Moana Ataahua premiered

Moana Ataahua (Beautiful Lake)  by Ryan Youens received an enthusiastic premiere and achieved an appreciative response at its premiere in Taupo on Saturday 8 May.

Above: ERUPT Festival director Drew James, musical director Justin Gibbs and composer Ryan Youens.

The work, which celebrates Lake Taupo, was a collaboration between the ERUPT Taupo Festival and composer Ryan Youens. Funding support came from both the 2009 SOUNZ Community Commission and Taupo Festival Trust as they were so taken with the project that they matched the Community Commission funding. 

Involving the community
In the true spirit of the Commission, Ryan involved the wider Taupo community in the early stages of the work’s conception. “Last year, in September,” Ryan explains, “I spent a few days in Taupo visiting all of the groups in rehearsal, meeting everyone involved and visiting the venue. Following that, we put a call out to poets/songwriters in the community to submit text to be used. This has been one of the great successes in the project: radio stations, the newspapers, and schools all got behind it, and when I saw the descriptions in these poems and texts it was very clear what sort of piece I was going to write." 

"I wrote the work over the summer and the groups started rehearsing earlier this year. The feedback was really positive and allowed me to make revisions, including adding a few more instruments as some new players have now arrived in the community. I have aimed for it to be a celebration of Taupo, the people and the place with a powerful mix of symphonic, choral and percussive elements."

The Performance
The resulting 15 minute anthem for choir and orchestra was performed by the Taupo Choral Society, Tauhara College Choir, Great Lake Big Band, Taupo Youth Wind Band, Taupo Concert Band, and Tauhara College Stage Band conducted by Justin Gibbs. The well-rehearsed group gave a committed and enthusiastic performance of the work that was equally well-received by the audience. The compositional skills that Ryan brought to the work were apparent in the way that he was able to layer, mix and blend relatively straight-forward musical lines for such a wide range of voices and instruments. The result was a work full of dynamic changes: verve, interest, subtlety, and volcanic energy leaving performers and audience with a suitable sense of grandeur.

"If Lake Taupo were a piece of music, what would it sound like?" was the Festival's introduction. Ryan provided an apt answer.

Background: SOUNZ Community Commissions
This was the second of two 2009 SOUNZ Community Commissions to be realised. The first was a collaboration between composer Rosie Langabeer and the Wellington Most Famous Orchestra of Miraculous Delights which resulted in a performance at Te Papa's Te Marae in December 2009.

The SOUNZ Community Commission is a project facilitated by SOUNZ and funded by an overseas donor who prefers to remain anonymous.  Since 1999 the Commission has enabled professional composers and community groups to work together towards the creation and performance of a new musical work. You can find out more about the SOUNZ Community Commission here, and see a list of all the previous commissions here.