CANZ Committee
The committee is a voluntary organisation made up of eight members from across Aotearoa. They meet regularly throughout the year and have an in-person meeting around the date of the AGM
CANZ members are encouraged to put their names forward for consideration whenever vacancies on the committee are open. We also gratefully welcome volunteers interested in helping in particular areas
Elections for the committee are held at the Annual General Meeting, which usually occurs during March/April of each year. CANZ members are encouraged to vote for members of the committee at the AGM, either in person or by using the proxy form
Current Committee Roles
President – Pieta Hextall
Treasurer – Chris Adams
Secretary – Fergus Fry
Canzonetta Editors – Fergus Fry & Alissa Long
Membership Officer – Alissa Long
Webmaster – Alfonso Bravi
Committee Members
Pieta Hextall
Pieta Hextall is an Ōtautahi based composer, arranger, and music educator. A graduate of the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, she has received a number of prizes for her compositions that are written principally for chamber music (particularly wind ensembles) and orchestra, and which have been work-shopped and performed in Australia and New Zealand. She is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Digital Screen (Sound Screen) at UC, is a full time itinerant teacher through Forte Music, runs a home studio, and is involved in a number of groups around Christchurch most notably Resonance Ensemble. Outside of music she enjoys gardening, hanging with her cat, exploring nature, and pursuing an inclusive, solarpunk future.
Chris Adams
Chris Adams (1979–) is a New Zealand composer and is the Director of Music at The Rudolf Steiner School in Christchurch. He was the Mozart Fellow (2010–2011) at the University of Otago and the Auckland Philharmonia’s Composer in Residence (2009). Chris was the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Pah Homestead from July to September, 2010, a position he held again in 2011.
As a composer, Chris has worked with a wide variety of soloists and groups including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia. His music has been performed around New Zealand, and in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Italy and Vietnam.
Fergus Fry
Fergus Fry is a composer of instrumental, live electronics, and fixed media works that seek to challenge existing stylistic and genre divisions. His recent academic work involved interviewing 26 active New Zealand Composers and examining topics of sustainability within the New Zealand Compositional Landscape (NZCL). This research saw the development of the PAPA model of compositional practice and classifying compositional mediums, directives, motivations.
Alissa Long
Alissa Long (formerly Kuang-Yun Liu) was born in Jordan, raised in Taiwan, and is now permanently based in New Zealand. She studied at Soochow University in Taipei under professor Ting Yi Ma, and finished her Master of Arts degree in 2012. She is a composer, arranger, and educator, with over a decade of experience in creating new music and arrangements for a large variety of musical soloists and ensembles at various levels. With wide-ranging international and local experience in music teaching and a number of different roles in the music industry, Alissa brings diverse inspirations and perspectives to her work. As an international composer, Alissa has a strong interest in combining western techniques with oriental elements, and bringing together multifarious cultural practices.
Kassandra Wang
Kassandra Wang (she/they) is a Te Whanganui-a-Tara based composer and mezzo-soprano exploring interactivity, accessibility, and storytelling through sound. With a Bachelor of Music specialising in electronic and jazz composition from Te Kōkī (New Zealand School of Music), Kassandra is a passionate advocate of creating welcoming communities and amplifying underrepresented voices. She founded Sounds of Te Kōkī, a concert series of student works championing diversity and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Simon Eastwood
Composer and bass player Simon Eastwood has a diverse practice, including orchestral and chamber works, electronic pieces, and improvisation. His current work revolves around exploring interdisciplinary collaboration through personal interpretation.
In 2021 he completed a DMA from the New Zealand School of Music, and in 2012 he received an MMus with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied composition with David Sawer and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies among others. Eastwood has attended residences and festivals in Dartington, Bulgaria, Estonia, Alaska, Austria, Turkey, and Lithuania. His works have been performed around the world by artists including, Franck Ollu, Martynas Levickis, CHROMA, Christopher Redgate, Stroma, Ensemble Gô, Rubiks Collective, Corvus, the New Zealand String Quartet, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and The BBC Singers.
Ryan Youens
Ryan Youens is an arranger, orchestrator, composer and music preparer, with fifteen years experience collaborating with ensembles, artists, publishers, composers and producers on projects including live concerts and events, film and television scores, studio recordings, theatre and stage productions.
