Notes from the Front

The Poet Laureate Programme presents:

Notes from the Front

The premiere of a World War 1 song cycle by Ross Harris and New Zealand’s Poet Laureate, Vincent O’Sullivan will be performed at Wellington’s historic Old St Paul’s this month as part of the National Library’s Poet Laureate Programme.

Notes from the Front is based on the wartime experience of Alexander Aitken, the brilliant mathematician and gifted amateur musician, who managed to smuggle a violin through both Gallipoli and France, playing it in the trenches. Aitken served with the Otago Infantry as part of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

The song cycle is the centerpiece of an evening of music and poetry which will include music by George Butterworth and Benjamin Britten, together with poetry in English and German.

The new work follows the success of Requiem for the Fallen, the first of three collaborative works by Ross Harris and Vincent O’Sullivan to be premiered in 2014, which was a sellout concert at the New Zealand Festival in February this year.

The Poet Laureate is appointed every two years and supported by the National Library of New Zealand, through the Alexander Turnbull Library, to create new work and promote poetry throughout the country.

Venue: Old St Pauls, Mulgrave Street, Wellington

Time: Thursday 28 August 2014, 7.30-9.30

Bookings necessary

ends

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