SOUNZ Contemporary Award 2009

The SOUNZ Contemporary Award

Jack Body  (photo: Gareth Watkins)

Ross Harris  (photo: Gareth Watkins)

Michael Norris

A record-breaking 35 entries were received this year for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award. The annual award recognises and celebrates creative excellence in composition. The three finalist works selected for the 2009 Award are:

• My Name is Mok Bhon by Jack Body
• Symphony III by Ross Harris
• Volti by Michael Norris
  

My Name is Mok Bhon by Jack Body is a work for orchestra with video images and sounds. It was premiered by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hamish McKeich, in their Made in New Zealand concert on May 29, 2009. The work is Body’s response to the horror of the Cambodian genocide inflicted by the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s. The video part includes commentary in Cambodian and images of some of those who were incarcerated in the infamous Tuol Sleng prison and subsequently executed. While the panel agreed the work has an undeniable emotional impact through its subject they were particularly intrigued by the way in which Body was able to transcribe music of other cultures. "He has successfully expanded the timbral pallette and blend of Western orchestral instruments to evoke an Asian sound world."

Symphony III by Ross Harris was premiered by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Marko Letonja, in August 2008. Harris wrote the work while the Creative New Zealand-Jack Richards Composer in Residence at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington. The 40 minute work is in one movement divided into five sections. Harris cites two related sources of inspiration: the paintings of Marc Chagall and Klezmer music (the instrumentation calls for an accordion). In choosing this work as a finalist, the panel were impressed by Harris’: "amazing control of counterpoint. "The musical gestures informed the form and the work was idiomatic for orchestra while maintaining a fresh but sophisticated language."

Volti by Michael Norris is a work for piano and orchestra. In his programme notes composer Michael Norris suggests that the alternative meanings and shades of meaning in the word ‘volti’ include 'ideas of motion, contrast and dynamism'. The panel enjoyed the theatricality inherent in the work as the soloist is required to physically leap (‘vault’?) in order to perform some of the passages, and agreed that the work held their attention. "The work focuses on timbre rather than melody and harmony and featured an unusual and exciting use of music." Volti was premiered in Seoul, Korea by Jong-Hwa Park and the Seoul National University Symphony Orchestra as one of the New Zealand pieces selected for the 2009 Asian Composers League Conference and Festival in April.

"The calibre of the entries this year was particularly strong," says Scilla Askew, Executive Director of SOUNZ, "and reflects the level of commitment and creativity to be found in the work of New Zealand composers. We can only hope that many of these works will be given further performances or broadcasts so that a much wider audience can enjoy and experience the rich and diverse music being created and performed in this country."

A project of both APRA, the Australasian Performing Right Association, and SOUNZ, the award invites composers who are APRA members to enter up to two works which have been premiered in the previous year. SOUNZ convenes a panel of experts to assess the entries on artistic criteria including compositional excellence and inspiration. Three finalists, including a winner, are chosen.

The 2009 SOUNZ Contemporary Award winner will be announced, along with the winners of the APRA Silver Scroll and APRA Maioha Awards, on Thursday 17 September. This year the event will be held in Christchurch for the first time. The SOUNZ Contemporary Award consists of a trophy and $3000 cash prize from APRA. The trophy was designed and made by Auckland sculptor Sarah Smuts Kennedy and depicts a bronze fern frond mounted on a shaped oak and ebony base.

Scilla Askew comments: "The SOUNZ Contemporary Award is the most prestigious annual prize for composers offered in New Zealand. The 35 entries this year represented every area of composition: from electroacoustic and multimedia to choral, chamber, orchestral, concerto and solo works."