Alex Hay and half a MODART

Wellington-based composer Alex Hay has just returned from an intensive week with The Song Company in Sydney as the first part of the ensemble's MODART programme for 2009.

"I'm still buzzing from the week!" Alex tells us. "I was somewhat nervous about taking only vague sketches with me to the four-day workshop, but it turned out to be one of the most exciting and educational weeks I've ever had. The Song Company is an incredible ensemble: creative, enthusiastic and highly accurate... and Roland Peelman is an inspiration.

"The diversity of musical ideas from among the other participants was refreshing. The next phase is completing the work, then I will return to Sydney and Melbourne for two weeks in July for the MODART Festival."

Alex's piece, as yet unnamed, is a setting of a text by Wellington writer Branwen Millar. "It is very soft, uses all six voices, and is a maze of counterpoint....," she says.

Members of The Song Company perform at the Australian High Commission in Wellington before their 2008 Ensemble-in-Schools project in collaboration with Chamber Music NZ.

MODART is a professional development project that provides opportunities for emerging composers to develop works for vocal ensemble, and which then receive public performance by The Song Company, Australia's premier vocal ensemble. Initiated by The Song Company and the Australian Music Centre , MODART provides opportunities for emerging composers to develop new work for voices. This year nine young composers were selected to take part: seven from Australia, Alex from New Zealand and one young composer from Hong Kong.

MODART09 is the 4th edition of the MODART project. The project culminates in two public performances (at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and at the newly opened Melbourne Recital Centre) and will be recorded for broadcast on ABC Classic FM. The Song Company’s Artistic Director Roland Peelman comments that: "The standard and abundance of submissions for this year’s event was unprecedented. Also the stylistic diversity of the composers selected augurs well for a project full of surprises. Over the two working periods (and in between) we can really develop a creative relationship where we are all free to challenge and to respond. As happened in the past, this relationship then prompts new creative initiatives. Many seeds have been sown during MODART and 09 promises to exceed any previous edition."

MODART is a biennial project. In 2007, New Zealand composer Claire Nash (Scholes) took part in the project and in 2005 Gareth Farr was one of the composer mentors working with 12 young composers as a result of his 2003 Trans-Tasman Exchange residency with The Song Company.