RICHARD DAVY, JACK BODY, DAVID FARQUHAR,
ROSS HARRIS, LISSA MERIDAN, MICHAEL NORRIS,
GILLIAN WHITEHEAD
PASSIO
AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR
FREE PROGRAMME
WWW.AAF.CO.NZ / #AKLFEST
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@AKLFESTIVAL
@AKLFESTIVAL
WITH SUPPORT FROM
PASSIO
FOR VOICES, BRASS, WOODWIND AND PERCUSSION
SUNDAY 19 MARCH, 5.00PM
POST-SHOW TALK SUNDAY 19 MARCH
GREAT HALL, AUCKLAND TOWN HALL
1 HOUR 15 MINS NO INTERVAL
NAU MAI HAERE MAI KI TE AHUREI TOI O TĀMAKI MAKAURAU
Welcome to the 2017 Auckland Arts Festival
Great artists cause controversy, start revolutions and little by little change the world. Festivals like ours are a
catalyst for change creating opportunities for artists to communicate with audiences and audiences to
respond to artists’ work. Throughout the Festival you will find small threads that deal with our world today.
We hope that the work in the Festival can make you think, laugh, scream a little and perhaps even cry.
Many years ago Jack asked me to present Passio, a unique work that has only ever had one performance
before. The right moment to stage it never arose. I was determined for my last Festival that I would honour
Jack and all New Zealand composers by presenting this extraordinary work that spans centuries from 1500
to 2006. It was a risk – I hope you think it was a worthwhile risk. My special thanks to Gillian Whitehead,
Peter Scholes and Karen Grylls for helping to make this dream possible.
The Festival’s CEO David Inns (my partner and collaborator of many years), our Board and staff, hope you
have a fabulous Festival. We hope that you enjoy the beauty and complexity of the art presented and
value its importance in our society. Join the revolution.
Carla van Zon, David Inns and the Festival Team
AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The Auckland Chamber Orchestra is thrilled to be part of the 2017 Auckland Arts Festival and to support
the performance of Passio. The ACO was founded by Peter Scholes in 1999. It continues a nine-year
tradition begun by the Auckland Sinfonietta and now has eighteen successful seasons to its credit.
Delivering entertaining, beautiful, challenging and provocative work is the driving force behind the ACO’s
artistic vision. ACO programming explores repertoire from throughout music history and has a big emphasis
on the music of the last 100 years. Since its inception the ACO has performed orchestral work, chamber
music, opera, silent movies, recorded cds, film scores and children's concerts.
VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir, with Music Director Dr Karen Grylls, made its début at the 1998 New
Zealand International Arts Festival and later that year won awards at the Tolosa International Choral
Competition in Spain. With its distinct New Zealand sound, performing music from Aotearoa and infusing
the qualities of its pacific origins into the classic choral repertoire, Voices has established itself as the
country’s premier national and professional choir. It is the choir-of-choice for arts festivals and special
projects.
Recent Auckland Arts Festival appearances include Ata Reira, A Child of our Time and Requiem for the
Fallen. Critically acclaimed recordings include Spirit of the Land, and Voice of the Soul.
CREDITS
AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
CONDUCTOR
PETER SCHOLES
CHOIR DIRECTOR
DR KAREN GRYLLS - VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR
ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR AND VOCAL CONSULTANT
ROBERT WIREMU
CHOIR
VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR with
LACHLAN CRAIG - THE EVANGELIST
JOEL AMOSA - CHRISTUS
MADELEINE PIERARD - SPIRITUS
COMPOSERS
RICHARD DAVY (1467?-1538)
JACK BODY
DAVID FARQUHAR
ROSS HARRIS
LISSA MERIDAN
MICHAEL NORRIS
GILLIAN WHITEHEAD
LIGHTING DESIGN
SANDY GUNN
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
GILLIAN WHITEHEAD REMEMBERS
Little is known for certain of the Tudor composer, organist, choirmaster and priest Richard Davy,
born over half a millennium ago around 1465, beyond his association with Magdalen College in
Oxford around 1483. Amongst his compositions found in the Eton Choirbook, one of the few
surviving collections of pre-Reformation choral music, is his Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christe, a
setting of the passion according to St Matthew, traditionally associated with Palm Sunday.
