Programme Notes


Sherry Grant presents NZ music
"CATCH 23"


 

1. John Psathas: Waiting for the Aeroplane (1990)
 

 

John Psathas (b.1966) was born in Wellington in 1966 of Greek parents, and is now one of NZ's most internationally acclaimed composers. He was twice NZ Arts Foundation Laureate Award recipient. Much of his music is marked by a preoccupation with driving rhym and overt energy. Waiting for the Aeroplane was written in 1988 for Daniel Poynton who premiered the work. The work was inspired by the composer's experience of travel.

 

 

2. David Hamilton: Clouds Over Aoraki (2009)
 

 

David Hamilton (b.1955) is a well-known choral composer, conductor workshop leader and adjudicator from Auckland. His music has won numerous competitions in NZ and internationally. Clouds Over Aoraki is the second piece in Five Outdoor Scenes, and Aoraki is Māori for Mt Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ. The music suggests clouds floating over and around the mountain, creating shifting patterns and colours.

 

 

3. Janet Jennings: Across the Rhododendron Lawn (2019)
 

 

Janet Jennings was twice winner of the Lilburn Trust Composition Awards at the University of Waikato and recipient of many scholarships including the Fullbright Scholarship with which she undertook PhD studies in the USA. Across the Rhododendron Lawn is one of the eleven pieces from the suite A Walk in Hamilton Gardens, written for NZ pianist Katherin Austin to celebrate the iconic public gardens in Hamilton, New Zealand.

 

 

4. Gareth Farr: The Horizon From Owhiro Bay (2008)

 

Gareth Farr (b.1968) studied composition and percussion performance at University of Auckland and Victoria University, before postgraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music (USA) under Samuel Adler. He was the recipients of many awards. His music is influenced by his extensive study of percussion, both Western and non-Western. The Horizon From Owhiro Bay was commissioned for Stephen De Pledge as part of the Landscape Prelude series. It is a musical representation of the view he saw at twilight from his studio on the South Coast of Wellington.

 

5. David Farquhar: Story (1992)

 

David Farquhar (1928-2007) taught as professor of music at the Victoria University in Wellington and he was the founder-president of the Composers Association of New Zealand. He wrote numerous orchestral, choral, stage and instrumental work, and has been recorgnised since the 1950s as being at the forefront of NZ composition. Story is 5th of 8 pieces from Off-Beat, where off-beat qualities ranging from sharp opposition to smoother integration are employed.

 

6. Alfred Hill: Prelude ‘Through a Veil of Mist’ (1924)

 

Alfred Hill (1869-1960) was NZ's first fully professional composer and a leading figure in Australian music from the early ears of this century. After studying in Leipzip, he became conductor of the Wellington Orchestral Society. Later he moved to Australia and co-founded the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and taught there as a professor. A major antipodean musical figure, he was a very fast wrter and master of lyrical expressiveness. The Prelude ‘Through a Veil of Mist’ was one of his over 200 pieces composed for the piano.

 

7. Salina Fisher: Raindrops on a misty pond (2007)

 

Salina Fisher (b.1993) is an award-winning NZ composer based in Wellington. She was the younest ever recipient of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award in 2016 and recipient of many other awards. Wit a background as a violinist, she is particularly interested in collaboration. Many of her works have been recored by RNZ Concert and broadcast internationally. Since 2020 she has been a Teaching Fellow in Composition. Raindrops on a misty pond is the first from Three Short Pieces.

 

8. Frank Hutchens: Two Little Birds (ca.1944)

 

Frank Hutchens (1892-1965) was a pianist and composer originally from NZ. He studied at the Royal Academy or Music at the age of thirteen, upon encouragement of the virtuoso pianist Ignaz Paderewski. Later he became a popular concert pianist in Australia and was a founding member of the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music. Scholarships in composition are awarded annually in his name to young students at the Sydney Conservatorium. His works are said to have "charm and craftsmanship". Two Little Birds is a conversation between two birds and what seems like a cuckoo disrupting things near the end.

