New Zealand Chamber Soloists
Encyclopedia
The New Zealand Chamber Soloists (NZCS) (established 2006), are a New Zealand
based chamber music
ensemble. The NZCS consists of prominent concerto soloists with national and international careers and extensive chamber music experience. The core of the ensemble is the piano trio
consisting of New Zealand pianist, Katherine Austin, American-born cellist, James Tennant and violinist, Lara Hall. Other collaborators have included David Griffiths (composer)
and baritone, clarinettist, Peter Scholes and harpsichord specialist, Rachel Griffith-Hughes.
The NZCS are a professional, funded ensemble, affiliated to the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Waikato
and as such, undertake a wide range of musical activities. These include local and international concerts, master class
presentations, recording for national radio, Concert FM
and record label
, Atoll, festival programmes and ongoing development of performance musicians through their teaching positions within the conservatory.
. The requirement of a well established solo career in addition to chamber music specialization, was established in order to create an ensemble of individual, strong instrumental voicings that would create a distinctive sound, reflecting the many layers found in New Zealand music. James Tennant and Katherine Austin (also of the Austin-Tennant duo and previously the Ogen Trio) were partnered with Dr Lara Hall, who had recently joined the staff at the Conservatorium of Music after returning from the USA, to form the NZCS core trio. Through funding as a professional entity and a residency at the University of Waikato, Wel Academy of Performing Arts, the NZCS are able to maintain a continuous development of historical and contemporary repertoire to perform, tour and record.
s of Antonín Dvořák
and Robert Schumann
were performed in April 2007 at the Auckland University Theatre with the NZCS trio, violist Victoria Janecke and violinists Dimitri Atanassov and Amalia Hall
playing the Dvorak and Schumann respectively. Later that year, these were performed for the Royal Overseas League International Chamber Scholarship Concert at the Gallagher Concert Chamber in Hamilton, New Zealand
. Also in 2007, performances and collaborative work was performed with clarinettist Peter Scholes including the Bela Bartok
Contrasts for Clarinet, Cello and Piano.
In 2008, Chamber Music New Zealand (CMNZ) commissioned the NZCS for a national tour in a year’s programme that included Vienna
’s Eggner Trio, Takacs Quartet
and Jerusalem Quartet as well as Romania
n Tamas Vesmas. The six concert tour was followed up by further national tours for CMNZ in 2010 and 2011.
The year 2008 also saw the debut of Michael Williams’ triple concerto, Convergence, which was written for the NZCS (trio). This was performed with the Opus Chamber Orchestra under the baton of conductor
, Dr Peter Walls in Hamilton, Rotorua
and Tauranga
. The same work was later performed and recorded by the NZCS (trio) with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
in 2010, for national radio broadcaster, Concert FM.
The first international concert tour undertaken by the New Zealand Chamber Soloists was in January and February 2009. At this time they visited, Bogota
, Colombia
, the United States of America, the United Kingdom
and France
. Concerts were performed at major centres as well as Clare Hall, Cambridge
and the New Zealand Embassy in Paris. As a result of the performance in Colombia, an invitation was received to perform at the Pontino Festival in Italy in 2010.
The NZCS (trio) maintain a busy performance schedule as soloists and as a trio with Chamber Music New Zealand. They also perform at festivals, Katherine Austin being a founder of the Rotorua Chamber Music Festival and James Tennant, a founder of the national chamber music festival, the Adam Chamber Music Festival, in Nelson. Other notable performances have included baroque
concerts with harpsichord
specialist, Rachael Griffiths-Hughs, Lara Hall on baroque violin
and Jennifer Shaw on recorder
.
An earlier CD, “Ahi” (released 2008), funded by Creative New Zealand
and also produced by Atoll, featured the New Zealand Soloists including composer and baritone David Griffiths and clarinettist Peter Scholes. Katherine Austin and James Tennant contributed as part of the Ogen Trio, along with Dimitri Attanasov, concert master of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
.
and the NZ Trio. These ensembles provide a platform for the performance of contemporary New Zealand chamber music at the highest performance levels and through recording.
“Ahi” featured commissioned works by distinguished New Zealand composers, John Psathas
, Martin Lodge, Gareth Farr
, Michael Williams and David Griffiths(composer). Griffiths, also a baritone and a founding member of the NZCS, was a contributing performer on the CD as was Williams. Convergence, by Williams was written for, debuted and recorded by the NZCS (trio) and composers continue to collaborate with the ensemble.