Davy's Passio, the first setting of a passion by a named composer, was written well over 200
years before the form of the Passion reached its zenith in Bach's setting of the Passion according
to St Matthew. The latter was composed in 1727 for four soloists, double choir and double
orchestra, with a libretto involving chorales and meditations and commentaries in the form of
arias as well as the biblical text which is set as recitative. Davy's Passio is a much simpler
elaboration of the gospel text, which is chanted simply by two voices - the evangelist (tenor) and
Christ (bass) with the choir taking the various voices of the crowd and apostles. Although the first
few choral utterances are missing, and have been reconstructed by musicologists, there is no
doubting the strength and drama of Davy's choral music, mostly homophonic with some
imitation, and occasionally melismatic and florid, with perhaps some word illustration - the setting
of the word 'liberare' (free) and the phrase 'Vere Filius Dei erat iste' (Truly this was the son of God)
seem particularly melismatic, while the word 'crucifigatur' (crucify) sets the five syllables simply on
just one chord.
Jack Body, who died in 2015, was an extraordinary man and musician; a ground-breaking
composer, inspirational teacher, internationally respected ethnomusicologist and entrepreneur.
One passion of his was exploring the music of other countries - mainly Asian, and in particular
Chinese and Indonesian - and basing many of his compositions on aspects of those musics.
Another passion was for collaborations; bringing together musicians from diverse ethnic
backgrounds, and, with a gift for friendship, building extensive international networks which he
generously shared with his students and colleagues.
In 1980 he was appointed to the staff at Victoria University of Wellington (later the New
Zealand School of Music). A facet of his prolific output is his initiation, over the thirty plus years he
worked there, of more than 40 CD projects (ranging from field recordings through music by a
wide range of New Zealand composers to his own electro-acoustic works) and the setting up
and funding of around 52 composer or performer residencies, mainly from Asia, but also
America, New Zealand (mostly expatriates) and Europe.
Throughout his life he was drawn to the drama of men or nations in religious or political
extremis, from his early Carol to Saint Stephen through works like Sarajevo or 14 Stations for
amplified pianist to My name is Mok Bhon and O Cambodia, which both draw on the Pol Pot
persecutions.
When Jack was drawn to Davy's Passio, which charts the drama of Christ from his betrayal in
the garden of Gethsemane to his death following crucifixion, he realised both the quality of the
choral writing, and that there was rather too much chanted material for the original Passio to
appeal to a modern audience; however, adding 'commentaries' composed for voices, brass,
woodwind and percussion could produce a powerful and dramatic experience. Collaboration
was a very important process for Jack; in this instance he brought together the skills and talents
of six composers associated with the New Zealand School of Music - the four staff composers
Ross Harris, Lissa Meridan, Michael Norris and Jack himself, Emeritus Professor David Farquhar, and
myself as the current Creative New Zealand/Jack C. Richards Composer-in-Residence at the
New Zealand School of Music.
One evening we all went to look at the potential of the Great Hall in Massey University's
Museum Building which has an astonishing reverberation period, then sat round and together
devised the plan for the performance; the main group of performers would be centrally placed,
there would be three additional groups spaced far apart surrounding the performance area and
the audience would be free to walk around during the performance to experience the sound
from different angles. Jack had divided the score into six tranches and we each chose one, and
were free to complete the orchestration however we wished - there were no guidelines, except
the request that the transition from one section to another should be discussed by the two
composers involved. We also decided that, in the spirit of collaboration, the composers'
contributions should not be identified, as the passion should be organic and seemingly throughcomposed, rather than six disparate attributable compositions.
The one performance took place on June 2nd, 2006, with Alistair Carey singing the role of the
Evangelist and directing the Tudor Consort, and Owen Clarke conducting the Band of the Royal
New Zealand Air Force. It was an intensely moving experience for everyone involved, with its
combination of Renaissance polyphony and twenty-first century orchestral colour, the audience
mostly standing or moving quietly in the half-light.
Although the orchestration is the same, this version is slightly different in that it is performed by
Voices New Zealand - a choir rather than an ensemble, and an augmented Auckland Chamber
Orchestra rather than a wind band, which sets up slightly different problems in the interaction of
the two conductors. And it is performed in the Auckland Town Hall, which, although a resonant
space, lacks the eight-second delay of the Great Hall; this, however, gives scope for a greater
dramatic impact from the choir.
