SOUNZ Contemporary Award Winner 2007

Embargoed until 9:30pm Tuesday 18 September, 2007

SOUNZ Contemporary Award Winner 2007

In May this year These Arms to Hold You by Eve de Castro-Robinson brought a children’s choir and New Zealand’s national orchestra together in a 100th birthday celebration. Last night [Ed:On Tuesday night], at the APRA Silver Scrolls evening, it won the 2007 SOUNZ Contemporary Award as the best new work of the last 12 months by a New Zealand composer.

These Arms to Hold You is a setting by Auckland-based composer Eve de Castro-Robinson of a poem by Bill Manhire, commissioned by the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society for the centenary of their foundation by Sir Truby King. It was premiered in the annual Made in New Zealand concert from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hamish McKeich. The Lyrica Choir from Kelburn Normal School, directed by Nicola Edgecombe, literally took centre stage in the performance as the children raced up the aisles to sing, chant and gleefully play toy instruments over the orchestral textures. In June the NZSO and choir took the work on a five-city national tour with critics and commentators universally praising its zest, exuberance and energetic sense of fun – an assessment shared by the four-person jury convened by SOUNZ. “This work had moments of magic,” they commented. “The writing is fresh, lively and full of the uninhibited joy of youth while also being adventurous and imaginative.”

The SOUNZ Contemporary Award is a collaborative project of both SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music and APRA, the Australasian Performing Right Association. The award recognises creativity and inspiration in composition by a New Zealander and consists of a $3000 prize and a trophy designed and made by Auckland sculptor Sarah Smuts Kennedy.

De Castro-Robinson is one of New Zealand’s most experienced composers She is currently Senior Lecturer in composition at the National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries (NICAI), University of Auckland. She was the inaugural winner of the SOUNZ Contemporary Award when it was first presented in 1998 and was also a finalist last year.

“The jury were impressed by both the diversity and emotional range shown among the 28 works submitted this year,” said Scilla Askew, Executive Director of SOUNZ. “From pieces for solo instruments such as flute and pipe organ through to full orchestra with taonga puoro, these works demonstrate a wonderful cross section of recent music by New Zealand composers.” The other finalists for the 2007 SOUNZ Contemporary Award were Anthem on the Kaipara for string orchestra by Christopher Blake and The Sleep of Reason… for chamber sextet by Ross Harris.

ENDS

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