Lilburn Trust Citation Awards 2021

The Lilburn Trust is announcing five Citation Awards in recognition of the recipients’ outstanding services to New Zealand music.

This year’s recipients are saxophonist Deborah Rawson, music copyist and type-setter Alistair Gilkison, radio producer David McCaw, music critic and arts administrator Elizabeth Kerr, and record producer Terence O’Neill-Joyce.

The Lilburn Trust Citation is an occasional award made at the discretion of the Trust’s Music Advisory Committee. The award comprises a formal citation, a certificate and a cash amount. This year the cash amount is $10,000 per recipient.

“Given the recent hiatus in awarding citations, and the sector challenges of the last two years, we are very pleased to be in a position to make this gesture,” says Committee Chairperson, Chris Szekely.

“We take great pleasure in congratulating the recipients and acknowledging their longstanding contributions.”

Twenty-one citations have been given by the Trust since it was first presented in 1990. More than just being for New Zealand composers, the citation acknowledges work by individuals in making New Zealand music heard. This includes, but not limited to, promotion by means of commissioning, organising events and performances, and recording.

The written citations and certificates will be presented at a reception held at the National Library in Wellington in February 2022, which will follow the Lilburn Lecture this time being delivered by Ross Harris. The date of the lecture and reception will align to pandemic alert levels and is yet to be confirmed.

Citations

Deborah Rawson

In a long career as soloist, recording artist, chamber musician and teacher, Deborah Rawson has always been a strong advocate for New Zealand Music. She has performed and commissioned a vast number of New Zealand compositions for clarinet and saxophone and has been a founding member and leader of multiple ensembles including the Zelanian Ensemble and Saxcess. These groups have shown a sustained commitment to New Zealand composition resulting in a significant body of new composition for wind instruments by New Zealand composers. As a soloist Deborah has been the performer of choice for numerous works that have been composed for her. Deborah’s sustained commitment to New Zealand music has also been evident in her teaching and educational activities which have consistently featured New Zealand works.

Alistair Gilkison
Ever since graduating from Victoria University with a BMus (Hons) in 1984, Alistair Gilkison has been preparing New Zealand composers’ scores for publication. In the early years, his calligraphy was remarkable for its clarity and elegance. More recently, he has moved on to computer type-setting – still with the same elegance and a layout that takes account of performers’ needs. Alistair’s musical knowledge and judgement is such that his role has extended beyond that of simply type-setting. New Zealand composers have benefited significantly from Alistair’s care and knowledge. He is one of the unsung heroes of composition in Aotearoa. Many of the scores prepared by Alistair have been published by Wai-te-ata Music Press but some have appeared under other imprints. Michael Norris, the current editor of Wai-te-ata Music Press, describes Alistair’s work as exemplary. Alistair has also made valuable contributions to the bibliography of New Zealand sheet music.

David McCaw

In a broadcasting career starting in the early 1980s, David McCaw has produced for RNZ Concert thousands of hours of studio and live concert recordings featuring New Zealand's leading composers and performers. His dedication to showing New Zealand artists in the best possible light has helped shape numerous musical careers and has kept radio audiences entertained and informed over many years. David’s recordings, particularly of New Zealand compositions, have won several awards and constitute a significant portion of the broadcasting archives of music in New Zealand. His work can be heard every day on RNZ Concert.

Elizabeth Kerr

Elizabeth Kerr is a New Zealand-based freelance music critic and commentator and has worked in music and the arts for many years as a broadcaster, writer, university lecturer and arts leader. In all roles she has been a champion of the music of New Zealand composers. After 13 years as a lecturer at Victoria University’s School of Music she became involved in arts management and governance. She has held management positions at RNZ Concert, as Chief Executive of Creative NZ (2000-2006), and Manager of the New Zealand String Quartet (2007-2012). She has also held governance roles as a board member for NZ Festival/Tawhiri Limited (of which she is the current Chair), the NZSQ, NZSO, APO and Orchestra Wellington. Initially involved with setting up SOUNZ, she was Chair 2009-2019.

Elizabeth has always been an advocate for gender equity in music performance and composing, as well as making a stand for good causes such as Save RNZ Concert. She currently writes the Classical Column and CD reviews for the NZ Listener and hosts her own website writing about music in New Zealand, Five Lines.

Terence O’Neill-Joyce
As founder of the independent Ode record label, Terence O’Neill-Joyce has produced, recorded, and promoted a diverse range of New Zealand and Pacific music. Under Terence’s ownership, from 1968 to 1996 and 2001 to 2007, the label released an estimated 600 recordings and has been notable for supporting Polynesian musicians, Māori performers, popular music, and jazz. Ode has also issued art music, including albums by singers Mina Foley and Donald McIntyre, and electroacoustic works by New Zealand composers. A special release was Margaret Nielsen’s 1995 LP of Douglas Lilburn’s piano music. A strong advocate for independent labels, from 1992 to 2005 Terence served as president of RIANZ (Recording Industry Association of New Zealand). In 2019, he established Recorded Music Fiji to improve representation of Fijian producers in the industry. Terence has also recently been involved with archiving the master tapes of Ode at the Archive of New Zealand Music (part of the Alexander Turnbull Library) and reissuing these digitally.

Background

The Lilburn Trust: The late composer Douglas Lilburn helped establish the Archive of New Zealand Music, which is part of the Alexander Turnbull Library’s collections, in 1974. He donated his own collection of scores, papers and recordings, and served as an honorary curator. Lilburn also established the Lilburn Trust in 1984. It is administered by the Turnbull Endowment Trust.

The Lilburn Trust supports many New Zealand music projects including the annual Lilburn Lecture and the Lilburn Research Fellowship. The Citation Award has been presented since 1990. Previous recipients have included composer and arts administrator Ashley Heenan, Māori music composer and advocate Wiremu Kerekere, researcher and author John Mansfield Thomson, conductors Peter Godfrey, Karen Grylls, Kenneth Young and Hamish McKeich, Taongo puoro specialist Richard Nunns, pianists Michael Houstoun and Margaret Nielsen, and record producers Anthony Vercoe and Wayne Laird.

http://www.douglaslilburn.org/

Douglas Lilburn » Citations

https://natlib.govt.nz/collections/a-z/archive-of-new-zealand-music

Note to editors:

Alexander Turnbull Library is part of the National Library of New Zealand. New Zealand's national documentary heritage collections, including both published and unpublished items, are held in the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Images of recipients attached.

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