Force of Nature: Forest & Bird’s Composition Scholarship

Forest & Bird and the Performing Arts Community Trust (PACT) is proud to offer a chamber music composition scholarship for a young composer (aged under 25 on 1 September 2021).

Applicants will compose a work for a chamber music ensemble that focuses on any aspect of Forest & Bird’s role in protecting and restoring Aotearoa’s wildlife and wild places over the past 100 years.

The successful applicant will receive a $500 scholarship, the opportunity to work with professional New Zealand composers, and have your composition played by leading musicians. Your work may also be included in an Atoll Records recording alongside other original music created by the eight composers involved in this exciting project (see Background below).

If you love music and nature, this scholarship is for you, we can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Application requirements:

• You may use any or all of the following instruments: 1 flute, 1 clarinet, 1 violin, 1 cello, piano, and small percussion for 1 player (commonly used instruments that can be easily carried by one person);
• The work must be between 3–5 minutes in duration;
• The work is to be played by professional musicians but the notation should not be unreasonably complex;
• Your submission must be made electronically by emailing pactnz@gmail.com, and must include full score, edited parts, good quality audio recording, and a completed copy of the attached entry form. The audio recording must be of the music being played live and may be recorded on a device such as phone, tablet etc.

The applications will be assessed by Wayne Laird and Peter Scholes on behalf of Forest & Bird and PACT (The Performing Arts Community Trust) and one composition will be selected for the scholarship.

The successful composition shall be available to PACT, who will manage the scholarship, and will be considered for performance, recording, and broadcast.

APPLICATIONS close on 31 October 2021. Results will be sent by email on or before 20 December 2021. For an application form, please email: Jenni Murphy-Scanlon, CEO PACT, at pactnz@gmail.com.

BACKGROUND: Forest & Bird has been protecting and restoring nature in New Zealand for nearly 100 years. To celebrate a century of conservation in New Zealand, the Performing Arts Community Trust is working with Forest & Bird on a unique project that combines music, history, and nature. PACT has received funding from Creative New Zealand towards the creation, performance, and recording of eight new chamber works in collaboration with Forest & Bird.

With you having expressed interest in Lilburn Lectures and Archive of New Zealand Music events in the past, I thought you might like to know about three events planned for New Zealand Music Month that involve research projects funded by the Lilburn Trust.

Counting the beat, sounding the changes

Mathew Hoyes, Lilburn Research Awardee 2020

Thursday 6 May 2021, 4:30pm to 5:30pm

Programme Rooms, National Library Wellington

Mat Hoyes presents his project to create an online NCEA resource that analyses New Zealand rock and pop music.

Through his experience as a music teacher in New Zealand, Mat has identified a serious need of a resource for the study of New Zealand popular music. He has started compiling analyses for 200 rock and popular songs by New Zealand artists to develop a NCEA teaching resource. Mat will discuss his process for preparing the resource and how he expects it to be used. He will talk of the obstacles and challenges met in preparing the work and for making it available.

About the speaker

Mathew Hoyes is a secondary school music teacher, having taught at Taita College, Wainuiomata High School and Porirua College. He has a Bachelor of Music from Otago University and experience as a music producer, musician, composer as well as music video editing. He has performed in many bands playing both covers and original material. Mat has also taught music to private students and in prisons.

A Huia calls the Tui singing in a Kowhai tree

Michael Vinten, Lilburn Research Awardee 2020

Thursday 20 May 2021, 12:10pm to 1pm

Programme Rooms, National Library Wellington

Michael Vinten talks on his project of collecting, recording and publishing pre-1950 New Zealand art-song. Initially intending it to be one volume the project has now expanded to four.  Titled Call of the Huia, it is envisaged this new resource will be of great benefit to singers and students wishing to include New Zealand material into their repertoire. Each volume will include a sound recording of the songs, giving it a wider appeal to music lovers generally. In this lunchtime talk Michael Vinten will explain what constitutes a New Zealand art-song and the process of selecting material. This will include some interesting stories of past New Zealand composers, with wider links to New Zealand’s history. 

About the speaker

Michael Vinten has been the Wellington Chorus Master and Associate Conductor for New Zealand Opera for twenty-eight years, as well as conducting for many other opera companies and musical groups. Having studied music history and composition at Victoria University of Wellington he went on to study a Masters Degree in orchestral conducting at Cincinnati University.

