The 2015 AusNZ Festival brings Aussie music to London audiences.

The 2015 AusNZ Festival served as a great celebration of Australian and New Zealand musical talent; both from a performance and compositional point of view.

With twenty-eight musicians performing, seventeen Aus/NZ composers performed, and three world premieres delivered over two days, the sometimes forgotten output of Aus/NZ contemporary musicians was placed directly in the spotlight; through a variety of unique and innovative performance and programming methods, ensuring maximum visibility throughout the Festival

Events included a discussion on Collaboration in Contemporary Music with pianist Zubin Kanga, conductor Kelly Lovelady, NZ composer Lyell Cresswell, and chaired by Chris Lloyd:pianist; a Pop-Up Music Mini-Festival which featured a host of upcoming professional musicians performing within the public areas of the Festival in impromptu and surprising circumstances; a showcase of young musicians supported by the Tait Memorial Trust; two World Premieres commissioned and performed by NZ tenor Christopher Bowen and pianist Lindy Tennent-Brown in conjunction with the centenary of NZ poet Douglas Lilburn; four collaborations between Aus/NZ poets and musicians (featuring another world premiere composed by pianist Joseph Havlat for the Festival and performed again last week with Ensemble x.y); and a double-bill concert of Australian music by Jayson Gillham and the Australian Piano Quartet, in conjunction with the Tait Memorial Trust and the APQ’s Northern Hemisphere tour.

The positive effects of this exhibition on the Australian and New Zealand contemporary music scene will reverberate far longer than the dates of the Festival. For the performers, the opportunity to present mostly unheard works in Europe on stage was invaluable, whilst the career building ramifications of partaking in such a prestigious and high quality Festival cannot be undersold. Whilst some of the composers featured (Cresswell, Peter Sculthorpe, Carl Vine and John Psathas amongst others) need no introduction to European audiences, the Festival laid the platform for works by lesser-known composers – in the UK – such as Havlat, Matthew Hindson (who’s AK47 performed by Gillham was a particular highlight), Josephine Jin, and Eve de Castro Robinson, no doubt served to give an introduction to the scope and quality of Antipodean contemporary music.

With a large portion of audiences in attendance primarily for the literary events and discussions, an unplanned by welcomed flow-on effect of having music present throughout the weekend was the introduction of this music to a completely new audience. Whilst contemporary music audiences need no introduction to David Young’s work, an enthralled and incredibly receptive audience were given a small taste of his experimentation with visual scores and the range of acoustic and percussive sounds created by the piano with Kanga’s rendition of Not Music Yet. One could walk through the café to the sounds of Leo Brouwer performed by guitarist Andrey Lebedev (who gave the world premiere of his piece Sonata No. 5 at the Wigmore Hall only a week previously), cross the hall into the Chapters Bookstore and listen to cellist Thomas Marlin performing Zoltan Kodaly’s solo sonata for cello, and then walk down the stairs to hear violinist Xenia Deviatkina-Loh performing Irkanda I by the late and great Peter Sculthorpe.

In the space of two days, King’s College saw perhaps the greatest single celebration of Australian and New Zealand music in recent European history; and with grander plans for 2016, the AusNZ Festival looks forward to breaking new boundaries with and for Australian and New Zealander musicians of all genres and generations.

Performers:
Xenia Deviatkina-Loh – Violin (Aus)
Olivia Francis – Violin (NZ)
Brontë Hudnott – Flute (Aus)
Panayiota Kalatzis – Soprano (Aus)
Tehezib Lathiff – Tenor (NZ)
Joanne Leask – Violin (Aus)
Andrey Lebedev – Guitar (Aus)
Thomas Marlin – Cello (Aus)
Tara Minton – Harp and Voice (Aus)
David Jenkin – Piano (NZ)
Joseph Havlat – Piano (Aus)
Christopher Bowen – Tenor (NZ)
Lindy Tennent-Brown – Piano (NZ)
Jayson Gillham – Piano
Daniel de Borah – Piano (Aus)
Thomas Rann – Cello (Aus)
Rebecca Chan – Violin (Aus)
James Wannan – Viola (Aus)
Belle Chen – Piano (Aus)
John-Paul Muir – Piano (NZ)
Zubin Kanga – Piano (Aus)
Kelly Lovelady – Conductor (Aus)
Lyell Cresswell – Composer (Aus)
Joanna Norman – Soprano (Aus)
Chad Vindin – Piano accompaniment (Aus)
Marcus Norman – Clarinet (NZ)
Lisa Bucknell – Viola (Aus)
Chris Lloyd – Chair and curator (Aus)

 

Composers:
Tara Minton (Aus)
Brett Dean (Aus)
Phillip Houghton (Aus)
Joseph Havlat (Aus)
Lyell Cresswell (NZ)
Douglas Lilburn (NZ)
Patrick Shepherd (NZ)
Percy Grainger (Aus)
Carl Vine (Aus)
Matthew Hindson (Aus)
Peter Sculthorpe (Aus)
Frederick Septimus Kelly (Aus)
Miriam Hyde (Aus)
Josephine Jin (Aus)
Eve de Castro-Robinson (NZ)
John Psathas (NZ)
David Young (Aus)

Performers: Composers:
Xenia Deviatkina-Loh – Violin (Aus)
Olivia Francis – Violin (NZ)
Brontë Hudnott – Flute (Aus)
Panayiota Kalatzis – Soprano (Aus)
Tehezib Lathiff – Tenor (NZ)
Joanne Leask – Violin (Aus)
Andrey Lebedev – Guitar (Aus)
Thomas Marlin – Cello (Aus)
Tara Minton – Harp and Voice (Aus)
David Jenkin – Piano (NZ)
Joseph Havlat – Piano (Aus)
Christopher Bowen – Tenor (NZ)
Lindy Tennent-Brown – Piano (NZ)
Jayson Gillham – Piano
Daniel de Borah – Piano (Aus)
Thomas Rann – Cello (Aus)
Rebecca Chan – Violin (Aus)
James Wannan – Viola (Aus)
Belle Chen – Piano (Aus)
John-Paul Muir – Piano (NZ)
Zubin Kanga – Piano (Aus)
Kelly Lovelady – Conductor (Aus)
Lyell Cresswell – Composer (Aus)
Joanna Norman – Soprano (Aus)
Chad Vindin – Piano accompaniment (Aus)
Marcus Norman – Clarinet (NZ)
Lisa Bucknell – Viola (Aus)
Chris Lloyd – Chair and curator (Aus)		 Tara Minton (Aus)
Brett Dean (Aus)
Phillip Houghton (Aus)
Joseph Havlat (Aus)
Lyell Cresswell (NZ)
Douglas Lilburn (NZ)
Patrick Shepherd (NZ)
Percy Grainger (Aus)
Carl Vine (Aus)
Matthew Hindson (Aus)
Peter Sculthorpe (Aus)
Frederick Septimus Kelly (Aus)
Miriam Hyde (Aus)
Josephine Jin (Aus)
Eve de Castro-Robinson (NZ)
John Psathas (NZ)
David Young (Aus)