choral briefs midwest clinic performance anxiety - KBB Music
choral briefs midwest clinic performance anxiety - KBB Music
choral briefs midwest clinic performance anxiety - KBB Music
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Composers Compare Notes<br />
at the CANZ Nelson<br />
Composers Workshop 2012<br />
By Glenda Keam, President of the Composers<br />
Association of New Zealand<br />
Alex Taylor (violin) and Jeremy (piano) rehearsing<br />
a student work. Photo: James Gardner<br />
For five days in early July of each<br />
year, the Composers Association of NZ<br />
runs the Nelson Composers Workshop,<br />
convened by two dedicated and<br />
energetic members of CANZ. Nearly 30<br />
student composers from tertiary level<br />
study and sometimes upper secondary<br />
school come to Nelson from around the<br />
country, along with composer mentors,<br />
performers and observers, all of whom<br />
find this a valuable forum for discussing<br />
technical, practical and aesthetic<br />
considerations involved in the act and<br />
process of composition.<br />
This year’s workshop took place between<br />
1 and 5 July, and was convened by Mary<br />
Binney and Anthony Young, whose<br />
many months of preparation brought<br />
together a very interesting group of<br />
composition-minded people. This year’s<br />
mentors were Chris Adams, Virko Baley,<br />
Rachel Clement, David Downes, Robbie<br />
Ellis, John Elmsly, James Gardner, Chris<br />
Gendall, Thomas Goss, Ross Harris,<br />
Glenda Keam, Ryan Youens and Anthony<br />
Young. Other musicians also attended<br />
parts of the workshop, including Leonie<br />
Holmes and Richard Nunns. There<br />
were many fine professional performers<br />
who brought the new works to life<br />
very effectively, including members of<br />
175 East and the NZSO.<br />
Each year since 1982, when Jack Body<br />
initiated the first such gathering in<br />
Nelson, the workshop has enjoyed the<br />
facilities offered by the Nelson School<br />
of <strong>Music</strong>. Their beautiful old building<br />
in central Nelson offers a large concert<br />
hall space, a discussion room, catering<br />
space, and the ever-necessary rehearsal<br />
rooms. Most participants stay at the<br />
Nelson YHA, which is a great place to<br />
continue compositional conversations<br />
over breakfast or dinner.<br />
The format of the workshops is that each<br />
student work is performed, and then the<br />
composer (and their mentor) participates<br />
in a discussion about what went well,<br />
what might have been done differently,<br />
how to use the instruments well, and<br />
what was challenging about the work.<br />
Hannah Bright demonstrating her piano score<br />
(Blas Gonzalez at the piano). Photo: James Gardner<br />
Everyone learns from everyone in this<br />
environment, and it’s a fabulous way to<br />
find out more about composers in other<br />
parts of the country. These days, thanks<br />
to modern technology, all workshop<br />
<strong>performance</strong>s are efficiently and expertly<br />
recorded, so each student composer<br />
has a CD of their new recording by the<br />
end of their discussion.<br />
Mornings are the time for rehearsals<br />
(composers working with the performers<br />
and their mentor), while the afternoons<br />
and evenings feature workshop<br />
<strong>performance</strong>s and discussions,<br />
focused on an impressively varied and<br />
accomplished range of new works.<br />
For those not involved in rehearsals<br />
in the mornings, there is a series<br />
of presentations from participating<br />
composers talking about works in<br />
progress or recent compositional<br />
approaches.<br />
This year’s format was slightly different<br />
from most, in that one workshop<br />
session was devoted to performing<br />
15 microscores written by participants<br />
specially for the lineup of bass clarinet<br />
(or contrabass clarinet), violin and viola.<br />
To hear such compositional ‘snapshots’<br />
rubbing shoulders with each other, and<br />
hear such fresh new music from so many<br />
people in one room, was really an earopener.<br />
The Workshop opened with an evening<br />
concert of recent works from New<br />
Zealand and beyond, and the final<br />
evening was rounded off with a New<br />
Zealand <strong>Music</strong> Quiz, with six teams<br />
competing fiercely. I’m looking forward<br />
to next year’s workshop already; the<br />
convenors in 2013 will be Anthony Young<br />
and Louise Webster, and I am keen<br />
to hear how the various participants’<br />
music develops through another twelve<br />
months. •<br />
Reuben Jelleyman discussing his work.<br />
Photo: James Gardner<br />
Freephone 0800 775 226 www.kbbmusic.co.nz 15