Andrew Perkins

Dr Andrew Perkins was born in Warkworth, New Zealand. He attended Auckland University from 1980 till 1985, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Music (1983) then the degree of Master of Music (Hons) 1985 majoring in Composition. His Composition teachers were Dr John Rimmer and Dr Douglas Mews (Senior) and visiting Fellow Lou Harrison.

As a fully qualified teacher, Andrew Perkins has taught Music in England (St Bedes School, Eastbourne), and was one of the foundation staff members of ACG Senior College of New Zealand as Director of Music Studies from 1995 till 2004. He was Head of Music at Baradene College of the Sacred Heart, Auckland from 2005-2008.

During 2008 – 2016 Andrew lived in Melbourne, Australia where he completed his PhD in Music Composition (graduating in December 2013) at the Conservatoire of Music, Melbourne University where he was also employed as a sessional lecturer and tutor at the VCA/Conservatorium of Music. Andrew Perkins now resides in St Leonards, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Andrew Perkins has appeared as guest lecturer at Auckland University, at the School of Music, Mathematics Department (“Music and Mathematics”), and to the School of Architecture (“Proportion in Music and Buildings”), University of Melbourne Conservatory of Music (seminar on The Radish and the Shoe, 2016), and Dunedin University Music Department (seminar entitled “Beyond Postmodernism”, 2018).

During 1986 he was elected as NZIAA’s cultural ambassador, representing New Zealand at the Eleventh General Assembly, Baghdad, Iraq, speaking on the subject of “Peace and the Artist”. Andrew was Music Director and Cantor of the Auckland Catholic Schola for 13 years; the group specialized in the performance of sacred music from the Medieval, Renaissance and early Baroque periods; all music was performed within the context of the Roman Catholic Mass. Andrew has written many psalm settings and motets for the Schola.

In July 2012 his major work Christchurch Vespers was performed by Pita Paczian and Bach Musica New Zealand at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell, Auckland. Its musical language – a fusion of the ancient (Greek, Byzantine, Middle Eastern, Hebrew, Indian), the liturgical (Perkins sets seven texts from the Vespers for Pentecost liturgy) and the idiosyncratic (a duel between the harp and the vibraphone in The Announcement of the Eternal Gospel) is both academic and passionate: the performance was recorded by Franco Viganoni, and received a standing ovation from an enthusiastic audience.

During November 2012, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra recorded his Waltz-Fantasia as part of the NZSO-RNZ Concert-SOUNZ Recordings. Under this project they also recorded his The Radish and the Shoe for narrator and orchestra in 2014. It was recorded in two languages: English, and French.

Andrew Perkins’ Concerto Grosso for flute, harpsichord and strings was premiered in July 2016 at the Raye Freedman Arts Centre, Auckland by Adrianna Lis (flute) and Rosemary Barnes (harpsichord) with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra conducted by Peter Scholes: the performance, recorded by SOUNZ, and Franco Viganoni, received a standing ovation from the capacity audience.

During January 2018, Andrew Perkins’ Three Spanish Songs was recorded and premiered by famous mezzo-soprano Sally-Anne Russell with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Andrew Perkins describes his music as “moving forward beyond post-modernism”. His compositions are highly exotic and colourful, focussing on the weaving of melodic strands similar to the concepts behind Renaissance polyphony. He employs non-Western scales and complex rhythmic structures. His recent works have utilised scalar formations that share characteristics with those of ancient cultures, yet retaining a distinctive connection with his home country of New Zealand.

He is currently a teaching fellow at the University of Otago.