Happy birthday to John Rimmer

Happy birthday to John Rimmer; a tribute concert in his own music

The renowned composer, musician and teacher John Rimmer turned 80 this year, and the Karlheinz Company will celebrate with a concert at the School of Music.

John Rimmer joined the staff of the School in 1974, retiring as Emeritus Professor in Composition in 1999.

He founded the Karlheinz Company in 1978, a contemporary music ensemble still based at the School, where it is currently under the directorship of Dr Eve de Castro-Robinson.

This tribute concert will bring together students and staff performers from the School, as well as guest performers from the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and beyond.

Dr Rimmer will be guest of honour, and the concert will include some of his best known compositions performed by leading musicians, including current students, past students and former colleagues.

Some of the country’s most outstanding wind players will perform the seldom played The Exotic Circle, including Roger Buckton, for whom the piece was written.

Guest performers will play Dr Rimmer’s Composition 4 for flute and electronics, and Composition 8 for violin and electronics. A technical team from the School of Music will ensure state of the art sound diffusion for these seminal works written in the 1970s, and which represent the composer’s innovative forays into working with instrument and tape.

De Aestibus Rerum (on the ebb and flow of things) from 1983 received first prize in the International Horn Competition held in the United States. Dr Rimmer’s former colleague, John Elmsly, will conduct the ensemble work which will performed by a number of top notch musicians, and will include special guest slot with Dr Rimmer on the horn.

School of Music staff members, Morag Atchison and Stephen De Pledge will perform solo works, Karen Grylls will lead a female choir in Dr Rimmer’s Alleluia, and a number of ex-students and former colleagues will present a series of miniature works, composed specifically for the occasion.

When: Sunday 26 May, 5pm.
Venue: Music Theatre, School of Music
Location: School of Music, 6 Symonds Street, Auckland Central
Register for free tickets, here.

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