Auckland Wind Orchestra Celebrates Rich Traditions

Auckland Wind Orchestra Celebrates Rich Cultural Traditions

Music of Land & Sea is the theme for the Auckland Wind Orchestra’s next concert, an event to be held at St Matthew-in-the-City in celebration of a world of folk dance and song.

“Land and sea shape the way of life and culture,” says conductor Yih-hsin Huang. “Composers have found that this is where the root of tradition and family lies. Dvorák is just one example of a world-famous composer who celebrated the tradition of folk music and allowed it to influence nearly every aspect of his writing.”

In compiling Music of Land & Sea, Huang chose pieces from many diverse sources. Apart from one of Dvorák’s popular Slavonic Dances, she selected music inspired by the folk traditions of America, England, Korea, Japan and even Armenia.

“Aram Khachaturian’s Armenian Dances evoke a colourful sound world which carries one to a faraway land,” she says. “I also love Robert Russell Bennett’s Old American Dances because his stylistic writing lends each movement a special character. Like Bennett, John Barnes Chance was American but in Variations on a Korean Folk Song he explores the musical potential of a beautiful song which touched him in youth.”

Also on the programme is Three Folk Songs of the Sea, a work by New Zealander David Hamilton.

Huang believes the Auckland Wind Orchestra is well-suited to present this celebration of folk dance and song, citing its “youthfulness, agility, passion and cultural diversity”. In recent years, the orchestra has had members from as far afield as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the UK, France, Norway and the USA.

Huang herself was born in Taiwan, and has been a resident of New Zealand since the early 1990s. Since that time, she’s been involved with many community ensembles and with bands and choirs from Manurewa High School, where she teaches.

Music of Land & Sea starts at 7.30pm on Saturday 16th June. Door sales are $15 or, for seniors and students, $10. St Matthew-in-the-City is located on the corner of Hobson and Wellesley Streets in Central Auckland. More information is available on the web: www.awo.co.nz

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