New Zealand music in the UK

Three events coming up in close succession in the UK, feature an
eclectic range of works from 17 New Zealand composers!

In Glasgow:
Hear and Now: New Music from New Zealand and Australia
with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Saturday 17 March 2012, 7.30pm

This concert includes Lyell Cresswell’s SOUNZ Contemporary Award-winning
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, along with:
Helen Bowater (NZ) - New Year fanfare (1994)
Samuel Holloway (NZ) - Fault - for orchestra (2004)  (UK Premier)
Jack Body (NZ) - Little Elegies (UK Premier)
Liza Lim (AUS) - Pearl, Ochre, Hair String (2010) (c.18) (UK Premier)

The concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3's regular late-night Saturday programme, Hear and Now.

In Glasgow and Edinburgh:
Stephen de Pledge plays the complete Landscape Preludes
22 March 2012: University of Glasgow Concert Hall, Glasgow, 1.10pm
23 March 2012: Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, 1.10pm

The Landscape Preludes were commissioned from 12 different New Zealand composers over a period of time from 2004, and the complete set premiered in 2008 in Wellington.

In London:
New Zealand at Kings Place
Monday 26 – Saturday 31 March

Six events contribute to a fascinating exploration of New Zealand culture and music.  Poetry, electronic music, a taonga puoro demonstration and three chamber music concerts featuring the New Zealand String Quartet and friends come together for this ‘curated week’ celebrating New Zealand, at Kings Place.  

In The Body Electric, young NZ composers explore concepts of body and space in a programme of experimental works for live performers with multi-media..
Composers include Michael Norris (curator) Chris Black, John Coulter, John Croft, Dugal McKinnon and Alexandra Hay.   Performers include Richard Haynes (clarinet) John Coulter (voice) Barbara Luneburg (viola) Madeleine Pierard (soprano).

In their three-concert series, the New Zealand String Quartet presents music which crosses oceans, centuries and cultural boundaries.
In Eight Colours works by Gao Ping and Jack Body sit alongside Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Tan Dun.  Joined by bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu.
In Death and the Maiden, Schubert’s well-loved string quartet is programmed with music by Michael Norris and Ross Harris.  Joined by soprano Madeleine Pierard.
In Spiritual Journeys, quartets by Gillian Karawe Whitehead and John Psathas precede Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 131. Joined by taonga puoro expert Richard Nunns.