International Festival Continues At NZSM

The New Zealand International Arts Festival might be over for another two years, but Te Kōkī, New Zealand School of Music has its own mini International Festival THIS week.

Guest artists from America and Spain, a New Zealander living in America, an Israeli-American and a Russian living in New Zealand and two Kiwis who studied and started their careers in USA and Canada will give masterclasses and perform in three separate concerts over the next eight days.

The duo ‘2’ comprises flautist Peter H Bloom and pianist/harpist Mary Jane Rupert. The pair are currently touring New Zealand and they stop in to NZSM to give a flute masterclass on Tuesday 20 March and perform a concert on Wednesday evening called ‘Antipodal Attractions’. The programme includes music for flute and piano by Kiwi composers John Rimmer and Gareth Farr and American composers Elizabeth Vercoe and Aaron Copland. Both events are free and observers are welcome.

Spanish maestro Guillermo González will visit on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 March with the generous assistance of Embajada de España (Spanish Embassy in New Zealand). Following a masterclass with NZSM piano students on Thursday evening, Mr González will perform Iberia by Isaac Albéniz, a suite of 12 'impressionistic evocations of Spain' considered to be the Spanish composer's final masterpiece. The work was highly praised by composers Claude Debussy and Olivier Messiaen, who said: "Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the more brilliant pieces for the king of the instruments". Stylistically, this suite falls squarely in the school of Impressionism, especially in its musical evocations of Spain and technically, Iberia is one of the most difficult pieces in the pianist’s repertoire.

“We are delighted to welcome someone of such experience and talent to the school,” says NZSM Director Professor Elizabeth Hudson. “The concert promises to be a very special event and we look forward to the particular perspective Mr González will bring as a Spaniard playing this quintessentially Spanish work by one of that country’s most celebrated composers. We are also very excited that ‘Iberia’ will be the first full piano concert to be played on our brand new Steinway Concert Grand.

On Monday 26 March, five professional musicians with internationally diverse backgrounds will present a concert of string quintets by Mozart and Dvorak. They really give support to the notion of the ‘global village’.

Donald Armstrong, Associate Concertmaster of the NZSO, who studied in America before returning to New Zealand, will be joined by Christchurch-born Martin Riseley, who worked for many years in America and Canada and Timothy Deighton is a fellow Kiwi who is now Professor of viola at Penn State University, USA. Cellist Inbal Megiddo, while Israeli-born, spent many years teaching and performing based at Yale University, and Russian-born Irina Andreeva is a Doctoral viola student at the NZSM. Both are now living in New Zealand. The ensemble will perform Mozart's String Quintet in g minor, K516; and fittingly, the 'American' String Quintet by Antonin Dvorak. Each is a masterwork, the Mozart justly famous, but the Dvorak often over-shadowed by its twin, the 'American' quartet; like the quartet however, it takes a sophisticated and heartfelt approach to its source material, folk music that the composer experienced in the USA.

Concerts:

• Duo ‘2’: Antipodal Attractions: Wednesday 21 March: 7:30pm, Adam Concert Room, NZSM Kelburn Campus, Gate 7 on Kelburn Parade. This is a free event.

• Guillermo González plays Iberia: Friday 23 March: 7:30pm, Adam Concert Room, NZSM Kelburn Campus, Gate 7 on Kelburn Parade. Adults $20 online, $25 at the door; Seniors/students $10. Online bookings through www.eventfinder.co.nz

• Mozart and Dvorak String Quintets: Monday 26 March: 7:30pm, Hunter Council Chamber, Victoria University of Wellington. Adults $20 online, $25 at the door; Seniors/students $10. Online bookings through www.eventfinder.co.nz

Masterclasses: Free entry and observers are welcome.

• Flute masterclass with Peter H Bloom: Tuesday 20 March: 6:00pm, Room 209, NZSM Kelburn Campus

• Piano masterclass with Guillermo González: Thursday 22 March, 7:30pm, Adam Concert Room, NZSM Kelburn Campus

• Viola Masterclass with Prof Timothy Deighton: Wednesday 28 March, 7:00pm, Adam Concert Room, NZSM Kelburn Campus

ENDS

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