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Applications for the 2020 Art Music Fund are now open, and Australian and New Zealand art music composers are encouraged to apply for a share in this round's $100,000 worth of funding to create new commissioned work. When the grants are awarded in 2020, the initiative's all-time funding of new works will surpass the $500,000 mark.

The Art Music Fund is available for the creation of commissioned work that is innovative, displays professional compositional craft and represents a benchmark of excellence in its field. The intention is to support composers to create works with a long artistic life.

The previous 39 recipients have come from a range of art music backgrounds, from improvisational jazz to sound art to children's opera. The works have been performed and reached audiences in Australia, New Zealand and all around the world.

Previous New Zealand recipients include Dr Eve de Castro Robinson, Dylan Lardelli, and Samuel Holloway.

Key dates:
Applications are due at the close of 5:00PM 24 February 2020 (AEDT)
Successful applicants notified: End of April
Acquittal: Grants must be acquitted within five years

Why is matter so intelligent, though? explores the acoustic relationships between reef fish, sea urchins, snapping shrimp and other marine life forms in the Hauraki Gulf, considering the symbiotic interdependencies of these organisms through sound.

Made in collaboration with the Leigh Marine Laboratory, just north of Auckland, this multichannel sound work refers to the temporal trends and biological rhythms native to this marine environment, and asks, what can we learn from these interdependent, self-organising life history strategies?

This exhibition is the outcome of Amy Jean Barnett’s 2019-20 Toi Pōneke New Zealand School of Music Sound Art Residency.

HAMISH MCKEICH | Conductor

BRAHMS | Hungarian Dances No. 1 & 3
LISSA MERIDAN | Tuning the head of a pin
MOZART | Divertimento No. 11, Rondo
BIRTWISTLE | Bach Measures
JOHN ADAMS | Fearful Symmetries

Symmetries is an exhilarating mix of high energy works, all tied together by rhythm, phrase, structure and mathematics.

Brahms’ instantly recognisable Hungarian Dances and Rondo from Divertimento are short, perfectly structured pieces and irresistible to the ear.

New Zealand composer Lissa Meridan’s Tuning the head of a pin is a vibrant and rhythmic work, while British composer Harrison Birtwistle’s Bach Measures are his acclaimed arrangements of eight of Bach’s Chorale Preludes. Critics have likened this mesmerising work to eight miniature plays for an orchestra, as Birtwistle assigns the musicians, like actors, to different roles in each piece.

Adams’ Fearful Symmetries premiered in 1988 after his hit opera Nixon in China. Composed of “almost maddeningly symmetrical” four and eight-bar phrases, Adams sees it as closely allied to pop and minimalist rock. It’s also his most choreographed work, used by more than a dozen dance companies, including the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet.

BENJAMIN NORTHEY | chief conductor
BENJAMIN BAKER | violin

JACK BODY | Fanfare for Bert
JEAN SIBELIUS | Violin Concerto in D minor
SERGEI RACHMANINOV | Symphonic Dances

Opening the Lamb & Hayward Masterworks Series is Jack Body’s Fanfare for Bert, a humorous and catchy tribute to the easy listening master Bert Kaempfert.

Making his debut with the CSO to perform Sibelius’ brilliant Violin Concerto in D minor, New Zealand born Benjamin Baker has been described by the New York Times as a “fine violinist of virtuosity and refinement”.

Considered to be his greatest work for orchestra, Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances is a sumptuous musical feast. Featuring echoes of musical chants from the Russian Orthodox and Catholic traditions, the work contrasts deeply expressive moments with outbursts of ecstatic exuberance.

BENJAMIN NORTHEY | chief conductor
TE AHIKAAROA | kapa haka
LIOR ATTAR | tenor

VICTORIA KELLY / TE AHIKAAROA | New work for orchestra and kapa haka *
NIGEL WESTLAKE / LIOR ATTAR | Compassion **

* World premiere
** NZ premiere

We open this special concert with the world premiere of a work for kapa haka and orchestra developed in collaboration between Victoria Kelly and Te Ahikaaroa.

