Mānawatia a Matariki – Music by New Zealand Composers

On 28 June Resonance Ensemble conducted by Tony Ryan with guest conductors Henry Nicholson and Susan Dollin will welcome the Māori New Year and present its third annual concert of music by New Zealand composers.

Music by our conductor-composer Tony Ryan features on the programme, along with orchestral works by Anthony Ritchie, Pieta Hextall, John Psathas, Daniel Harris and William Philipson.

John Psathas is one of New Zealand’s most well-known and long-established composers. His Tarantismo was premièred in 2010 and takes its inspiration from the Tarantella – an Italian dance of increasing frenzy, allegedly developed from the idea that victims of the bite of the giant tarantula spider would dance around wildly in order to expel the spider’s venom.

In January, at this year’s Waitaki Summer Music Camp, our principal flute Susan Dollin conducted Anthony Ritchie’s new work for wind ensemble entitled Giving Thanks, which Susan will conduct again in our concert. This sunny work, written while the composer was undergoing chemotherapy, expresses gratitude for the support he received during that challenging time.

Henry Nicholson will conduct two of the works on the programme. Pieta Hextall’s To the Edge of the Universe explores the time-space continuum; the idea that beyond the edge of the known universe there is still infinity, while House of the Faun by William Philipson takes us through one of Pompeii’s grandest mansions, the ruins of which can still be seen at the site which was famously destroyed in the 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This eerily atmospheric piece shows another side of the composer who has also written music for more than three hundred episodes of TV’s Shortland Street.

The Food of Love by Tony Ryan takes its title from the opening line of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and brings together songs and music which the composer wrote for Christchurch’s Court Theatre productions of Shakespeare plays in the 1990s. The piece includes five guest vocal soloists – Alannah Hounsome-Vail, Erin Connelly-Whyte, Thomas Woodfield, David Moseley and Kahu Gray.

As with so much politically-motivated music of the past, from Mozart to Shostakovich and beyond, Daniel Harris’s colourful and diverse Contamination of the Fae embodies his response to present day political manipulation, corruption and fraud. The composer uses the orchestra to express communal breakdown resulting from malevolent influences.

These new and recent works by six contemporary New Zealand composers express a diverse range of reactions to the times we live in and, as all art should do, will entertain, inspire, and provoke.

Contact the host of Resonance Ensemble - Mānawatia a Matariki

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