 

9. Kirsten Strom: WAVEring Lines (Acoustics)(2017)

 

Kirsten Strom (b.1994) is a young composer, conductor and creative writer. From a life-changing encounter with God as a child, she is drawn to sacred works and the creative use of spatial design. Her music has been performed internationally, commissioned, and aired on radio in her native New Zealand. A graduate of the University of Auckland, she is working towards a Master’s degree with the Royal Academy of Music, London. WAVEring Lines (Acoustics) is like a performer's puzzle, constructed from compacted musical lines, to portray the fluctuating lines of the sea.

 

10. Douglas Lilburn: From the Port Hill (1942)

 

Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001) was born in Whanganui, New Zealand. He studied at Canterbury University College in Christchurch and then the Royal College of Music, London. He was tutored in composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams. He was founder of the Lilburn Trust of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington in 1984. Douglas Lilburn was described as "the elder statesman of New Zealand music" and the "grandfather of New Zealand music”. The fourth prelude from the Five Bagatelles is known independently as ‘From the Port Hills’, which is a topographical reference to the Christchurch landscape; the hushed chords and ambient modalities create a warming nimbus, and this special envelope of sound sustains from first to last.

 

11. Dorothy Buchanan: Rosebud (1996)

 

Dorothy Buchanan (b.1945) grew up in Christchurch. In 1976 she was New Zealand's first composer-in-schools and in 1979 became both president of the Composers' Association of New Zealand and the first woman to join the Musicians' Union. She has collaborated with New Zealand writers to produce major operas like Woman at the Store and The Mansfield Stories, both from the short stories of Katherine Mansfield. Rosebud is the first piece in Birthday Music, composed to honour the birthdays of the named students and family members, often offers a playful musical description of their personal characters.

 

12. Kenneth Young: Elusive Dream (1991)

 

Kenneth Young (b.1955) is one of New Zealand’s most well-known and performed composers with a professional career which has expanded over the past 40 years. He has three times been a finalist for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award. In 1976 he was appointed Principal Tuba of the NZSO. Young regularly conducts the NZSO,  APO and the other regional orchestras throughout New Zealand. Elusive Dream was inspired by “wistful and intangible glimpses of our subconscious which seem to move swiftly and then vanish as we become aware of them."

 

13. Warwick Braithwaite: Fragment (1915)

 

Warwick Braithwaite (1896-1971) was born in Dunedin. Warwick left New Zealand in 1915 to study music in London and became a highly respected conductor. He returned to New Zealand off and on to conduct the orchestra and retained a nostalgic fondness for the home of his birth. Braithwaite was a promoter of NZ music and musicians when he could, supporting and encouraging Douglas Lilburn, and performing many concerts with Arnold Trowell as soloist. Fragment is a short lyrical piece to promote the development of delicate balance between the singing melodic line and its harmonic accompaniment.

 

14. Anthony Ritchie: the birds laugh at my melancholy (2021)

 

Anthony Ritchie (b.1960) is currently Professor of Music at The University of Otago in Dunedin, and Head of the School of Performing Arts. He studied composition at the University of Canterbury, Liszt Academy and completed a Ph.D. on the music of Bartok in Budapest. Since 2005 he has had fourteen CDs of his composition released, and he has had works performed in many countries abroad. In 2011 he was chosen to arrange the music for the 20 national anthems at the Rugby World Cup. Anthony is also interested in sport, and has represented NZ at two croquet world championships. His Naïve pieces for piano are simple, Zen-like portrayals of single states of being, objects or thoughts. They are musical images that a child might appreciate or an adult. In the third piece, the birds laugh at my melancholy, bird-call is contrasted with romantic introspection.

