Distinguished composer to conduct Wind Orchestra

Media Release: Auckland Wind Orchestra
6 November 2006

In brief, for community diary listings

Distinguished New Zealand composer, John Rimmer conducts the Auckland Wind Orchestra in a pageant of original wind music. Door sales are $15 or, for students and seniors, $10. The concert starts at 8pm on Saturday 18th November. The venue is St Michael’s Church located at 6 Beatrice Rd, near Newmarket.

In full

Distinguished composer to conduct Auckland Wind Orchestra

One of New Zealand’s most respected composers is to conduct the Auckland Wind Orchestra in Pageant, an eclectic programme of original wind music. John Rimmer has an international reputation and will call on a wealth of musical experience for his appearance with Auckland’s premier community wind orchestra.

The programme includes Ubique and Autumnal Alleluias, works composed by Rimmer himself. “I’m looking forward to drawing on the wind orchestra’s rich palette of sounds,” he says, “from delicate flutes and clarinets, via the reedy colours of oboes and bassoons to the drama of saxophones, horns, trumpets, trombones and percussion, and the sonorous intonings of bass clarinet, euphonium and tuba."

Ubique is a lively march and Autumnal Alleluias was inspired by the play of wind on fallen autumn leaves. John Rimmer arranged both works especially for this concert and says he’s eagerly anticipating hearing the works in the glorious setting of St Michael’s Church, Remuera. “With the church’s long reverberation time, the resonances of the wind orchestra should create a beautiful and rich sonority."

Rimmer gained international recognition in 1970 when his Symphony was performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall. Since then, he’s composed dozens of works for a variety of instrumentalists and ensembles. In 2002-2003, he was the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s composer-in-residence and in 2004, he filled a similar position with Dalewool Auckland Brass.

The Auckland Wind Orchestra’s upcoming concert takes its name from Pageant, a colourful work by American composer, Vincent Persichetti. Also on the programme are Ralph Vaughan Williams’s popular English Folk Song Suite and Howard Hanson’s exciting Chorale and Alleluia. The orchestra is proud to premiere Symphonic Prelude, a work composed by its founder, Hugh Dixon.

The concert starts at 8pm on Saturday 18th November. Door sales are $15 or, for seniors and students, $10. St Michael’s Church is located at 6 Beatrice Rd, near Newmarket. The nearby Southern Motorway and Market Road off-ramp makes access convenient. Limited parking is available on Beatrice Rd and around the church. More information is available on the web: www.awo.co.nz

ENDS

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