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

SOUNZ Centre for New Zealand Music is delighted to announce that Auckland-based composer Victoria Kelly has won the 2023 SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha with Requiem for soprano, tenor, orchestra and choir.  Victoria Kelly says, “Writing Requiem and sending it into the world has been a transformational experience and something I couldn’t possibly have done on my own. I’m incredibly grateful to the many people who offered me their expertise, their voices, their championship, and their patience as it came to fruition. Sending music into the world is always terrifying – and this pi ..read more

Nathaniel Otley is a finalist for the 2023 SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha for his work, Mycelium. We caught up with Nathaniel to find out more about the piece.  Can you tell us about the title and the inspiration behind your piece? The beginnings of this piece grew out of my interest in incorporating ecological ideas and processes into my compositional practice. In this particular instance I was drawn to how fungal threads known as hyphae form interconnected webs known as mycelia that undertake a number of vital ecological processes that support wider ecosystems ..read more

Victoria Kelly is a finalist for the 2023 SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha for her work, Requiem. We caught up with Victoria to find out more about the piece.  The Requiem, with its rich and storied musical tradition, embodies a profound artistic legacy. Could you illuminate your approach to the creation of your own Requiem? I think my approach to this piece from the outset was to try and find a way to express profound experiences that I had no other language for. When I was 20 and my father died, a Requiem was the biggest musical ide ..read more

Joshua Pearson is a finalist for the 2023 SOUNZ Contemporary Award | Te Tohu Auaha for his work, No ro hunu ake. We caught up with Joshua to find out more about the piece.  What was the inspiration or process behind the creation of No ro hunu ake? I watched the documentary film There Once Was An Island: Te Henoa E Noho during my time as a music student at the University of Auckland when I took an anthropology paper. The film really explores the devastating impact of climate change, especially the rising sea levels, on the tiny atoll island called Takuu in the Polynesi ..read more