COMPOSERS
Richard Davy (1467?-1538) Composer
Little is known of the life of the fifteenth century English
Renaissance composer Richard Davy, beyond his birth in
1465, his studies at Magdalen College Oxford and
subsequent employment as choirmaster there around
1490-2. He may be the priest and musician of the same
name who lived in Devon and Exeter, but this is mainly
conjecture. Davy's extant works - 10 coal and choral
pieces, mostly sacred, a couple secular - were published
around the turn of the century in the Eton Choirbook, one
of only three choir books that survived the Reformation.
Jack Body Composer
Body (1944-2015) studied at Auckland
University, in Cologne and at the Institute
of Sonology, Utrecht. During 1976-77 he
was a guest lecturer at the Akademi
Musik Indonesia, Yogyakarta, and from
1980 to 2010 he lectured at the School of
Music, Victoria University of Wellington,
now the New Zealand School of Music.
His music covers most genres, including solo and
chamber music, orchestral music, music-theatre, music
for dance and film as well as electroacoustic music. He
also worked in experimental photography and computer
-controlled sound-image installations, having received
commissions from several public galleries. A fascination
with the music and cultures of Asia, particularly
Indonesia, was a strong influence. As an
ethnomusicologist his published recordings include music
from Indonesia and China. One landmark publication he
edited was South of the Clouds, field recordings of Prof
Zhang Xingrong (Yunnan Art Institute), of instrumental
music of the minorities of South West China (Ode
Records, 2003).
His music has been played and broadcast widely,
nationally and internationally and he has been
commissioned by the New Zealand String Quartet, the
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, NZTrio and many
other groups, and he has written four works for the Kronos
Quartet. Jack Body’s opera Alley, based on the life of
Rewi Alley, was acclaimed at the 1998 NZ International
Festival of the Arts.
As a musical entrepreneur he had wide experience
including the organisation of a series of Sonic Circuses, 12
-hour simultaneous multi-venue music marathons
featuring New Zealand music. In 2002 he curated a fiveconcert festival of New Zealand music at the Ijsbreker in
Amsterdam. For 33 years he was the editor of Waiteata
Music Press, which publishes scores of New Zealand
music, and he edited over twenty CDs of music by New
Zealand composers.
Jack Body specialised in cross-cultural composition,
both in his own music as well as in his teaching. At
Victoria University in Wellington he established a
residency for traditional musicians to work collaboratively
with composition staff and students. These guests
included, from Indonesia, Agus Supriawan, Dody
Ekagustdiman (both from West Java), Rafiloza bin Rafii
(Minangkabau), Wayan Yudane (Bali), and, from Kalinga,
north Philippines, Benny Sokkong. These residencies
generated new compositions, recorded for broadcast
and CD publication. In his own composition he
integrated other musical cultures as in Campur Sari for
Javanese musician and string quartet, and Polish Dances,
for clarinet and Javanese Gamelan.
As the manager of Victoria University’s Gamelan
Padhang Moncar, he stimulated the creation of new
compositions, which were recorded and broadcast.
These included works for gamelan and piano, gamelan
and orchestra, gamelan and organ, gamelan and
choral plainsong etc. In 2000, to celebrate 25 years of
gamelan in New Zealand, he co-organised BEAT, an
International Gamelan Festival with over 100 overseas
participants.
David Farquhar Composer
David Farquhar was born in
Cambridge, New Zealand in 1928 but
spent most of his early years in Fiji. He
was educated in New Zealand and
began his university studies in
Christchurch before completing his
degree at Victoria University in
Wellington where he studied with Douglas Lilburn. He
taught briefly at St Peters School, Cambridge, before
going to Britain where he completed an MA at
Cambridge University, and also studied composition with
Benjamin Frankel at the Guildhall School of Music in
London.
On his return to New Zealand he joined the staff of the
Department of Music at Victoria University, and was
made Professor of Music in 1976, retiring in 1993. He was
the Founder-President of the Composers’ Association of
New Zealand in 1974 and was awarded their Citation for
Services to New Zealand Music in 1984. From 1982 – 1995
he was a member of the Board of the New Zealand
Composers’ Foundation and is a Trustee of the Centre
for New Zealand Music. In 2004 he was made a
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his
services to music. He has written numerous orchestral,
choral, stage and instrumental works, songs and music
for children, and has been recognised since the 1950s as
being at the forefront of New Zealand composition.
