to accompany them on stage. And that’s where I came in. While the first half of the show will be the band in their usual format, for the second half I’ve written eight new arrangements which will be performed by members of the Devonport Chamber Orchestra and Auckland Symphony Orchestra, and will be conducted by yours truly.

We’ve knocked out a few rehearsals and it’s sounding fantastic! These guys are talented writers. Come along and enjoy.

THE BAND

• VOCALS/GUITAR/MANDOLIN/BANJO - Al Baxter

• VOCALS/GUITAR/UKULELE - Nick Edgar

• VOCALS/GUITAR - Alex Mckegg

• VOCALS - Robbie Mckegg

• DRUMS - Rusty Knox

• BASS - Glenn Coldham

• CONDUCTOR / ARRANGEMENTS - Ryan Youens

• VIOLIN 1 - Helen Crook, Michael Hunter, Helen van Druten, Glynn Sergeant

• VIOLIN 2 - Emily Allen, Soren Wislang, Alex Laubli, Arthur Ranford

• VIOLA - Robyn Strange, Joseph Chen, Judith Gust, Andrea Smith

• CELLO - Maxine Cunliffe, Claire Postlethwaite, Michelle Caldicott, Mary Greig-Clayton

THE DETAILS

6th April - The Vic, Devonport 8pm (tickets here)

13th April - TAPAC, Western Springs 8pm (tickets here)

See you there!

Synthony - a week on

Synthony is done and dusted for another year after two massive sold out shows last weekend.

The lineup featured P Digsss (Shapeshifter), Ria Hall, Helen Corry, Omega Levine, sax legend Lewis McCallum, backing singers Cherie Mathieson and Iri Aumatangi, the 90-piece Auckland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Thomas and all hosted on the night by General Lee.

For those who are late to this party, Synthony is one big music, dance, lighting and visual extravaganza in the Auckland Town Hall. Basically, 20 of the biggest dance hits orchestrated and produced on a massive scale. The two shows sold out in a matter of hours.

I’m hugely proud to be a part of the creative team, working closely with Erika Amoore (one of the event creators) to produce the orchestral realisations of these tracks. As an arranger it really is such a treat to be able to work on an entire show of such forces. The scale is huge. Here are some stats on what we produced: 236 pages of conductor’s score, 720 individual orchestra parts, all adding up to 2531 pages of printed music being played on the night.

Here are my favourite pics:

This year every department upped their game and knocked last year’s triumphs out of the park. Musically, the arrangements are bigger and better, the orchestra itself is bigger too… and we unleashed the Town Hall organ! There were 15 brand new tracks, and the 5 repeat tracks from last year were all refreshed.

The response was overwhelming. Orchestras aren’t used to quite that degree of ‘audience interaction’. Here was the view from up in the percussion section…

Reviews were great as well:

“There were moments where the steaming crowd just stood in awe. Intense harmonies revolved around the track’s crazy catchy melody – violins jived into where the synth cuts-off, the cellos emulated a bass pad, trumpets and organ climbed into the drop - a compositional feat of orchestration work.

... a mesmerising and mind-blowing show.”

— radio13.co.nz

Immense thanks to Peter Thomas and the Auckland Symphony Orchestra who did an amazing job bringing this music together… with click track pumping in one ear… deafening audience in the other… with lights in all directions… while beads of sweat gather on the forehead… and yet they still smile and deliver yet another top level musical event for Auckland.

Finally, huge kudos to Erika Amoore and David Elmsly for their incredible vision and direction of this event. It really is quite something, and I’m already looking forward to the next one!

SET LIST

1. Robin S. - Show Me Love

2. Inner City - Good Life

3. The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

4. Robert Miles - Children

5. Laurent Garnier - Man With The Red Face

6. Roger Sanchez - Another Chance

7. Paul van Dyk - For An Angel

8. ATB - Till I Come

9. Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams

10. Moloko - Sing It Back

11. Eric Prydz - Pjanoo

12. Avicii - Levels

13. Faithless - Insomnia

14. The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize

15. Disclosure - Latch

16. Underworld - Born Slippy

17. Tiesto - Adagio For Strings

18. Delerium - Silence

19. Solitare - You Got The Love

20. Shapeshifter - Electric Dream

Synthony 2017

Saturday night is going to be a totally epic night as Synthony kicks off in Auckland. DJ + vocalists + choir + symphony orchestra + an incredible visual feast which I'm not sure the Town Hall has ever seen before.