Ryan works regularly with all of New Zealand’s leading orchestras, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia. He has produced charts for ensembles such as the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Budapest Scoring Orchestra, Danish National Opera, Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra; for composers such as Victoria Kelly, Rhian Sheehan, Anthony Ritchie, Tom McLeod and Wlad Mahulets; artists such as Kings, Anonymouz, Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Lawrence Arabia and The Koi Boys; and publishers such as G. Schirmer and Massey University Press. He has been involved in large events such as the Rugby World Cup and Pan-Arab Games; on movies such as The Hobbit; and has prepared music for the music stands at numerous scoring stages including Abbey Road.
Michelle Scullion
Michelle Scullion has been composing and performing music for decades. As a composer she has written and recorded music for film - both features and short films, television, theatre, radio drama, contemporary dance, public audiovisual works, children’s theatre and dance, corporate visuals and contemporary chamber groups.
Primarily Michelle is a vocalist and flute player, and specialises in performing her ever increasing collection of Non-Western Flutes - Taonga Pūoro being an important aspect of her performance and recording projects. While Michelle was studying Non-Western Music 1979 at Victoria University for her Bachelor of Music degree, the late Alan Thomas gave a lecture about Māori instruments - concentrating on the Koauau and Nguru. Michelle was enthralled, and introduced herself to Joe Malcolm, resident lecturer at Victoria University Māori Department.
Joe took her interest seriously and taught her how to make these instruments at his home. She has subsequently shared this knowledge for years, both nationally and internationally. She also has a large collection of Chinese Bamboo Flutes, and was taught by a leading Hong Kong music master how to put the rice membrane on the instruments, to collect the un-mistakable sound of these instruments. She has her own mac-based studio where she prepares many of her works, and collaborates with other like-minded musicians on a variety of projects - theatre works, film scores and albums.
She was a finalist in the Tui awards with her CD for the dance work ‘Peaks to Plains’ - a many faceted collection of compositions for children, of which the score was performed in the Civic Square, Wellington by over 450 school children. She is an improviser and regularly performs jazz, funk and the blues. She has recorded on many albums for a mixed genre of music and has released 5 original CD’s, including one called ‘The Art of Improvisation - Vol One’, with a score book included. She also worked with the late members of Red Mole Theatre Company, and is currently writing an opera using their words, characters, prose, poetry and scripts -’The Ballad of Stella Strange’.
CANZ Committee
The committee is a voluntary organisation made up of eight members from across Aotearoa. They meet regularly throughout the year and have an in-person meeting around the date of the AGM
CANZ members are encouraged to put their names forward for consideration whenever vacancies on the committee are open. We also gratefully welcome volunteers interested in helping in particular areas
Elections for the committee are held at the Annual General Meeting, which usually occurs during March/April of each year. CANZ members are encouraged to vote for members of the committee at the AGM, either in person or by using the proxy form
Current Committee Roles
President – Pieta Hextall
Treasurer – Chris Adams
Secretary – Fergus Fry
Canzonetta Editors – Fergus Fry & Alissa Long
Membership Officer – Alissa Long
Webmaster – Alfonso Bravi
Committee Members
Pieta Hextall
Pieta Hextall is an Ōtautahi based composer, arranger, and music educator. A graduate of the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, she has received a number of prizes for her compositions that are written principally for chamber music (particularly wind ensembles) and orchestra, and which have been work-shopped and performed in Australia and New Zealand. She is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Digital Screen (Sound Screen) at UC, is a full time itinerant teacher through Forte Music, runs a home studio, and is involved in a number of groups around Christchurch most notably Resonance Ensemble. Outside of music she enjoys gardening, hanging with her cat, exploring nature, and pursuing an inclusive, solarpunk future.
Chris Adams
Chris Adams (1979–) is a New Zealand composer and is the Director of Music at The Rudolf Steiner School in Christchurch. He was the Mozart Fellow (2010–2011) at the University of Otago and the Auckland Philharmonia’s Composer in Residence (2009). Chris was the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Pah Homestead from July to September, 2010, a position he held again in 2011.
As a composer, Chris has worked with a wide variety of soloists and groups including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia. His music has been performed around New Zealand, and in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Italy and Vietnam.
Fergus Fry
Fergus Fry is a composer of instrumental, live electronics, and fixed media works that seek to challenge existing stylistic and genre divisions. His recent academic work involved interviewing 26 active New Zealand Composers and examining topics of sustainability within the New Zealand Compositional Landscape (NZCL). This research saw the development of the PAPA model of compositional practice and classifying compositional mediums, directives, motivations.