David Farquhar died in Wellington, New Zealand in
2007.
Ross Harris Composer
Arts laureate Harris is one of New
Zealand’s leading composers. He has
written more than two hundred
compositions including opera,
symphonic music, chamber music,
klezmer and electronic music. He has
won the prestigious SOUNZ
Contemporary Award more times than any other New
Zealand composer.
Harris received a QSM in 1985 for his opera Waituhi
with libretto by Witi Ihimaera and the CANZ Citation for
Services to New Zealand Music in 1990. His major works
include five string quartets, five symphonies, a violin
concerto (premiered by Anthony Marwood in 2010) and
a cello concerto (premiered by Li-Wei Qin in 2012).
His collaborations with poet Vincent O’Sullivan have
produced two operas, a symphony, three song cycles
and Requiem for the Fallen (performed at Auckland Arts
Festival 2015) and described as “a devastating
commentary on the ravages of war… a never-to-beforgotten experience for all who attended.”
Lissa Meridan Composer
Meridan (b.1972) has written and
performed works for a wide range of
media including orchestra, chamber
groups, gallery installations, music for
dance, interactive performances including
historic electronic instruments and
soundtracks for film. She has a particular
interest in early film, and the relationships that can be
created between sound and image, in particular with the
addition of a live performer. Her recent work includes
collaborations with the New Zealand Film Archive,
Airplane Studios, the New Zealand String Quartet, and her
new piece for orchestra, ‘This Present Brightness’, is a
finalist for the NZSO Lilburn Prize 2006, and was recorded
by the NZ Symphony Orchestra in May and subsequently
broadcast on Radio New Zealand Concert. Current
projects include commissioned works for the Viola
Congress in Montreal, Festival Synthese in France, and a
collaborative project between the NZ Film Archive and
CCMIX in Paris to compose and perform soundtracks to a
collection of 14 historic French films at the MusiPoesi
Festival in Paris 2007.
Michael Norris Composer
Norris is a Wellington-based composer,
software programmer and music theorist.
He holds composition degrees from
Victoria University of Wellington and City
University, London, and is currently Senior
Lecturer in Composition at Te Kōkī, New
Zealand School of Music. He is recipient of
the 2001 Mozart Fellowship and the 2003 Douglas Lilburn
Prize, a nationwide competition for orchestral composers.
He has participated in composition courses featuring
leading composers such as Peter Eötvös, Alvin Lucier,
Christian Wolff and Kaija Saariaho.
In 2010, he was commissioned by the SWR
(Sudwestdeutsche Rundfunk) to write a new chamber
orchestra work, Sgraffito, which was premiered at the
Donaueschinger Musiktage 2010 by the Radio Chamber
Orchestra Hilversum, conducted by Peter Eötvös.
He is coordinator of the Creative New Zealand/Jack C.
Richards Composer-in-Residence at the NZSM, serves on
the boards of the Lilburn Residence Trust and Stroma New
Music Trust, and is the Editor of Wai-te-ata Music Press.
Dame Gillian Whitehead Composer
After graduating from Victoria University of
Wellington, and further study in Australia
and Britain with Peter Maxwell Davies,
Gillian worked as a free-lance composer in
Britain before taking a position at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music between
1981-1994. She then returned to New
Zealand, working full-time as a composer,
and currently divides her time between the Otago
Peninsula and Ruakaka, in Northland.
Her music, written for orchestral, vocal, operatic,
choral, chamber and solo performance, has been widely
performed and broadcast in many countries, and
released on CD. Recent work often includes the voices of
taonga pūoro (traditional Māori instruments) and/or
improvisational content. She has held several composer
residencies, been honoured as DMNZ, and was an
inaugural Laureate of the Arts Foundation of New
Zealand.