"Leave your Nan at home, THIS IS NOT AN ORCHESTRA AS YOU KNOW IT or a sit down affair... this an event you will lose your sh*t at."

And yes, the rumours are true, I'll be up the back thrashing the tambourine and caressing the thunder sheet as part of our impressive percussion section.

But, it's been quite a journey leading up to this, and I haven't actually posted much about it, so here's a run down.

July 2016, the journey begins. Peter Thomas calls me and says he’s got a great gig on the horizon. He always does, but this time I knew it was special. He explains the concept and sends me off to watch the Ibiza Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Online, not in person! I watch it. I’m sold. I’m in.

My first real taste of the project was in March when the first two arrangements were done and recorded for the promotional video. Wow, got the feels.

Two arrangements down. Eighteen to go.

For a few years, Peter Thomas and I have pondered doing a project where we could get young secondary school arrangers involved. There is always opportunities for composers, but there are some hugely talented young arrangers looking for experience. We knew this project was perfect, and so we recruited: Tom Lawton, Ki Hoon Sung, Matthew Beardsworth, Sarah Rathbun, Vivien Whyte, Lauren Tantrum, Angeline Xiao and Weihong Yi. Legends. I briefed them and mentored them along the way, sending countless emails of feedback and reassurance.

I also got to work on the rest of the show. Transcribing, arranging, and editing the electronic tracks with DJ Erika Amoore (who along with David Elmsly are the two behind the event). Here's a bit about what I was doing (and yes, this was shot before they knew how to spell my name correctly):

The show launches, and... it sells out. Fast. The absolute boost I needed as I was working day and night to complete the arrangements. Everyone starts getting really excited. Erika and I get interviewed on Radio NZ. What a blast. Have a listen:

The tracks mentioned in the interview were Robert Miles by Children, Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim and Silence by Delerium. Want to know what the other tracks are? No, not likely, come to the show.

So early September arrives and I'm done. The 20 orchestra scores and 580 instrumental parts (who's counting?) are proofread and it's all off to the printer.

Breathe.

Massive shout out to Erika, David and Peter who dreamt up this event, brought me onboard and have all been absolutely wonderful to work with. Special thanks to the Auckland Symphony Orchestra for doing an almighty job playing all the notes.

Three rehearsals down, two to go. If you've got a ticket, you're in for a treat. Bring your best dance shoes. Carb load. You know the deal.

#bestjobintheworld

Bringing together the classic Porgy and Bess Overture

Pretty special few days typesetting the glorious Porgy and Bess Overture, arranged by Russ Garcia for Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's 1957 album, 'Porgy and Bess'. The access and digitisation of the score was courtesy of his wife, Gina.

Check it out at the Auckland Symphony Orchestra's 'Jazz!' concert, Auckland Town Hall, on July 26th.

'Rakiura' premieres in Auckland

Last week I had the pleasure of conducting the premiere of my new work, Rakiura, at the Auckland Town Hall and then at the Bruce Mason Centre. It was tremendously well received and I am thrilled. I initially posted about this project here, when we were asking for help via Kickstarter to bring the project to life. Well, we got there, and in early October I got to work.

With the music following a movie of images I had a task getting my head into the story, so I printed out the book and spread it out on my floor and it all started to come together.

Here's the programme note:

“Rakiura" is a story of life on Stewart Island, Rakiura, a remote island at the southern end of New Zealand. The piece was commissioned to accompany a photographic album and exhibition by Keri Moyle and follows the album’s five distinct sections. Warm strings pay tribute to the beauty of the scenery, woodwinds evoke the magnificent birdlife, foreboding brass builds apprehension as humans arrive and make their mark on the land, and then as humans withdraw the land flourishes once again with its harsh yet tranquil beauty.

The guest conductor and my good friend, David Kay, kindly gave me the opportunity to conduct the work (photo above). It was wonderful to put it together with the musicians and they really did a great job performing it.

A big thank you to everyone who supported the project and to those who came to one of the concerts and gave such a positive response.

