SOUNZ Community Commission cutoff coming

13 June 2006

SOUNZ Community Commission cutoff coming

Community groups and professional composers have until the end of this month to come up with proposals for forming a creative partnership over the next year.

Administered by SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music, the SOUNZ Community Commission provides up to $1500 for the creation of a new piece of music ­ anything from recorders, choir, theatre music to brass band or orchestra.

The proposals can come from either the Community Groups, or the composers themselves. The Community Commission has been an annual award since 1999 made possible through the generosity of an overseas benefactor.

³The object of the Community Commission is to enable community groups and professional composers to work together in the creation of new music,² SOUNZ Executive Director Scilla Askew explains. ³The creation and performance of a new work often inspires a cooperative and energetic collaboration around a special event. The process has proven to be very rewarding for both the community groups and the composers involved.²

Applications for the 2006 SOUNZ Community Commission close on Friday 30 June. Information, including an application form, can be found on the SOUNZ website, www.sounz.org.nz or by contacting the Centre for New Zealand Music on 04 801 8602 or by e-mail: info@sounz.org.nz

Background:

Previous Community Commissions include Jonathan Besser¹s New Dawn for the Millennium Parade in Gisborne (1999), Helen Bowater¹s Hu - a work for massed recorders and gamelan for the NZ Recorder Conference in Christchurch (2001) and Rachel Clement¹s Taking Off , and anthem for inaugural Festival of Colour in Wanaka in 2005, performed by the by the Central Otago Regional Choir and Central Otago Regional Orchestra.

The 2005 SOUNZ Community Commission has seen composer Ross Carey and the students and tutors of the Homai School for the Blind and Visually Impaired July music course collaborating on a work for choir, piano and viola called Come Together. It will premiere at a public concert in Auckland on Thursday 6 July.

SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand music, is dedicated to promoting, fostering and providing the music of New Zealand composers. More information is available from the website at .

ENDS

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