Alissa Long
Alissa Long (formerly Kuang-Yun Liu) was born in Jordan, raised in Taiwan, and is now permanently based in New Zealand. She studied at Soochow University in Taipei under professor Ting Yi Ma, and finished her Master of Arts degree in 2012. She is a composer, arranger, and educator, with over a decade of experience in creating new music and arrangements for a large variety of musical soloists and ensembles at various levels. With wide-ranging international and local experience in music teaching and a number of different roles in the music industry, Alissa brings diverse inspirations and perspectives to her work. As an international composer, Alissa has a strong interest in combining western techniques with oriental elements, and bringing together multifarious cultural practices.
Kassandra Wang
Kassandra Wang (she/they) is a Te Whanganui-a-Tara based composer and mezzo-soprano exploring interactivity, accessibility, and storytelling through sound. With a Bachelor of Music specialising in electronic and jazz composition from Te Kōkī (New Zealand School of Music), Kassandra is a passionate advocate of creating welcoming communities and amplifying underrepresented voices. She founded Sounds of Te Kōkī, a concert series of student works championing diversity and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Simon Eastwood
Composer and bass player Simon Eastwood has a diverse practice, including orchestral and chamber works, electronic pieces, and improvisation. His current work revolves around exploring interdisciplinary collaboration through personal interpretation.
In 2021 he completed a DMA from the New Zealand School of Music, and in 2012 he received an MMus with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied composition with David Sawer and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies among others. Eastwood has attended residences and festivals in Dartington, Bulgaria, Estonia, Alaska, Austria, Turkey, and Lithuania. His works have been performed around the world by artists including, Franck Ollu, Martynas Levickis, CHROMA, Christopher Redgate, Stroma, Ensemble Gô, Rubiks Collective, Corvus, the New Zealand String Quartet, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and The BBC Singers.
Ryan Youens
Ryan Youens is an arranger, orchestrator, composer and music preparer, with fifteen years experience collaborating with ensembles, artists, publishers, composers and producers on projects including live concerts and events, film and television scores, studio recordings, theatre and stage productions.
Ryan works regularly with all of New Zealand’s leading orchestras, including the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia. He has produced charts for ensembles such as the London Metropolitan Orchestra, Budapest Scoring Orchestra, Danish National Opera, Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra; for composers such as Victoria Kelly, Rhian Sheehan, Anthony Ritchie, Tom McLeod and Wlad Mahulets; artists such as Kings, Anonymouz, Neil Finn, Tim Finn, Lawrence Arabia and The Koi Boys; and publishers such as G. Schirmer and Massey University Press. He has been involved in large events such as the Rugby World Cup and Pan-Arab Games; on movies such as The Hobbit; and has prepared music for the music stands at numerous scoring stages including Abbey Road.
Michelle Scullion
Michelle Scullion has been composing and performing music for decades. As a composer she has written and recorded music for film - both features and short films, television, theatre, radio drama, contemporary dance, public audiovisual works, children’s theatre and dance, corporate visuals and contemporary chamber groups.
Primarily Michelle is a vocalist and flute player, and specialises in performing her ever increasing collection of Non-Western Flutes - Taonga Pūoro being an important aspect of her performance and recording projects. While Michelle was studying Non-Western Music 1979 at Victoria University for her Bachelor of Music degree, the late Alan Thomas gave a lecture about Māori instruments - concentrating on the Koauau and Nguru. Michelle was enthralled, and introduced herself to Joe Malcolm, resident lecturer at Victoria University Māori Department.
Joe took her interest seriously and taught her how to make these instruments at his home. She has subsequently shared this knowledge for years, both nationally and internationally. She also has a large collection of Chinese Bamboo Flutes, and was taught by a leading Hong Kong music master how to put the rice membrane on the instruments, to collect the un-mistakable sound of these instruments. She has her own mac-based studio where she prepares many of her works, and collaborates with other like-minded musicians on a variety of projects - theatre works, film scores and albums.
She was a finalist in the Tui awards with her CD for the dance work ‘Peaks to Plains’ - a many faceted collection of compositions for children, of which the score was performed in the Civic Square, Wellington by over 450 school children. She is an improviser and regularly performs jazz, funk and the blues. She has recorded on many albums for a mixed genre of music and has released 5 original CD’s, including one called ‘The Art of Improvisation - Vol One’, with a score book included. She also worked with the late members of Red Mole Theatre Company, and is currently writing an opera using their words, characters, prose, poetry and scripts -’The Ballad of Stella Strange’.