Help to kickstart Rakiura

My exquisite wife Wendy and I walked the Rakiura Track on Stewart Island over New Year. It was absolutely amazing - the scenery and wildlife was breathtaking. A highlight was when a Stewart Island Brown Kiwi (Tokoeka) walked across the track in front of us in the middle of the afternoon - it was beyond amazing. I stored these memories away and didn't expect much would come of them...

Soon after, in February, I got an email from Keri at Signs of Life Photography with an idea... a very cool idea. She spent three weeks as a photographer for the Department of Conservation on Stewart Island taking photos! The best of these have developed into a stunning album called Rakiura: Seeds in the Sand and to release it Keri is combining this beautiful photography with a Kiwi composer (that's me) and a real-life, full-size symphony orchestra. How? By commissioning a brand new piece to be performed by the Auckland Symphony Orchestra as part of their October 26th (Auckland Town Hall) and November 2nd (Bruce Mason Centre) concerts which are also the two launch events for the album. Peter Thomas is at the helm of the concerts and was pivotal in getting me involved with the project.

Check out the video here:

What I really love about this book is that it isn't just photography - there is a story that binds everything together. Keri says:

"It’s a story of the tenacity of life, of design and purpose, of the importance of perspective, and of pain and decay. But over and over, again and again, it’s a story of hope. We see the processes of repentance and repair in the conservation activities, and finally from the land itself, from the life that is inherent within it, we see renewal."

So, a great story and a great project. BUT, we need your help! There is a lot of money involved with producing this high-end product, commissioning a new piece and of course working with a symphony orchestra.

VISIT HERE to read the entire story and to see how you can help our Kickstarter campaign so that the final costs can be met so this fantastic project can come to life.

Thank you in advance, you are all wonderful!

Plenty of music for Music Month

Well it's the last day of NZ Music Month, so that's a good excuse to post about a few projects I've been working on lately. I've been a bit quiet online in recent months so here's a good chance to make up for that.

Picture This! is a new work I've written for the Long Bay College Concert Band. They won gold at the KBB Music Festival last year so a new work had to take shape! I spent last weekend with them at their rehearsal camp and had loads of fun. Look out for Picture This! at this year's festival.

My friends at Diocesan School for Girls have commissioned two new works for their groups:

I ask of you no poetry is for their award-winning elite choir, St Cecelia Singers, and is written for SSA choir, handbells and organ (with text by Madeleine Ballard). Kiwi in Appalachia is for their chamber ensemble consisting of flute, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, 2 violins, viola and piano (cello part also available). It's a standalone piece but for this group was written to be used in conjunction with my arrangement of Copland's Appalachian Spring. I'm hoping to get along to see some rehearsals soon and will post some performance dates when available.

I have also just written Unwrapped for the St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra which was premiered last Sunday. I've written about it here, check it out.

Back in April was the 48Hour Film Festival and although we didn't get far this year with our film, On The Rocks, it was great to work with the guys from Sideways Productions once again. The music turned out nicely (finally, I got to use almost all strings!) and I later arranged it into a one movement work - listen here:

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Another film by these guys that I did the music for, Sounds Perfect, was screened at the Cannes Film Festival during May - I posted about it here, check it out.

In conducting news I had a great weekend down at the Bay of Plenty Music School working with the concert band. I was so happy with the standard they reached - read about my weekend here. I'm also currently working with the Auckland Symphony Chorus - preparing them for the Auckland Symphony Orchestra's hugely popular "Night of the Proms" concerts at the end of June. Great to have "Song of the Lonely Mountain" as part of the programme - a song I did the preparation of for "The Hobbit" movie two years ago.

That's all for now. A few other projects on the go, but I'll save those for a future post!

Merry Christmas

And just like that, another year is coming to an end. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported me in some way this year - that may have been with work, with ideas or just with conversation.

It has been an incredible time of music making for me with many wonderful opportunities, inspiring people to work with and some stunning ensembles and musicians to bring the music to life. Some of these include:

Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand Symphony, Auckland Symphony, Christchurch Symphony, Auckland Youth Orchestra, St Matthew's Chamber Orchestra, Manukau Concert Band, Victoria Kelly, Neil Finn, NZTrio and Horomona Horo, Tecwyn Evans, Michael Norris, Leonie Holmes, John Rowles, Ben Hoadley, Val Landi and Scott Hunt (USA), Bluebird Avenue, Fatcat & Fishface, Alexandros Pappas (Greece), Sideways Productions, Elizabeth Mandeno and David Kelly, the Polkadots, the KBB Music Festival and The Big Sing.

