in October 2009, it was a great honour and privilege to travel as part of a delegation of New Zealand musicians and artists to China. We attended the '
World Music Days, International Symposium and Festival Dialogue in Music' convened by the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China. Dame Gillian Whitehead was our delegation leader and our group included a wonderful mix of musicians, dancers, film makers, scholars and artists.
It was my great fortune to spend time composing new mōteatea with accompaniments by the
xun (an ocarina type flute) and
qin (a zither type instrument). I was accompanied by Liu Xiao Cheng on the qin and Zhao Xun on the xun. My thanks to these conservatory students for assisting me with these pieces. This was a very rewarding experience and we performed a first version of these new pieces during the first of four concerts held in the recital hall of the conservatory. Some pictures of this concert and our rehearsals can be found below. I would like to thank Jack Body for encouraging me to compose for these instruments.
I was very pleased that my daughter Keriata also came with us. Keriata is a composition student at the New Zealand School of Music and she has just completed her second. She is currently studying with Michael Norris and John Psathas among others.
Please see below some images of our visit and me working and performing with students from the conservatory. You'll see some pictures of my daughter there as well. Most of the photos were taken by Paul Wolfram, a member of our delegation. Many thanks Paul!