‘Get out of whatever cage you’re in.’ – John Cage

Biography

Eve de Castro-Robinson (1956-) has been commissioned and performed by a wide variety of performers, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia, with whom she was Composer-in-Residence in 1991, Chamber Music New Zealand, the New Zealand String Quartet, CadeNZa, NZ Trio, the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, Hebrides Ensemble, the Nash Ensemble of London and many soloists including Alexander Ivashkin, Jane Manning, Dan Poynton, Helen Medlyn and Stephen De Pledge. In 1986 her Interpolations for orchestra was conducted in open rehearsal by Pierre Boulez. Her works have been performed throughout New Zealand and in Australia, UK, the US, Japan, Philippines and Europe. Her Triple Clarinet Concerto was the 1992 NZ entry in the International Rostrum of Composers, Paris; she is twice winner of the Philip Neill Memorial Prize in Music from the University of Otago and the inaugural winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award in 1998.

She graduated Doctor of Music in Composition from the University of Auckland in 1991 and is Senior Lecturer in Composition there.

De Castro-Robinson has been Secretary of the Composers’ Association of New Zealand, Convenor of the Nelson Young Composers’ Workshop, Member of the Composers’ Advisory Panel of SOUNZ, Centre for New Zealand Music and currently serves as Chair of that panel. She has been honoured by the Symphony Friends of NZSO for contribution to music in Auckland, selected as a delegate to Composing Women’s Festival, Melbourne, and was co-founder of CadeNZa, New Zealand Contemporary Music Ensemble. She has co-organised many concerts of new music including CANZ 1990 and ExtravaCANZa 1994.

De Castro-Robinson also writes, reviews, speaks and broadcasts on musical topics, and is a trained graphic designer.

Solo CDs of her chamber music, “Chaos of Delight” (Atoll A9806) and orchestral works “Other echoes” (Atoll ACD 300) have received critical acclaim, she has single works on many other CDs and a growing number of her scores are published by Waiteata Press.

In 2003 she received a major grant from Creative New Zealand to complete her chamber opera on Len Lye, and in 2004 was awarded a ‘de Castro-Robinson Portrait’ concert in the NZ International Festival of the Arts in Wellington. 2006 saw a special 50th birthday concert mounted in her honour by the Karlheinz Company, University of Auckland and the past three years have seen three orchestral works performed by the NZSO.

Selected Works

• Publications (14)
• Works (53)
• Awards (7)
• Related Resources (3)