Next year is going to be a big year and absolutely business as usual so get in touch to get me involved with your projects - either as a music preparer, typesetter or editor, or as an arranger and orchestrator.

Over Christmas and New Year I'll be fishing and eating too much near here, chill-axing and probably still eating too much here, and then tramping and working off the Christmas food here. I'll be back working full-time on Monday 6th January, but feel free to get in touch over the break.

To leave you with some music, earlier this year I received the New Zealand Symphony recording of my original work, Rakaia. Auckland Symphony commissioned it in 2007, the NZSO workshopped it in 2008 and then this is their recording from 2010:

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/5080029" params="color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

Enjoy, and have an absolutely wonderful Christmas!

Some merry arrangements!

Over the last few weeks my Christmas arrangements have been popping up all over the place. The concert I'm most looking forward to is...

AUCKLAND SYMPHONY CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Tonight the Auckland Symphony Orchestra give their hugely popular and FREE Christmas concert at the Auckland Town Hall. The 90-strong orchestra team up with the Choir from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, along with combined Auckland church choirs, in this annual Christmas Celebration under the direction of Peter Thomas.

Each year I orchestrate a selection of the stunning choral arrangements by Niu Syddall and they also include some of my own arrangements.

This year they are:

• "Don't Save It All For Christmas Day"
• "Hark the Herald"
• "Silent Night"
• "The First Noel"
• "Who Would Imagine A King?"

The orchestra is also performing my arrangement of Snoopy's Christmas in their Sunday concert in Milford.

Last night's dress rehearsal sounding mightily impressive so get there if you can. Click here to find all of the details, be early, it fills up fast.

AUCKLAND PHILHARMONIA APO4KIDS XMAS

It was great to see my arrangements of "Little Drummer Boy", "Snoopy's Christmas" and my new "Frosty the Snowman" for solo bass trombone and orchestra got outings at the hugely popular APO4Kids Xmas concerts recently. They performed them at Massey High School on the 24th November and two concerts at the Auckland Town Hall on the 30th.

"Frosty" seemed a particular favourite, thanks to Tim Sutton on bass trombone for his superb efforts, and to my good friend, conductor David Kay.

ARRANGEMENTS TO SWEDEN AND THE UK

This year I shipped a number of Christmas arrangements off around the world. By shipped, of course, I mean whizzing PDF through cyberspace. They were to Stockholm in Sweden:

• "Joy to the World"
• "Drummer Boy"
• "When You Wish Upon a Star" (I agree, not entirely Christmas)

And to the UK:

• "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"
• "Lullaby for Christmas Eve"
• "When You Wish Upon A Star"

CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR SOLO VIOLIN

Each year my violin students get a book of Christmas Carols to play leading up to Christmas. There are thirteen in total, they are easy, bowed and jolly good fun, so feel free to download the PDF below. If you want them for another instrument, let me know and I'm sure my arm could be twisted.

Download it here and have a very Merry Christmas!

A project for NZ Music Month...

In 2011 I celebrated NZ Music Month in style by writing 31 microscores in 31 days. It was a huge success, they all got recorded, are hugely popular and I use them almost weekly when talking to students about composition and instrumentation. In 2012, while I was involved in many Music Month events, I didn't have a music composition project and I was pretty disappointed about it.

So in 2013, it's back!

What I like about this project is that usually all of my time is spent on other people's music - an absolute joy and honour - but it means I never get any time for my own composition. So NZ Music Month is a great annual opportunity to make sure that I work on my own music and have something worthwhile to show at the end of it.

I have debated for some time exactly what I would do this year - more daily microscores, weekly ensemble pieces, fortnightly larger pieces - or perhaps something slightly different.

I'll go for something slightly different.

For a long time, years in fact, I have wanted an online store to sell my own music - easily and automatically. Aside from works for professionals, I have a lot for students, community and school ensembles - and there is a great market for this. Sure, people can already buy it - through SOUNZ and by emailing me - but that doesn't quite cut it. People should be able to search on the internet, find a piece, discover and experience it, buy it, download it, play it. And I don't want to just export or print a version from the latest Sibelius file, I want to have properly published music - finalised, stylised, done, dusted, complete.

