Two Iconic NZ Artists Come Together: The Houston-Fox Project

HOUSTOUN - FOX PROJECT

Maestro meets Maestro

New Zealand’s premiere classical and jazz musicians are coming together for a series of concerts and a recording session in 2015.

Michael Houstoun - classical piano maestro and Rodger Fox - renowned jazz artist are masters of their craft. The joining of these two

New Zealand icons will blend the best of classical with the best of jazz.

Special guests will include Saxophonist Roger Manins and

vocalist Erna Ferry

Program will be drawn from:

• Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 (1st mvt)

(Arranged for piano and 18-piece big band by Grammy award winning arranger / composer Bill Cunliffe from the USA )

• Two New Arrangement from internationally acclaimed composer - arranger Bill Cunliffe to feature piano and jazz big band.

• Raff Riff – solo piano piece by Mike Nock will be re-arranged for piano and big band by Dr.David Lisik

• Psathas piece Psyzygysm rearranged by Daniel Hayles

• The big band will also present material from its forthcoming recording of New Zealand original compositions by such composers as John Rae, Norman Meehan, Rodger Fox, Chris Selley,

John Psathas, Andrew Hall, Roger Manins, Anita Schwabe, Phil Broadhurst and Nick Granville.

NEW ZEALAND TOUR DATES: ( Further dates to be added)

April 05 Tauranga Jazz Festival

April 26 Wanaka Festival of Colours

April 27 Christchurch Charles Luney Auditorium

May 29 Queens Birthday Jazz @ Expressions Theatre Upper Hutt

May 30 Manawatu Jazz Festival @ The Regent Theatre

May 31 Napier Jazz – Century Theatre

June 07 Wellington International Jazz Festival – Opera House

Full Bio Material:

The HOUSTOUN – FOX PROJECT

2015 is shaping up to be an enormous year for The Rodger Fox Big Band and Michael Houstoun. New Zealand concerts dates are in place and a CD recording session of the tour material is being organized.

Rodger Fox and Michael Houstoun have been names synonymous with music in New Zealand for many years.

Rodger was born in Christchurch and has over the years continued to maintain strong connections with the Jazz Community in Christchurch.

Rodger’s jazz career began at a young age with brass bands in the Porirua area, like the Mana College Big Band. Later he joined the Quincy Conserve, a band that defined New Zealand music in the early 1970s. This was followed by the 1860 Band and partnerships and performances that continue to this day.

A consistent factor over the decades has been the sound of the Rodger Fox Big Bands. Band members have come and gone but the biggest names in NZ jazz have all performed with Fox, including Ray Woolf, Tina Cross, Malcolm McNeil and Midge Marsden and many others.

A supreme jazz trombonist, Rodger Fox has led a Big Band in New Zealand for nearly forty-one years. Over that time he has toured with some of the biggest names in jazz – Michael Brecker, Diane Schuur, John Fedchock, Bill Cunliffe, Steve Houghton, Dick Oatts, Alex Sipiagin, Bob Sheppard, Bruce Forman, Charley Davis, Denise Perrier, Alan Broadbent and Jim Pugh, Patti Austin, Kurt Elling, Randy Crawford, Bob Mintzer to name but a few.

Michael was born in Timaru, New Zealand in 1952. He became interested in the piano when he was a small child and began lessons at the age of 5. Under the tutelage, first of Sister Mary Eulalie in Timaru, and then of the great Maurice Till in Christchurch and Dunedin, Michael moved through the examination grades and by the age of 18 had won every major competition in New Zealand.

In 1973 he entered the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition where he placed third. Other international competition successes came in 1975 at the Leeds Competition (fourth prize) and in 1982 at the Tchaikowsky Competition (sixth prize).

Michael lived away from New Zealand from 1974 until 1981 and in this time studied with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (‘74/’75) and with Brigitte (‘Gigi’) Wild in London (’78/’79). He performed in the USA, UK, Germany and Holland.

In 1981 Michael followed his heart back to New Zealand where he has continued to live and concertise ever since, performing also in Australia, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. He plays from a large repertoire which stretches from JS Bach to the present day, including 40 concertos and chamber music. A strong advocate of New Zealand music, works from Douglas Lilburn to John Psathas are regularly featured in his programmes. During the 1990s he concentrated on the music of Beethoven, playing the complete sonatas in five cycles around New Zealand - Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Napier. He played the concerto cycle in NZ and Australia.

Michael won the Turnovsky Prize in 1982, and in 1999 received an honorary doctorate in literature from Massey University. In 2007 he was made a laureate of the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

In 1996 he collaborated with television producer Tainui Stephens on a documentary about Franz Liszt, ‘Icon in b minor’, and in 2005 was the subject of another documentary, ‘Piano Man’.

Michael frequently adjudicates music competitions in New Zealand, and in 1998 was a juror at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in Salt Lake City.

He is Patron of the Nelson School of Music, the Regent on Broadway theatre in Palmerston North, the Piano Tuners and Technicians Guild of New Zealand, the New Zealand Music Examinations Board and the Kerikeri National Piano Competition.

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