 

15. Jillian Bray: Kokako Dreaming (2009)

 

Jillian Bray (1939-2018) was known primarily as a writer of hymn tunes. Of about fifty published hymns, most are set to texts by Shirley Murray, who is among the foremost writers in her field. As a private piano teacher Jillian wrote a number of pieces for pupils. Jillian also directed several community choirs and sung in others. Kokako Dreaming is the second piece from Five Bagatelles. The North Island Kokako is on the endangered list: a secretive bird, most likely to be seen after dawn when it often perches to sing in the open. This piece does not mimic its song, but is rather a lament for its South Island counterpart now extinct, as are many other native NZ birds.

 

16. Ronald Tremain: Two Bagatelles (1949)

 

Ronald Tremain (1923-1998) was born in Feilding, New Zealand. He had a distinguished career as a composer and teacher. After war service he taught at Feilding High School and attended Cambridge Summer Music Schools (studying composition with Douglas Lilburn) in 1947 and 1948. He continued his studies at the Royal College of Music in London earning diplomas in piano performance and a doctorate in 1953. He later lectured at University of Auckland, University of Michigan (USA), Goldsmiths College at the University of London (UK) and Brock University (Canada). Tremain’s Two Bagatelles was dedicated to Lilian Harper and was awarded second prize in the 1946 Charles Begg Composition Competition.

 

17. Thomas Goss: Leaves Are Falling (1983)

 

Thomas Goss (b.1962) has worked as a professional composer, arranger, and educator in New Zealand and the United States. He has created orchestral education programmes for NZSO, Auckland Philharmonia, and Orchestra Wellington, as a part of the ‘Baby Pops’ series. Considered a pioneer in the field of orchestral education programs, Thomas is strong supporter of orchestras on the community and youth level. Thomas is the founder of Orchestration Online. Leaves Are Falling is the final piece from PRELUDES for a rainy day, a piano suite written at the beginning of his career at age 21 - but still resonates with his ongoing style and artistic outlook.

 

18. Robert Adam Horne: Jours passés (Bygone Days) Intermezzo (ca.1911)

 

Robert Adam Horne (1869-1956) was born in Australia but later moved to NZ with his wife. He was a piano tuner, repairer and pianist. Horne was very busy as an accompanist at many concerts and recitals. He was also a successful composer. He wrote a mixture of songs and orchestral works. Horne was the Vice-President of the Christchurch Orchestral Society for some years. 

 

19. Ernest Jenner: Foxglove Bells (from Flower Fancies, 3 Miniatures for piano) (1940)

 

Ernest Jenner (1892–1971) was born in England and moved to NZ in 1928. He was a highly talented concert pianist, music educator and composer. He wrote piano pieces, songs, and cantatas, as well as books on music education. He also worked as a broadcaster and music critic for the Christchurch Press. His compositions were well crafted and recognized as ‘genuinely and intensely expressive’. Composed in 1940, The Foxglove Bells is from Flower Fancies, Three Miniatures for piano.

 

20. Mary Brett: Nocturne

 

Mary Brett (Mary Osborne, 1887-1974) was born in Invercargill to musician parents who actively encouraged her love of music. Her mother taught singing, and her father played piano, viola and cello. He was also an instrument repairer. Mary composed from an early age. She moved from Invercargill to Dunedin to further her piano studies. She married, had a son, and the family moved to Sydney where she was in demand as a pianist. At the outbreak of World War Two the family moved to Auckland, where she continued her career as an accompanist and teacher. Her Nocturne reminds of the melancholy in Chopin’s nocturnes.

 

21. Ross Carey: Prelude Southern Greeting (2005)

 

Ross James Carey (b.1969) is a pianist and composer from Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Since 2017 he has been a foreign professor in the Faculty of Music at Sias University, Xinzheng, located in China's central plains centered on the Yellow River. As a pianist Ross has performed contemporary repertoire by Asian and Australasian composers, including his own works, and more recently has concentrated on collaborative repertoire, including Chinese art song.  Ross's compositions often include aspects of homage, cross-cultural quotation and crossing of genres. Recently his focus has been on short-form pieces, including solo instrumental pieces and works for toy piano. Prelude - Southern Greeting was written in the winter of 2005 during an extended sojourn in N.Z.'s beautiful Coromandel coast. The gently repeating motives are redolent of the rhythms of nature he was surrounded by at this time.  He performed the premiere at the University of Otago that year and subsequently included it in his solo recital at the University of Hong Kong in 2006.

