CANZ Composer Workshop and 50th Anniversary Party!

The 2024 Composers Workshop was convened in Wellington and saw a broad spectrum of composers in various stages of career development attend. The 42nd year of the workshops coincided with the 50th anniversary of CANZ as an organisation.

Convened by Keith Moss, there was juncture in the planning process that would have seen the workshop take place in Christchurch once more, after it’s 2023 success, where the workshop pivoted to Wellington.

The decision to host in Wellington was largely driven by the partnership with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, resulting in much larger ensembles being available to participants but a lower threshold of acceptance to the workshop.

18 composers were selected from a pool of 39 applicants. Keith was assisted by Elliot Vaughan, Fergus Fry and Lucy Pollock. Much more of the heavy lifting was carried out by Workshop Curator Russell Henderson who has attended many workshops previously, while completing his PhD at Victoria University. Russell ran the seminar day at Massey University’s cinema complex.

Mentors this year included, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Leonie Holmes, Reuben de Latour, Simon Eastwood, Michael Norris and Mark Menzies. The mentors all have a deep and long connection with CANZ and the Workshops and they brought an energy to the gathering that fostered genial relationships with the composers, especially those that were new. Mentors met with their respective composers well in advance of this year’s workshop to provide guidance early in the composition process.

The aim of this was to have composers produce a substantial piece of work that could be easily executed by the NZSO cohort. Gabriela Glapska (piano) returned to the workshops in the capacity as an NZSO performer, but they are a familiar face to the workshops and it was splendid that we were able to include her.

The workshops were scheduled quite tightly according to the availability of the NZSO. Because of the proximity of the workshop to one of the other programmes offered by the NZSO, Conducting Fellows from that programme were brought on board the workshops to assist in rehearsals and performances of all the works. These conducting fellows included, Virginie Pachenko, Kira Oldfield, Luka Venter and Reuben Brown. They were joined by NZSO trumpeter Mark Carter who concentrated on all the works for wind ensemble.

The remaining ensembles were two-fold, one pure string orchestra and one comprised of strings, piano and percussion. The total musicians provided by the NZSO to make this project come to life totaled 42 players. An added feature was allowing composers to write for taonga puoro where the players were joined by the masterful Alistair Fraser. Conductors were also encouraged to meet with composers before the start of the workshops so that they could formulate ways of working in preparation for meeting the musicians.

This year there were no public performances as such, but we were joined by observers, those composers whose works were not selected, and I hope that they got as much out of the experience as the composers did.

The rehearsals and workshops were intense 60-minute periods where the composers and mentors were able to bring their works to life, work out some idiosyncrasies in their music, and have an opportunity to interact with the musicians. The format was also one of the first occasions that the players could provide feedback to the composers and ask questions about the performance requirements of the piece.

Following these sessions, composers and mentors from all 3 ensembles were brought together to listen to the afternoon recordings, having a quiet place then to dig deeper into the works and have feedback from all the participants. These were particularly rewarding and offered some real nuggets of head scratching, where composers could walk away with critiques on working through the material once more. While some composers felt that their pieces were a work in progress, others were happy with their works to remain as completed for future performance.

The workshops were concluded with a separate seminar day where Eve de Castro-Robinson, Reuben de Latour and Keith Moss offered talks. Mark Menzies used a session to perform 21 micro- scores written for solo violin, with an encore of sorts by Dushan Jayathissa.

Hannah Darroch from SOUNZ also gave a talk to elaborate more on what the organisation does, and where they are taking composers into the future. This was especially helpful to those composers who are at early career stages who have yet to join SOUNZ.

Finally, we ended proceedings with a birthday bash on Saturday 7 September in Wellington. Many faces familiar to CANZ over the years attended, including many that were ex-presidents or convenors of CANZ and the workshops respectively. Supporters over the years from RNZ and SOUNZ also attended while Glenda Keam offered words of encouragement and thanks to the organisation.

Despite being a radical departure from our typical workshop format, the week was a huge success with mentors praising the incredibly high performance standard this year as well as John Neil’s recordings. Mentor Eve de Castro-Robison said ‘this year's workshop, with the availability of several large ensembles from the NZSO, has been exceptional’.

Having all-NZSO performers involved was of huge benefit to all participants, and I want to express my grateful thanks to them for entering into the workshop spirit, performing and recording generously, and giving welcome feedback.

In addition, John’s terrific recordings will be excellent records for these emerging composers. Fellow mentor Michael Norris remarked, ‘there was the very high standard of performance, bringing these new works to vivid life and providing a very clear foundation on which to discuss the relative merits of the work, its instrumentation and its impact for the audience. Having NZSO performers involved was of enormous benefit to all participants, and I wanted to express my unreserved thanks’.

It has been a pleasure to work with the committee during my time as convenor 2024 and I am proud of what was accomplished for all involved. Now that I’ve attended my first workshop and got to know many new composers, I’m looking forward to connecting over the next year, and meeting you all again in person at the next workshop.

Sincerely,

Dr Keith Moss