Composers take centre stage

Composers take centre stage

Some of the latest new music from the highly talented staff and student composers in Victoria University's School of Music will get its first airing in two major concerts this month.

That talent recently received a worldwide audience when the work of Senior Lecturer John Psathas was played at the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics.

On Friday 17 September at 6.30pm in Victoria's Adam Concert Room, the contemporary music ensemble Gateseven will perform in a concert tribute to Janet Frame. The concert will feature works composed by Victoria composition students that have been inspired by the writings of Frame, who died earlier this year.

Gateseven is the brainchild of Victoria composition graduates Dylan Lardelli and Ewan Clark. Drawing from a pool of around 20 highly talented young musicians, most of whom are senior performance students at the School of Music, the ensemble endeavours to fill a completely new niche in the New Zealand chamber music scene, performing a vibrant, fresh and accessible array of new and recent art music, with works by emerging and established New Zealand composers. Tickets are available from the School of Music office and cost $10 (concessions $5). Door sales will be available.

The following day, Saturday 18 September, at 2pm, the School’s Composers’ Competition will take place in the Adam Concert Room. The competition will be judged by Diedre Irons (Head of Piano Studies at the School of Music), Jim Gardner (Composer-in-Residence at the School of Music) and German composer Dieter Mack, (Professor of Composition at the Musikhochschule Lübeck), who is in the country under the auspices of the Goethe Institut.

This year, the Lilburn Endowment Trust has contributed $5000 prize money for the most outstanding compositions and performances.

This event is free.

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