 

22. Gordon McBeth: An Idyll (1941)

 

Gordon McBeth (1885-1951) was born in Whanganui and studied at the Leipzig Conservatorium before World War I and later travelled to the USA at the Institute of Musical Arts (later known as the Juilliard School). He had worked with Elgar, John Ireland, and Cyril Scott in London, and became an influential and inspiring teacher himself. Unfortunately, the Idyll for piano is amongst the very few compositions that have been discovered thus far, which also include a notated song of the now extinct huia bird.

 

23. Claire Cowan: Paper Dragonfly (2009)

 

Claire Cowan (b.1983) is at the forefront of composition in New Zealand. She has two prestigious Silver Scroll nominations and a win for her first Television series soundtrack “Hillary” and was awarded the APRA Professional Development Award for Film and TV music. In 2019 she completed the first ballet score ever commissioned from a female composer in the history of the Royal NZ Ballet “Hansel and Gretel” and went on to record it with the NZSO in 2020. Her classical concert work is unique in that it seamlessly merges art music and popular idioms in a way that is both natural and accessible. As a result, her music offers a very strong connection to audiences. Composed in 2009, the Paper Dragonfly is a beautiful study of texture and acoustic through gentle shift of ostinatos and harmonies.

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Sherry Bio

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Sherry Grant, originally from Taiwan, is a New Zealand concert pianist, cellist, award-winning poet, author, journal editor, translator and festival organiser. Having received her music training in Taiwan, New Zealand and the UK, Sherry has been performing both solo piano recitals (NYC & LA 2022) and with her trio ‘Taioro’ in Canada/USA (2022 International Viola Congress), NZ (2023 Wellington Fringe Festival) and Thailand (2023 International Viola Congress).

 

Sherry is the artistic director of International KM100NZ Festival (Nov 2023), International Scriabin 150 Festival (Nov 2022), International Hindemith & Copland Festival (Nov 2021) and War & Peace Arts & Music Festival (May 2019). She is the gold award winner at the 2022 Global Interview Social Audio Awards (music category).

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Sherry wrote her very first poem in June 2020 and in less than 3 years, she has written almost 4000 English poems, in both the Japanese short form and longer rhymed form. Apart from being a well published haiku, cherita and rengay poet at over 70 international journals and anthologies, Sherry is the author of ‘Bat Girl’ and ‘Being Katherine’, and editor of ‘Haiku Zoo Journal’, ‘Raining Rengay’ and 'Nonaku Poetry'. Sherry was invited by the Haiku Society of America to present a rengay workshop at their June 2021 virtual conference and was one of the organisers of Haiku Down Under Conference in October 2022. She also runs regular poetry workshops online.

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Sherry’s Asian concert series (June 2023) programme consists of 23 solo piano pieces by 23 NZ composers through the ages, presented in a multimedia manner combining poetry, artworks and photography of New Zealand landscape. Sherry created this programme to celebrate the renowned New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, 100 years since her death at the age of 34 in 1923. Sherry will be organising the international KM100NZ festival in November 2023 for KM scholars, musicians, artists and poets to gather online, discuss and inspire one another through Katherine Mansfield’s literary works and to celebrate her New Zealand connection. There will be screening of a special feature NZ film about KM at the festival.