Recent commissions have included the river flows on,
one of the four pieces by Cambodian and New Zealand
composers (combining the talents of NZTrio and Tray So Cambodian performers of traditional instruments) that
make up O Cambodia, devised by Jack Body and
performed at the 2011 Auckland Arts Festival and toured
to Cambodia and China in 2014, Torua, toured
internationally and recorded for DGG by Hilary Hahn as
part of her Encores project, Shadows cross the water,
written for the Stamic (string) Quartet (plus oboe and
piano) and performed in December 2014 in Prague’s
Euroarts Festival and in Berlin in 2016, Pah, a site-specific
dance piece devised in collaboration with Carol Brown
and performed at the 2015 Auckland Arts Festival and Iris
Dreaming, a one-woman chamber opera based on the
life of Iris Wilkinson (Robin Hyde), commissioned by
Joanne Roughton-Arnold with a libretto by Fleur Adcock
with a London premiere in the Grimeborn Festival and
the 10-piece Octandre Ensemble, and a second version
with NZTrio, first performed in the Adam Chamber Festival
in February.
Gillian was one of the team of three who compiled
and edited Jack!, celebrating composer Jack Body,
with 120 contributions from around the world, which was
published by Steele Roberts in May, 2015.
MORE INFORMATION: www.gillianwhitehead.co.nz
SOLOISTS
Lachlan Craig THE EVANGELIST
Lachlan completed his BMus in
Performance Voice at the University
of Auckland studying with Dr. Morag
Atchison, and also winning the Pears
-Britten Scholarship for Singing. He
has recently completed his Honours
Degree in Choral Conducting and
Pedagogy with Dr. Karen Grylls
gaining First Class Honours, as well as
completing specialist topics singing large collections of
works by Britten and Schumann, and giving a lecture
recital on the adolescent male voice. Lachlan studied at
The Choral Music Institute at Oxford University in July 2015
under Dr. James Jordan and Dr. James Whitbourn and is
currently completing a Master’s degree in Performance
Voice under Dr. Te Oti Rakena.
Lachlan is one of the most versatile tenors in NZ and his
postgraduate study centres around the singer and a
soloist, ensemble musician, teacher, conductor and
performer. He is a member of Voices NZ Chamber Choir
and the Freemasons NZ Opera Chorus and is also an
alumni of the NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth
Choir and the UoA Chamber Choir.
He has performed as a soloist with Auckland University
Opera, Opera Factory, Regional Choral Societies, Youth
Choirs, and National Choirs throughout NZ. His ensemble
singing has taken him as far as Singapore, Korea, China,
UK, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. Lachlan
has also been chosen to participate in several masterclasses with The Kings Singers, Ian Honeyman, Dana J.
Wilson, Jo-Michael Schiebe, Rodney Eichenberger, Simon
Halsey, Tecwyn Evans, Keith Lewis, David Harper, Peter
Lockwood and Andrew Dalton.
Lachlan holds a full-time studio teaching position as
Director of Choirs at Saint Kentigern College. The choral
programme at the College caters for over 100 singers in
five ensembles. His choirs Kentoris and Menasing have
successfully gained entry to the Big Sing Finale in 2013, 14,
15 and 16 gaining Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards.
Kentoris have toured through South America, produced
a CD, performed with the Auckland Philharmonia
Orchestra and been awarded Best Recital by a Mixed
Voice Choir at The Big Sing. Many of his singing students
have gone on to tertiary study in voice, been offered
places in the NZ Secondary Students Choir, NZ Youth
Choir, Voices NZ and won several awards, scholarships
and titles at the Waiariki Institute of Technology New
Zealand Aria competition.
Lachlan has been an intern for The IFAC Handa NZ
Singing School, Gondwana National Choral School and
the NZ Secondary Students Choir – also working as a
Vocal Consultant to the choir. He is regularly in demand
as a choral clinician and adjudicator for both choral and
singing competitions. Recent solo engagements include
Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, Haydn’s Creation,
Beethoven’s Mass in C, Monteverdi’s Combattimento,
Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St Matthew Passion,
Mozart’s Requiem. Lachlan’s 2017 engagements
include The Evangelist for Jack Body’s Passio in the
Auckland Arts Festival collaborating with Voices NZ
Chamber Choir and the Auckland Chamber Orchestra
as well as tenor soloist for Bach’s Ich hatte viel
Bekümmernis with Bach Musica.
Joel Amosa CHRISTUS
Samoan Bass-Baritone, Joel Amosa
completed his Music Degree and
Post-Graduate diploma under the
tutelage of Isabel Cunningham and
Frances Wilson. In 2012, Joel
debuted his Operatic career with
two leading Mozartian roles: Count
Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro
with Opera Otago and Don Alfonso
in Cosi fan Tutte with both The Auckland Opera Studio
and Opera Hawkes Bay.
