Grace Newman Kaiawhina Tari | Office Assistant Digital Marketing Coordinator | Kaiwhakarite Whakatairanga Matihiko In our Meet the Team series, we invite you to sit down and learn more about each SOUNZ staff member. Today we introduce our New Zealand Music Commission Intern, Grace Newman. Can you tell us a bit about your family, kids, where you’re from etc? I’ve just moved to Brooklyn, Wellington, I flat with my sister (who is my best friend and a fellow muso) and I hope to adopt a cat in the very near future! Where did you grow up? Where else have you lived? Born in London, when I was 11 my f ..read more

SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music in collaboration with Orchestra Wellington and Arohanui Strings – Sistema. In November 2024 Orchestra Wellington and Arohanui Strings will be performing together at the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington. This commission is an opportunity for a composer to create a work of up to 4-5 minutes featuring the combined forces of Orchestra Wellington and Arohanui Strings. The resulting work will need to have separate parts at an appropriate level for Arohanui Strings. Arohanui Strings is a Sistema-inspired music education programme based in Lower Hutt. The selected ..read more

8 January 2024   SOUNZ Board of Trustees announces the resignation of its Chief Executive | Tumu Whakarae, Diana Marsh SOUNZ champions and promotes the music of Aotearoa New Zealand, the leading arts and music organisation in the digital space that makes available the sounds, music and stories of Aotearoa, New Zealand. “Diana has been at the helm of SOUNZ since July 2015 and steered the organisation through the most transformational period in its history. Digital content development and diversification of our composer representation have been significant highlights of her leadership” says ..read more

December marks the release of three films of works by Te Whanganui a Tara-based composer, Tabea Squire, which were filmed in three consecutive months in 2022. We caught up with Tabea to find out more about these works and hear what’s on the horizon for her. In Behind the Stars, a Dark Sky, you drew inspiration from the concept of ‘dark sky status’ and the contrast between stars and darkness. How did this idea influence the musical elements and structure of the piano quintet? Can you walk us through your creative journey in developing this piece? It was simple enough: I took the ‘dark sky’ as ..read more

Gifts for the book lover Jenny McLeod | A Life in Music $50 Archive Fever | New Zealand Underground Sound in Fanzine Interviews 1991­­–1999 $55 Dorothy Buchanan: The Birds Began to Sing, memoir of a New Zealand composer $40 Guy Jansen: Sing New Zealand | The story of choral music in Aotearoa 60 Erewhon Calling: Experimental Sound in New Zealand $45 Robert Hoskins: Memories of Early Years and other writings $15 A Search for Tradition & A Search for a Language $25 Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music $55 Moon, Tides & Shoreline    &nbs ..read more

2023 SOUNZ Jazz Recording Project | Ngā Hopuranga Puoro Tautito a SOUNZ recipient announced. Thomas Friggens and his group ‘Quartet Contra’ have been selected for the 2023 SOUNZ Jazz Recording Project | Ngā Hopuranga Puoro Tautito a SOUNZ. The SOUNZ Jazz Recording Project | Ngā Hopuranga Puoro Tautito a SOUNZ aims to create high-quality recordings (audio and video) of original jazz compositions by New Zealand jazz composers. “The SOUNZ Jazz Recording Project, now in its seventh year, showcases talented jazz composers by capturing their original compositions, which are shared online as part of ..read more

In this series, we present our new composers. We are proud to introduce Nicholas Denton Protsack. Please tell us about yourself and what you do. I work primarily as both a composer and a cellist (though I am known to dabble in arts administration and recently started up an experimental record label called Whatnot Records). I am originally from Western Canada but am now based in Wellinton, where I am completing a PhD in music composition at the New Zealand School of Music. One of the primary goals of my artistic practise is to create music that is inspired by or evokes the natural world—partic ..read more

Applications are now open for the NZ Composer Sessions | Ngā Huihuinga Hāpai i ngā Kaitito o Aotearoa 2024, closing on 4 March 2024. The NZ Composer Sessions | Ngā Huihuinga Hāpai i ngā Kaitito o Aotearoa is a collaboration between the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, RNZ Concert and SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music. The aim is to create high-quality NZ orchestral recordings and to promote the works to a range of orchestras and broadcasters. Following the concert and the final editing process, the recordings will be available as audio on SOUNZ’s and RNZ Concert’s websites ..read more

Composer Luka Venter had their new chamber opera Lanternfish premiered in London in July as part of the Guildhall School’s ‘Opera Makers’ programme. The opera has since garnered interest from further afield, including proposals for the creation of a film of the opera. SOUNZ caught up with Luka to find out more about Lanternfish. Can you tell us about the initiative that helped this opera come into being? As part of my MA that I’ve just finished at the Guildhall (the MA in Opera Making and Writing) you get put through a proper professional pitching process, where my collabo ..read more

 Gemma Peacocke is the recipient of this year’s SOUNZ Commission for Orchestra and Sistema Youth Orchestra. Her new piece Manta premieres this Saturday 7 October at the Michael Fowler Centre by Arohanui Strings and Orchestra Wellington. SOUNZ had the opportunity to find out more about Gemma’s experience with writing this exciting commission.  Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your composition, Manta, and how you envisioned it resonating with the children’s string orchestra? I first saw manta rays in Wellington harbour skating across the seafloor at Oriental ..read more