New Zealand’s locality in the Pacific region means a close relationship with China
. During travels to China in 2011 as well as previous international visits, the New Zealand Chamber Soloists act as representatives of New Zealand classical and contemporary art music
to international audiences.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
based chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
ensemble. The NZCS consists of prominent concerto soloists with national and international careers and extensive chamber music experience. The core of the ensemble is the piano trio
Piano trio
A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
consisting of New Zealand pianist, Katherine Austin, American-born cellist, James Tennant and violinist, Lara Hall. Other collaborators have included David Griffiths (composer)
David Griffiths (composer)
David Griffiths is a composer, baritone and convener of the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Waikato. Griffiths has gained national and international recognition as a composer, opera singer and recital soloist...
and baritone, clarinettist, Peter Scholes and harpsichord specialist, Rachel Griffith-Hughes.
The NZCS are a professional, funded ensemble, affiliated to the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Waikato
University of Waikato
The University of Waikato is located in Hamilton and Tauranga, New Zealand, and was established in 1964. It has strengths across a broad range of subject areas, particularly its degrees in Computer Science and in Management...
and as such, undertake a wide range of musical activities. These include local and international concerts, master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
presentations, recording for national radio, Concert FM
Concert FM
Radio New Zealand Concert is a publicly-funded non-commercial New Zealand FM radio network owned by Radio New Zealand, which broadcasts classical and jazz music, as well as regular news updates from Radio New Zealand News....
and record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, Atoll, festival programmes and ongoing development of performance musicians through their teaching positions within the conservatory.
Origins
The NZCS was established in 2006 and was conceived as an ensemble of varying size with a piano trio as the nucleus. Members were drawn from amongst acclaimed New Zealand based soloists with connections to the University of WaikatoUniversity of Waikato
The University of Waikato is located in Hamilton and Tauranga, New Zealand, and was established in 1964. It has strengths across a broad range of subject areas, particularly its degrees in Computer Science and in Management...
. The requirement of a well established solo career in addition to chamber music specialization, was established in order to create an ensemble of individual, strong instrumental voicings that would create a distinctive sound, reflecting the many layers found in New Zealand music. James Tennant and Katherine Austin (also of the Austin-Tennant duo and previously the Ogen Trio) were partnered with Dr Lara Hall, who had recently joined the staff at the Conservatorium of Music after returning from the USA, to form the NZCS core trio. Through funding as a professional entity and a residency at the University of Waikato, Wel Academy of Performing Arts, the NZCS are able to maintain a continuous development of historical and contemporary repertoire to perform, tour and record.
Performing
In 2007, the year after their formation, the New Zealand Chamber Soloists undertook the first of various collaborative projects. The piano quintetPiano quintet
In European classical music, a piano quintet is a work of chamber music written for piano and four other instruments, most commonly piano, two violins, viola, and cello . Among the most frequently performed piano quintets are those by Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák...
s of Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
and Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
were performed in April 2007 at the Auckland University Theatre with the NZCS trio, violist Victoria Janecke and violinists Dimitri Atanassov and Amalia Hall
Amalia Hall
Amalia Hall is a New Zealand violinist.She began playing the violin at the age of three and within four years had completed all ten books of the repertoire of the Suzuki method....
playing the Dvorak and Schumann respectively. Later that year, these were performed for the Royal Overseas League International Chamber Scholarship Concert at the Gallagher Concert Chamber in Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...
. Also in 2007, performances and collaborative work was performed with clarinettist Peter Scholes including the Bela Bartok
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
Contrasts for Clarinet, Cello and Piano.
In 2008, Chamber Music New Zealand (CMNZ) commissioned the NZCS for a national tour in a year’s programme that included Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
’s Eggner Trio, Takacs Quartet
Takács Quartet
The Takács Quartet is a string quartet, founded in Hungary, and now based in Boulder, Colorado, United States.- History :In 1975, four students at the Music Academy in Budapest, Gabor Takács-Nagy , Károly Schranz , Gabor Ormai , and András Fejér formed The Takács Quartet...
and Jerusalem Quartet as well as Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n Tamas Vesmas. The six concert tour was followed up by further national tours for CMNZ in 2010 and 2011.
The year 2008 also saw the debut of Michael Williams’ triple concerto, Convergence, which was written for the NZCS (trio). This was performed with the Opus Chamber Orchestra under the baton of conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, Dr Peter Walls in Hamilton, Rotorua
Rotorua
Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand. The city is the seat of the Rotorua District, a territorial authority encompassing the city and several other nearby towns...
and Tauranga
Tauranga
Tauranga is the most populous city in the Bay of Plenty region, in the North Island of New Zealand.It was settled by Europeans in the early 19th century and was constituted as a city in 1963...