In 2014, Joel performed the role of Dr. Bartolo with
Festival Operas debut performance of The Marriage of
Figaro, Joel went on to debut the role of Chief Hongi
Hika in a new opera This Other Eden by New Zealand
composer, Anthony Ritchie during the Dunedin Arts
Festival and furthermore Joel was the 2nd place getter
in the Dame Malvina, Dunedin Aria Competitions for
2014.
In 2015, Joel was a returning artist for Festival Opera
in Donizetti's The Elixir of Love where he sang and
charmed the audience as the quack Dr. Dulcamara.
In 2016, Joel debuted with Wellington based opera
company, Days Bay Opera as King Claudio in Handel’s,
Aggripina. Joel then performed as a guest artist with
Motone Productions in their Opera in Rarotonga
concert series, Joel re-visited The Marriage of Figaro as
Count Almaviva with Waikato University, performed as
the bass soloist in Verdi's Requiem and most recently
started 2017 as Zuniga in Festival Opera’s production of
Carmen.
Joel has performed the bass roles: Harapha and
Manoah in Handel’s Oratorio Samson, Saul in, Saul with
Handel's Consort and Quire, bass soloist in Mozart’s
arrangement of Handel’s Messiah, Bach and Steffani
mass, Verdi's Requiem with Bach Musica, Haydn's
Thereisenmesse, Faures Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah
with Napier Civic Choir and Tauranga Civic Choir and
Mozart's Mass in C minor with the Southern Sinfonia in
Dunedin and most recently Handel’s Messiah with the
Christchurch City Choir and Christchurch Symphony
Orchestra.
Joel is an avid member of the Opera Quartet,
Operanesia who debuted their performance late 2014
to raise money for NZ Singing School and NZ Opera
School tuition. The group perform a wide range of music
from Classical Music, Arias and Ensembles with
Polynesian Flair from Hallelujah Chorus to Elvis Presley
and Dean Martin.
Joel was awarded the Beatrice Webster, Pursuit of
Excellence Award from the IFAC Handa NZ Singing
School and The Opera Australia Opportunity Award for
2015. Joel owes a lot of his singing success to Dilworth
School. It was there he found a voice and a passion to
pursue music to the fullest.
PHOTOGRAPH: ROBERT CATTO
Madeleine Pierard
Lyric soprano SPIRITUS
Pierard excels in adventurous
repertoire, ranging from baroque and
bel canto masterpieces to 20th
century and contemporary
compositions. A native New
Zealander, she studied at the Royal
College of Music and the National
Opera Studio, garnering numerous
awards including the Lexus Song Quest, Lies Askonas and
Royal Overseas League prizes, and was subsequently
awarded a coveted place on the Jette Parker Young
Artists Programme at The Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden. She is a New Generation Artist with the Arts
Foundation of New Zealand and studies with Yvonne
Kenny.
For The Royal Opera, Ms Pierard has sung the roles of
Contessa di Folleville (Il Viaggio a Reims), Musetta (La
Bohème), Lisa (La Sonnambula), Sandmann (Hänsel und
Gretel), Sacerdotessa (Aida), Noémie (Cendrillon), Wood
Nymph (Rusalka) and Costanza in Haydn’s L’isola
disabitata in Hobart, Tasmania. Also for The Royal Opera,
she has covered the roles of Violetta, Donna Anna
(Don Giovanni), Marfa (The Tsar’s Bride) and Leila (Les
Pêcheurs de Perles). She featured in the BBC's landmark
television series Maestro at the Opera in association with
The Royal Opera House, singing the roles of Rosalinde,
Donna Anna and Musetta.
Ms Pierard is in demand on the concert platform.
Recent appearances include Beethoven's 9th Symphony
and Poulenc's Stabat Mater with the London Philharmonia
at the Royal Festival Hall, Haydn's Creation with the NZSO,
Handel's Messiah and a tour of China with the NZSO, a
summer concert with the Symphonique de Bretagne in
France and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with Stroma.
