Student Composer Hits Right Note With Super 15

--For Immediate release--

Student Composer Hits Right Note With Super 15

17/5/11

The next time the Blues run on to the pitch at a Super 15 match, they’ll be doing so to music written by a schoolboy.

The 90-second piece of music, entitled Wheturangi Kahurangi, is composed by Alex McFarlane, a year 12 student at Auckland Grammar School and the winner of a competition jointly held by Auckland Rugby and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (APO). The work has been recorded by the APO to be used as the Blues take the field at Eden Park on 20 May.

Kenneth Young, composer, conductor and a lecturer at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University, judged the competition and recorded the winning piece with the APO.

“Alex's piece has an accomplished, celebratory and triumphant style to it that captures exactly what is needed in a fanfare,” says Mr Young, who also notes that he is a Crusaders fan.

Alex, who plays the viola, says that writing for brass was a new experience. “I needed to research the techniques for brass writing and the characteristics of brass fanfares,” he says. “I tried to incorporate a Pacific feel through the Maori title and by using log drums to accompany the brass.”

It’s a busy time for Alex, who in the next few months competes as a viola player in the KBB Young Performers competition run by the APO, and the CTNZ Chamber Music competition.

Alex isn’t the only musical talent in his family. His brother, Laurence, is himself a former APO Young Achiever and came third in the world in the 2009 international Cambridge exams for A Level music.

Kenneth Young says: “As an educator it’s heartening to see such wonderful young talent flourishing in our country; as a conductor, I was immensely pleased to give the first performance of Alex’s work with the APO; and speaking as a composer, I’ll be looking over my shoulder from now on – Alex has an immense future ahead of him.”

--Ends