. The same work was later performed and recorded by the NZCS (trio) with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is the national orchestra of New Zealand. It is a crown entity owned by the Government of New Zealand, with 90 full-time players....
in 2010, for national radio broadcaster, Concert FM.
The first international concert tour undertaken by the New Zealand Chamber Soloists was in January and February 2009. At this time they visited, Bogota
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, the United States of America, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Concerts were performed at major centres as well as Clare Hall, Cambridge
Clare Hall, Cambridge
Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students.Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character...
and the New Zealand Embassy in Paris. As a result of the performance in Colombia, an invitation was received to perform at the Pontino Festival in Italy in 2010.
The NZCS (trio) maintain a busy performance schedule as soloists and as a trio with Chamber Music New Zealand. They also perform at festivals, Katherine Austin being a founder of the Rotorua Chamber Music Festival and James Tennant, a founder of the national chamber music festival, the Adam Chamber Music Festival, in Nelson. Other notable performances have included baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
concerts with harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
specialist, Rachael Griffiths-Hughs, Lara Hall on baroque violin
Baroque violin
A baroque violin is, in common usage, any violin whose neck, fingerboard, bridge, and tailpiece are of the type used during the baroque period. Such an instrument may be an original built during the baroque and never changed to modern form; or a modern replica built as a baroque violin; or an...
and Jennifer Shaw on recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
.
Recording
“Elegy” (released July 2010) is the first completely solo CD attributed to the NZCS Trio. Recorded and produced by Wayne Laird for New Zealand record label, Atoll, Elegy, held the number one ranking on the New Zealand Classical Charts for six weeks, a first for a chamber music recording and remained on the charts for a total of eleven weeks. The CD featured the programme of Russian composers performed on the 2009 international tour and included piano trios by Rachmaninoff, Babajanian and Shostakovich.An earlier CD, “Ahi” (released 2008), funded by Creative New Zealand
Creative New Zealand
The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets and audiences for New Zealand arts domestically and internationally...
and also produced by Atoll, featured the New Zealand Soloists including composer and baritone David Griffiths and clarinettist Peter Scholes. Katherine Austin and James Tennant contributed as part of the Ogen Trio, along with Dimitri Attanasov, concert master of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra was established in the early 1980s and has become one of New Zealand's major performing organisations. The instigation of its Composer-in-Residence programme in 1990 has made the orchestra an important force in the promotion of New Zealand composed...
.
Teaching
A significant aspect of the work of the NZCS is the teaching of solo instrumental and chamber music pedagogy. Austin, Hall and Tennant are lectures and senior lecturer respectively at the University of Waikato, Conservatorium of Music, the most highly ranked institution of its kind in New Zealand. Among recent and current award winning students have been the Leonari Trio, Rafaella Garlick-Grice and the top equal prize winner of the Beijing International Cello Competition in 2010, Santiago Canon Valencia. The NZCS also present master classes linked to their performance schedule at universities and other instuctional music institutions, working individually or as a group, focused on solo and chamber music performance and technique.New Zealand Music
The NZCS is one of three fully professional chamber music ensembles in New Zealand, the others being the New Zealand String QuartetNew Zealand String Quartet
The New Zealand String Quartet is New Zealand’s only full time string quartet. The current formation of musicians consisting of Helene Pohl , Douglas Beilman , Gillian Ansell and Rolf Gjelsten was established in 1994.The Quartet performs more than eighty concerts a year in New Zealand and...
and the NZ Trio. These ensembles provide a platform for the performance of contemporary New Zealand chamber music at the highest performance levels and through recording.
“Ahi” featured commissioned works by distinguished New Zealand composers, John Psathas
John Psathas
John Psathas is a New Zealand composer, son of Greek immigrant parents.He has works in the repertoire of such high profile musicians as Evelyn Glennie, Michael Houstoun, Michael Brecker and the New Juilliard Ensemble, and is one of New Zealand's most frequently performed composers...
, Martin Lodge, Gareth Farr
Gareth Farr
Gareth Vincent Farr ONZM is a New Zealand composer and percussionist. He has released a number of classical CDs and composed a number of works performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet...
, Michael Williams and David Griffiths(composer). Griffiths, also a baritone and a founding member of the NZCS, was a contributing performer on the CD as was Williams. Convergence, by Williams was written for, debuted and recorded by the NZCS (trio) and composers continue to collaborate with the ensemble.
New Zealand’s locality in the Pacific region means a close relationship with China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. During travels to China in 2011 as well as previous international visits, the New Zealand Chamber Soloists act as representatives of New Zealand classical and contemporary art music
Art music
Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...
to international audiences.