Gamelan Aotearoa

Gamelan Padhang Moncar, introduced by Dr Anton Killin, Lilburn Research Fellow 2021

Monday 31 May 2021, 6pm to 7:30pm

Te Ahumairangi, National Library Wellington

‘…rhythmic intricacy, hypnotic patterns, sheer sonic power, and refreshingly different tunings…’ Experience gamelan at the National Library with Wellington’s Gamelan Padhang Moncar (Dir. Budi Putra), introduced by Dr Anton Killin.

Gamelan first arrived in New Zealand in 1975 when Allan Thomas imported a set of instruments from Java to Victoria University of Wellington to support ethnomusicology teaching, with a performing ensemble soon being formed. There are now ensembles based around the country. Composers who were subsequently inspired to write works for gamelan include David Farquhar, Judith Exley, Megan Collins and Lilburn Fellow Anton Killin, whose works feature in this concert, along with that of Dedek Wayhudi from Indonesia and others.  Anton’s research will focus on cross-cultural music composition in New Zealand relating to the use of Indonesian gamelan. Gamelan has been a significant cultural influence on New Zealand composers since it was introduced. 

About the speaker

Dr Killin studied music composition and philosophy at Victoria University of Wellington, with cross-cultural music being the focus of much of his research. Since being awarded his doctorate in 2017, he has held post-doctoral fellowships in Australia, USA, and Canada.  

https://www.blackboardtheatre.co.nz/auditions

Blackboard Theatre Collective is proud to announce The Isolation Mixtape Vol. 2, a project in partnership with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
We are currently seeking New Zealand-based composers and songwriters to take part in a 72-hour Musical Theatre Songwriting Challenge.
SUBMISSIONS CLOSE SUNDAY 25TH OF APRIL AT 11:59PM

Dear CANZ Members

Last spring, ISCM called for links to music that would be included in their social media project ISCM Virtual Collaborative Series.

They are asking members to submit links to recorded performances – both audio and video – legally public and accessible on the Internet.

The goal of the project is to foster presence and coverage of contemporary music online via social media, to tease and entertain an audience looking for a new musical experience into getting acquainted with the best contemporary music available.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made online activity more crucial than ever before by hindering numerous live events, many concerts included. Now is the right time to strengthen the online presence of contemporary music!

ISCM are planning to showcase individual composers and works on the ISCM Facebook page. For this promotional purpose, they are mainly interested in recordings that are already publicly available on YouTube or SoundCloud. These could be easily added to playlists on the ISCM YouTube Channel and the ISCM SoundCloud page. However, they are open to suggestions of recordings on other online platforms, too, as long as the linked material may be made accessible legally.

There has been a long-term concern among ISCM delegates about a lack of interaction among membership in between ISCM festivals. ISCM hopes that their social media project will, in its small way, help to motivate accessible discussions online, keeping the community more engaged. They also hope that these Facebook Showcases will build bridges between different types of contemporary music, composed and performed in various regions of the World.

ISCM look forward to making available internet wide all this exciting music and to nurturing a new audience for it.

CANZ is allowed to submit 3-6 works to ISCM, so we’ll create a panel to assess and select if more are submitted. This is a fantastic opportunity to have your work viewed by an audience beyond Aotearoa. We look forward to receiving your entries!

Call for Online Recordings (Audio or Video)

Submit links and necessary information to info@canz.net.nz by midday on Tuesday 20 April.

Conditions of eligibility:

– Links to professional quality audio or video recordings, legally cleared for streaming on an online platform

– Works must be composed by a member of CANZ

– All rights must be cleared at the time of submission

– Composers, performers and other possible owners of rights must be properly credited

Necessary information:

– Name of the work, year of composition, ensemble/line-up

– Name and contact information of the composer

– Names of other possible owners of rights of the work and of the performance/recording

– Place and date of performance/recording

– Declaration of what rights have been cleared, how, and by whom

– Name and contact information of the owner of the account, page, or other online platform in which the linked material is situated, if other than the composer

Photographs in big format , CVs, biographies, commentaries, media quotes and any other texts facilitating the showcasing of the composer or the work are welcome.