Your cart

Total
NZD
Shipping and discount codes are added at checkout.

Contributor


Ruby Solly

Composer, Māori Composer

Biography

Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha

Ruby Solly is a Kai Tahu musician, taonga puoro practitioner, music therapist and writer living in Wellington. She has played with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Whirimako Black, Trinity Roots, and The New Zealand String Quartet as both a cellist, and a player of traditional Māori instruments (ngā taonga puoro). She has also worked as a session musician and recording artist with groups such as So Laid Back Country China, Jhan Lindsay, Strowlini Orchestra, and many other artists around Wellington. In 2019 she completed a Masters thesis in the therapeutic potential of taonga puoro in mental health based music therapy, while working in schools, hospitals, prisons and with private clients from iwi around the motu. She also has experience as a composer with pieces commissioned by the New Zealand School of Music in association with SOUNZ, as well as in film work in association with Someday Stories, and the Goethe Institute with Wellington Film Society.

Ruby is also a published poet and has been published in journals associated with many of New Zealand’s universities such as Landfall, Sport, Turbine, and Mayhem. She has also exhibited poetry in Antarctica and New Zealand, and was a runner up for the 2019 Caselberg Trust International Poetry Prize. Additionally, Ruby is a script writer and has found success with her film Super Special which shares knowledge about Māori views of menstruation through narrative. The film aired on Māori TV, and will also air at the LA Women Film Fest.

Solly is a member of the Tararua musical quartet together with Ariana Tikao, Al Fraser and Phil Boniface.[4][20] Their album Bird Like Men was released in 2021.[21][22] Solly composed the work Te Karanga o ngā Whētu (the stories of the stars) for the group, which premiered at the Wellington Jazz Festival in 2021.[23] She is also part of the Maianginui taonga pūoro ensemble of women, together with Tikao, Te Kahureremoa Taumata and Khali-Meari Materoa. Her composition Ātahu was performed by Maianginui and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival.[24]

In 2020, Ruby released her debut album Pōneke.


Composed (19)

Autahi

for voices, taonga pūoro and jazz quintet, 8m


Homai to poho (arr.)

arranged for voice, taonga puoro and cello, 3m 30s


Karaka - Tau

for taonga puoro and cello, 2m


Karaka - Wana

for taonga puoro and cello, 2m 44s


Koukou

for taonga puoro and cello, 1m 43s


Matairangi

for taonga puoro and cello, 2m 39s


Matiu

for taonga puoro and cello, 4m 2s


Puaka (Rūaumoko)

for voices, taonga pūoro and jazz quintet, 9m


Pōhutukawa

for voices, taonga pūoro and jazz quintet, 8m 30s


Rehua

for voices, taonga pūoro and jazz quintet, 7m 30s


Somes

for taonga puoro and cello, 2m 23s


Te Aro Pā

for taonga puoro and cello, 3m 58s


Te Kōkī

for taonga puoro and cello, 2m 39s


Te Tangi Te Keo

for taonga puoro and cello, 1m 42s


Tūtūmaiao

for voices, taonga pūoro, cello and double bass, 5m


Urupā

for taonga puoro and cello, 4m 34s


Waimāpihi

for taonga puoro and cello, 3m 16s


Whare Oro

an improvisation on taonga pūoro and performance space



Arranged (1)

Homai to poho (arr.)

arranged for voice, taonga puoro and cello, 3m 30s



Recordings (1)


Performances (9)

CANCELLED: Auckland Arts Festival | Shoulder to Shoulder

__Auckland Arts Festival/Te Ahurei Toi o Tāmaki (AAF) is sadly unable to open this Thursday 4 Mar...


Live Performance: Ruby Solly

Join us for the first in a series of live performances in the gallery, alongside Kate Newby’s exh...


Tararua Album Launch Concert

Puaka by Tararua ___ __Oro Records__ is proud to present the world premiere of the full reperto...


BIRD LIKE MEN - Tararua | CMNZ (Wellington)

_“Tararua draw on personal history, the inspiration of ancient stories and knowledge, and the dar...


BIRD LIKE MEN - Tararua | CMNZ (Tauranga)

_“Tararua draw on personal history, the inspiration of ancient stories and knowledge, and the dar...


BIRD LIKE MEN - Tararua | CMNZ (Dunedin)

_“Tararua draw on personal history, the inspiration of ancient stories and knowledge, and the dar...


BIRD LIKE MEN - Tararua | CMNZ (Christchurch)

_“Tararua draw on personal history, the inspiration of ancient stories and knowledge, and the dar...


BIRD LIKE MEN - Tararua | CMNZ (Gisborne)

_“Tararua draw on personal history, the inspiration of ancient stories and knowledge, and the dar...


BIRD LIKE MEN - Tararua | CMNZ (Auckland)

_“Tararua draw on personal history, the inspiration of ancient stories and knowledge, and the dar...