The Composer’s Association of New Zealand (CANZ) sponsors an annual 5-day long “workshop” of composers and performers from throughout New Zealand in Nelson, and at this year’s conference UC’s School of Music was represented by the largest cohort of students and staff in living memory.
New works by Keisha Gilling, Thomas Bedggood, Robin Watson, Freddie Gash, Gabriel Baird, Luka Reardon Oscar Kersey, Rakuto Kurano and Oscar Days were presented, performed and workshopped; UC’s Head of New Music Reuben de Lautour was appointed as one of the workshop’s mentors, and he also performed as a pianist and conductor.
Head of Performance professor Mark Menzies was a featured guest performer, and he presented a highlight duo recital with Otago-based violinist Nathaniel Otley as part of the conference.
Given covid-level restrictions, the composers attending from the Auckland region did so via zoom: a significant challenge for this year’s event was to find last-minute substitutes for the performers travelling from Auckland, and this meant that UC students became a prominent component of the performance needs – Rakuto Kurano, Gabriel Baird, Thomas Bedggood and Henry Nicholson.