Initially, I thought I would finish a collection of piano music to sell - editing the current four pieces I had and writing four new ones - but I decided that I was still avoiding the most important step of all - to get this online store of music up and running and full of the music that I already have. So, now it's going to happen.

By May 31, my birthday and the final day of NZ Music Month, people from all around the world will be able to buy my published music easily and automatically from this site.

Here are the main things I will need to consider:

1. What to publish
2. Editing and publishing
3. Selling method, charges, etc
4. Cataloging
5. Promotion and launch

It's going to be a big month - I've got an Auckland Philharmonia premiere, Auckland Symphony rehearsals, the 48 Hour Film festival, 10 days in Australia, a trip to Hawke's Bay, plenty of music prep, arranging and teaching commitments, and my 30th birthday!

It'll be a big month, but I'm really excited and I look forward to writing several posts along the way - addressing the points above and no doubt discussing the setbacks and triumphs. Stay tuned.

Stretch your vocal chords with Auckland Symphony!

The Auckland Symphony Orchestra's famous Night of the Proms concerts are in June and once again you are invited to get involved with the annual outing of the Auckland Symphony Chorus. It is loads of fun, musical director Peter Thomas says:

We have a great programme planned with the choir singing a range of patriotic favourites as well as music from opera and the shows, along with superb soloists, as well as the obligatory flags, balloons, costumes, streamers, fun and loud noises! This promises to be yet another unforgettable performance event.

Previous choral experience is required but there are no auditions for this performance. Click the image below for more details or register here and join us for this experience.

I survived 2012. This is how it was!

The New Year means it's time to have a look back over the past year and see, through my blog posts, what has taken shape and what I have to say for myself! January started with a very well deserved "Shout-out to VaultPress" after they marvellously got my website back up and running after a meltdown!

February is the start of the school term and I posted about the preparation work I do for schools.

My typing fingers must have been tired at the end of March - it started with two popular posts, iOS apps for music professionals and Digital music stands vs iPads, following on from, again, two very popular posts I did in 2010.

Following that were four posts on current projects - "Working on workshops" looked at some teaching workshops I was involved with, "An opportunity to make the floor rumble" talked about my upcoming new work for the Auckland Philharmonia and the Auckland Town Hall Organ. I conducted at the Bay Of Plenty Music School once again and my post, "Bay Of Plenty music school hit Rotorua!", pre-empted my visit there, and finally "Opening up an orchestra" reviewed the first two Auckland Philharmonia Open Days were I ran the "meet the composer" area.

In April I reviewed my time at the Bay Of Plenty Music School in "Making music in Rotorua" and posted photos in "Checking out the pipes" after an inspiring tour of the Auckland Town Hall Organ.

May is music month and "A month of New Zealand music" checked out the events me or my music was involved with. It's also 48 Hour Film Festival time and our film this year was "My Confession…".

In June I talked about my involvement with Auckland Symphony's "Night Of The Proms" concerts in "Promenading in the colony" and I posted "Questions for a composer" after answering questions for a student's school assignment.

In July I posted my one word review of each piece from the "Nelson Composers Workshop 2012" where I was very happy to go this year as a mentor.

August is KBB Music Festival time and I also posted on the ongoing saga regarding the future of Sibelius in "What the heck is happening with Sibelius!". My piece, Tiraki, started to take shape after another workshop with the Auckland Philharmonia.

September was rather dormant on the blog front but in October I reviewed “What Lurks Among Saints” after being invited by a student I met earlier in the year.

In November I had the privilege of "Playing my role in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", and I posted about the experience.

December was busy with a number of projects. In "Little pieces of Christmas" I talked about a bunch of Christmas arrangements I did for the Auckland Philharmonia and Auckland Symphony orchestras. I also talked about a film I was involved with, called "Sounds Perfect" and its selection into the Tropfest final in “Sounds Perfect” to be in a final". I then prepared music for some very fine New Zealand singers and talked about it in "Preparing for some legends!".

Finally, no year is complete without a "Merry Christmas" post thanking you for all of your support during the year and the compliments of the season.

Another year ticked off the list, another year doing my absolute dream job - let's get ready for an even better 2013!