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For more information please visit www.artsinifitypress.com/km100nz

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曲目介紹

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1. 約翰· 薩瑟斯：等待飛機（1990年）

2. 大衛·漢彌爾頓：庫克山頂的雲（2009年）

3. 珍妮特·詹寧斯：越過杜鵑花圃（2019年）

4. 加雷斯·法爾：歐費羅灣的地平線（2008年）

5. 大衛·法夸：故事（1992年）

6. 阿爾弗雷德·希爾：穿過霧的薄紗（1924年）

7. 薩麗娜·費舍爾：霧濛濛池塘上的雨點（2007年）

8. 法蘭克·哈欽斯：兩隻小鳥（大約1944年）

9. 克兒絲頓·斯特隆：波浪線條-原聲（2017年）

10. 道格拉斯·里爾本：眺望海港山（1942年）

11. 桃樂絲·布坎南：玫瑰花苞（1996年）

12. 肯尼斯·楊：難以捉摸的夢（1991年）

13. 瓦力克·布雷斯維特：碎片（1915年）

14. 安東尼·里奇：鳥兒嘲笑我的傷感（2021年）

15. 吉蓮·布蕾：紐西蘭長尾鴉的夢（2009年）

16. 羅納德·特雷曼：兩首鋼琴小品（1949年）

17. 湯姆斯·高斯：落葉片片（1983年）

18. 羅伯特·亞當·霍恩：往日情懷（大約1911年）

19. 歐內斯特·詹納：毛地黃鈴鐺 （1940年）

20. 瑪麗·布雷特：夜曲

21. 羅思·凱瑞：前奏曲-來自南方的問候（2005年）

22. 戈登·馬克白：牧歌（1941年）

23. 克萊兒·考恩：紙蜻蜓（2009年）

 

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個人簡介

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陳美如（Sherry Grant)，生於台灣，是一位紐西蘭鋼琴/大提琴演奏家、得獎英語詩人、作家、詩社編輯、翻譯家和文藝音樂節主辦者。她自小在台灣、紐西蘭和英國接受了音樂教育後，便活躍於國際舞台上（2022紐約市/洛杉磯市鋼琴獨奏會），也經常在紐西蘭苔沃若（Taioro）三重奏裡表演（2022美國/加拿大、紐西蘭威靈頓2023Fringe音樂節和泰國2023國際中提琴會議）。

 

陳美如從2019年起，以紐西蘭為據點主辦了4個文藝音樂節。她是2023國際凱瑟琳·曼斯菲兒忌日百年文藝音樂節、2022國際史克里亞賓誕辰 150年音樂節、2021國際亨德密茲暨柯普蘭音樂節及2019戰爭與和平音樂美術節的策劃總監）。她也獲得英國環球採訪(Global Interview) 2022語音社交平台音樂金牌頭獎。

 

陳美如在2020年六月寫下她生平第一首詩，在短短不到三年間，她已創作將近四千首英文詩：有較短的俳句，也有較長的尾韻詩。她的俳句、切麗塔詩和連軌詩已發表在七十多個國際詩集中，她是「蝙蝠小女俠」和「我是凱瑟琳」詩集的作者，也是「俳句動物園」和「下著連軌雨」的主編。陳美如受美國俳句協會邀請於2021年線上年度會議中介紹講解連軌詩，也在2022年底協助主辦了第一屆澳紐俳句會議。她定期的在網上教授寫詩技巧。

 

陳美如這次2023年六月亞洲之行鋼琴獨奏會的曲目，是為了2023年十一月國際凱瑟琳·曼斯菲兒忌日百年文藝音樂節特別量身訂製的。她挑選的23首曲子是23位不同紐西蘭作曲家的作品，同時配合詩歌以多媒體方式呈現紐西蘭風情（畫作或攝影）。曼斯菲兒於1923年英年早逝，享年三十四歲。陳美如在她策劃的KM100NZ 音樂文藝節中，集合了學者、詩人、音樂家、美術家來討論曼斯菲兒的作品、相互切磋，也會將重點放在曼斯菲兒的出生地紐西蘭。在此音樂文藝節，也安排了一場紐西蘭錄製曼斯菲兒電影的線上國際首映。更多資訊：www.artsinifitypress.com/km100nz