Compassion draws from the rich worlds of Islam and Judaism to present a collection of profound and poetic messages surrounding the idea of compassion between human beings. Sung in Hebrew and Arabic, this deeply moving and powerful work weaves together the mesmerising voice of Lior with the sounds of the symphony orchestra.

HAMISH MCKEICH | Conductor
ARIANA TIKAO | Taonga puoro

TORU TAKEMITSU | Archipelago S.
CHINARY UNG | Water Rings
KAIJA SAARIAHO | Nymphéa Reflection
PHILIP BROWNLEE / ARIANA TIKAO | Ko te tātai whetū

Wai features five outstanding 20th and 21st century works on the theme of water – its power, tranquillity, flow and different forms.

Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s Archipelago S. will have the NZSO dispersed into five groups like an archipelago of islands.

Water Rings is influenced by dance rhythms and folk tunes of composer Chinary Ung’s native Cambodia. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is renowned for sonic images of magnetic power, blending acoustic and electronic music. Her acclaimed Nymphéa Reflection features a poem whispered by the players, echoing the reflection of water.

Premiered in 2015, Ko te tātai whetū is a concerto for orchestra and taonga puoro. Featuring performer Ariana Tikao, it tells the story of Tāne’s journey between the underworld and the world of the living.

HAMISH MCKEICH | Conductor
ARIANA TIKAO | Taonga puoro

TORU TAKEMITSU | Archipelago S.
CHINARY UNG | Water Rings
KAIJA SAARIAHO | Nymphéa Reflection
PHILIP BROWNLEE / ARIANA TIKAO | Ko te tātai whetū

Wai features five outstanding 20th and 21st century works on the theme of water – its power, tranquillity, flow and different forms.

Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s Archipelago S. will have the NZSO dispersed into five groups like an archipelago of islands.

Water Rings is influenced by dance rhythms and folk tunes of composer Chinary Ung’s native Cambodia. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is renowned for sonic images of magnetic power, blending acoustic and electronic music. Her acclaimed Nymphéa Reflection features a poem whispered by the players, echoing the reflection of water.

Premiered in 2015, Ko te tātai whetū is a concerto for orchestra and taonga puoro. Featuring performer Ariana Tikao, it tells the story of Tāne’s journey between the underworld and the world of the living. Presented in association with ISCM World New Music Days 2020.

BENJAMIN NORTHEY | chief conductor
MICHAEL HOUSTOUN | piano
ANTHONY FERNER | flute

CLAUDE DEBUSSY | Lindaraja (arr. Bill Hopkins) *
FELIX MENDELSSOHN | Symphony No 4 “Italian”
FRANCIS POULENC | Cantilena for Flute (arr. Chris Cree Brown)
JOHANNES BRAHMS | Concerto No. 1 for Piano

* NZ premiere

Mendelssohn’s fourth symphony is bursting with exuberance and youthful energy. Inspired by his travels around Italy, it is characterised by bright, sunny melodies and an uplifting freshness.

Also featuring in this programme are two exquisite miniatures, Debussy’s Lindaraja, originally composed for two pianos, and Poulenc’s Cantilena both re-imagined in sensitive arrangements for orchestra.

New Zealand’s foremost pianist, Michael Houstoun, joins the CSO to perform Brahms' magnificent first piano concerto in his final performance with the CSO as he farewells the concert platform.

MARTIN RISELEY | violin

J S BACH | Sonata No. 3 in C major
J S BACH | Partita No. 2 in D minor
GARETH FARR | Wakatipu
JOHN PSATHAS | Gyftiko

This series is presented in the Ron Ball Studio situated in the CSO’s new home within the Town Hall. Celebrating the talents of the musicians of the orchestra, each one hour programme is carefully curated to explore the different sounds of an orchestra in an up-close and intimate setting.

GIANCARLO GUERRERO | conductor
VALENTINA LISITSA | piano

TABEA SQUIRE | Variations
PROKOFIEV | Piano Concerto No. 3
RACHMANINOV | The Isle of the Dead
BARTOK | Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, renowned for his Grammy Award-winning recordings of contemporary American composers, conducts the NZSO in a clutch of provocative 20th-century classics.

