Julian Raphael’s entry receives SOUNZ Community Commission

Julian Raphael’s entry receives the SOUNZ Community Commission

SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music is pleased to announce the winning project for this year’s SOUNZ Community Commission: composer Julian Raphael and community group ACTIVE will create a song cycle/performance work exploring what it means to be a young person with intellectual disabilities.

“I am really delighted that this application has been successful and I appreciate the support from the other community organisations (Arts Access Aotearoa, Barbarian Productions and Chamber Music New Zealand) in backing the proposal,” says the winning project’s composer Julian Raphael. “I am excited to be collaborating with the young people of ACTIVE; they are such an animated and warm-hearted group who love engaging in music and creativity. They have many stories to tell about their lives; things that they have had to struggle with and other aspects that give them pleasure, so our song cycle will give them a new voice out in the world. We hope that this will result in others understanding them more fully.”

Julien Raphael is a community musician, music educator, composer and performer from Wellington. ACTIVE, part of IDEA Services (Intellectual Disability Empowerment in Action), aims to enable, empower and support young people with intellectual disabilities.

The finished work, involving singers, dancers and instrumentalists, will culminate in an accessible concert in May 2017, in collaboration with Arts Access Aotearoa and Community Music Junction. The winning project was selected from many high quality applications and the commission is administered by SOUNZ.

“We are thrilled that Julian Raphael’s proposal with ACTIVE has been selected for the 2016 Community Commission. This project reflects SOUNZ’s core values of collaborating and working with different communities and we are delighted that young people will be involved in the process. SOUNZ is pleased to be supporting the presentation of this collaboration in a concert in 2017. We are grateful to the donor for making this project happen again,” said SOUNZ Executive Director Diana Marsh.

The SOUNZ Community Commission aims to bring together NZ professional composers and community groups to create and perform a new work. It was established in 1999 and has resulted in works for diverse groups such as recorder choir, experimental sound artists and children’s theatre.

ENDS

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