Ms Pierard sang the role of Pat Nixon in the New
Zealand premiere of Nixon in China at the 2016 Auckland
Arts Festival and will also sing in Rufus Wainwright’s Prima
Donna at Auckland Arts Festival later this week.
FULL BIO: http://www.madeleinepierard.com/
AUCKLAND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Peter Scholes Conductor
Scholes studied conducting with Juan Matteucci and has conducted all the
professional New Zealand Orchestras as well as the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
the London Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He was
musical director of the Auckland Sinfonietta and is currently musical director of the
Auckland Chamber.
His specialist instrument is the clarinet which he studied with George Hopkins, Alan
Hacker, Thea King and with Ken Wilson at the University of Auckland. He was prize
winner in the 1987 International Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition held in
Rotterdam. He was principal clarinet with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra and has been guest artist
with the New Zealand String Quartet and with all the professional NZ orchestras.
He has composed film scores and had works commissioned by the NZSO, STROMA, the Royal New
Zealand Ballet, APO, CadeNZa, CMNZ, the Auckland Wind Quintet, Patrick Power, Gareth Farr and for
Radio New Zealand drama productions. His composition Islands II represented New Zealand in the 1993
UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers.
His latest crossover project is with the London Orion Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in London for a
Decca release of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
He has lectured in clarinet, conducting, chamber music and electronic music at Auckland and
Waikato Universities.
Flutes
Adrianna Lis, Luca Manghi, Eva Ding, Anna Cooper,
Jenny Seddon-Mori, Christine Kim
Oboes
Alison Jepson, Alison Dunlop
Clarinets
Rowan Meade, Nicola Walton, Yvette Audain,
Robin Toan
Eb Clarinet
Donald Nicholls
Bass Clarinet
Elsa Holliday
Contrabass Clarinet
Andrew Uren
Bassoons
Ben Hoadley
Saxophones
Tomomi Johnston, Mark Storey, Alex Eichelbaum,
Matthew Baker, Christiaan Swanepoel
French Horns
Sung-Soo Hong, Jillian Christoff, Anita Austin
WWW.ACO.CO.NZ
Trumpets
Stephen Bemelman, Laura Pendergrast, Peter Reid
Flugel Horn
Matt Stenbo
Trombones
Benjamin Zilber, Grant Sinclair, Mark Close
Bass Trombone
Tim Sutton,
Tubas
Tak Chun Lai, Billy Middleton, Lachlen Grant
Euphonium
Riki McDonnell
Percussion
Samuel Girling, Rebecca Celebuski, Rachel Thomas,
Chris O'Connor, Laurence McFarlane
Percussion Co-ordinator
Sam Girling
Double Bass
Evgeny Lanchtchikov
FACEBOOK.COM/AKLCHAMBERORCHESTRA/
VOICES NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER CHOIR
Dr Karen Grylls Artistic Director, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
Dr Grylls is Associate Professor in Conducting and Head of Choral Studies at the
University of Auckland and Artistic Director of the Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust,
the managing body for the NZ Youth Choir and Voices NZ. Dr Grylls was Music
Director of the New Zealand Youth Choir from 1989 to 2011, and Artistic Director of
Toronto’s Exultate Chamber Choir from 2011 to 2013. Dr Grylls is much in demand as
an adjudicator and a choral clinician worldwide. In 1996 Auckland University
honoured her with a Distinguished Teaching Award in Music and in 1999 she became
an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for her services to choral
music.
Associate Conductor and Vocal Consultant
Robert Wiremu
Chief Executive
Arne Herrmann
Sopranos
Rachel Alexander, Pepe Becker, Victoria Chammanee, Shone McIntyre-Bull, Jane McKinlay,
Fiona Tibbles
Altos
Andrea Cochrane, Christine Argyle, Morag Atchison, Grace Neale, Jessica Wells,
Thomas Woodfield
Tenors
Phillip Collins, Manase Latu, Samuel Madden, Philip Roderick, Brendon Shanks, Jack Timings
Basses
James Butler, Timothy Carpenter, Matthew Drake, Nicholas Forbes, Rowan Johnston
Isaac Stone
Ata Reira, Auckland Arts Festival 2015. PHOTOGRAPH: AJA LETHERBY
WWW.CHOIRSNZ.CO.NZ/VOICES
FACEBOOK.COM/VOICESNEWZEALAND/