Rachmaninov’s lush and brooding Isle of the Dead sprang from Arnold Böcklin’s painting of a looming island, approached by a lone rowboat carrying a coffin. Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin was originally a pantomime ballet depicting both the sounds of the urban jungle, but also the depravity within.

Valentina Lisitsa performs Prokofiev’s best-loved Piano Concerto, his third. Lisitsa, one of the first viral classical music stars, is now a globe-trotting concert pianist whose playing has been praised by The Guardian as displaying “a special combination of utterly self-assured virtuosity and real lyricism and communication.”

NZ composer Tabea Squire’s piece Variations is the first of her works to be premiered in an NZSO subscription series. The youngest ever composer to be awarded the NZSO/NYO Composer-in-Residence position, her works have been premiered in Melbourne, Adelaide, and London.

GIANCARLO GUERRERO | conductor
VALENTINA LISITSA | piano

TABEA SQUIRE | Variations
PROKOFIEV | Piano Concerto No. 3
RACHMANINOV | The Isle of the Dead
BARTOK | Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, renowned for his Grammy Award-winning recordings of contemporary American composers, conducts the NZSO in a clutch of provocative 20th-century classics.

Rachmaninov’s lush and brooding Isle of the Dead sprang from Arnold Böcklin’s painting of a looming island, approached by a lone rowboat carrying a coffin. Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin was originally a pantomime ballet depicting both the sounds of the urban jungle, but also the depravity within.

Valentina Lisitsa performs Prokofiev’s best-loved Piano Concerto, his third. Lisitsa, one of the first viral classical music stars, is now a globe-trotting concert pianist whose playing has been praised by The Guardian as displaying “a special combination of utterly self-assured virtuosity and real lyricism and communication.”

NZ composer Tabea Squire’s piece Variations is the first of her works to be premiered in an NZSO subscription series. The youngest ever composer to be awarded the NZSO/NYO Composer-in-Residence position, her works have been premiered in Melbourne, Adelaide, and London.

Programme:

CHRIS WATSON | Homage to Varèse’s “Octandre”
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART | Serenade in E flat
EDGARD VARÈSE | Octandre

This series is presented in the Ron Ball Studio situated in the CSO’s new home within the Town Hall. Celebrating the talents of the musicians of the orchestra, each one hour programme is carefully curated to explore the different sounds of an orchestra in an up-close and intimate setting.

JUANITA HEPI (TE HAPŪ O NGĀTI WHEKE) | artistic director
DANNY SYME | co-director/head trainer
HAMISH OLIVER | composer

Tūmahana: Exchange is a bilingual (Te Reo Māori and English) performance that offers a glimpse into a past where generations of our tīpuna and ancestors have made their homes in and around the Ngāi Tahu takiwā of Te Waipounamu.

This all ages performance weaves theatre, aerial and visual arts, acrobatics, Toi Māori and Tāonga Pūoro with orchestral music in collaboration with Te Hapū o Ngāti Wheke, Christchurch Circus Collective and CSO.

BENJAMIN NORTHEY | chief conductor
DAVID MCGREGOR | clarinet

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART | Overture to Don Giovanni
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART | Clarinet Concerto in A major, K.622
ANTHONY RITCHIE | Symphony No. 5 *

* World premiere

Having watched his father conduct Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony at the inaugural concert of the Christchurch Town Hall in 1972, Anthony Ritchie had some of his most formative and positive musical experiences in this building. The CSO is delighted to perform the world premiere of Anthony Ritchie’s fifth symphony, written for the orchestra to celebrate the restoration and re-opening of the Christchurch Town Hall.

Performed by the CSO’s Principal Clarinet, David McGregor, Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto is considered to be one of his most sublime works. Composed during the final year of Mozart’s life this concerto conveys a reflective poignancy.

CHRIS CREE BROWN | Memories Apart
IGOR STRAVINSKY | Ragtime for Eleven Musicians
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Adagio molto for harp and string quartet
ELENA KATS-CHERNIN | Hemispheres
MAURICE RAVEL | Introduction and Allegro for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet

This series is presented in the Ron Ball Studio situated in the CSO’s new home within the Town Hall. Celebrating the talents of the musicians of the orchestra, each one hour programme is carefully curated to explore the different sounds of an orchestra in an up-close and intimate setting.