Award-winning composer to head up At the World’s Edge Festival
At the World’s Edge Festival Composer-in-Residence, Victoria Kelly, has been awarded one of Aotearoa’s most prestigious music awards, the SOUNZ Contemporary Award /Te Tohu Auaha.
Kelly received the award, celebrating excellence in contemporary composition, earlier this week for her much anticipated and highly praised composition, Requiem, which was premiered at the Auckland Arts Festival by the Auckland Philharmonia with tenor Simon O’Neill and soprano Jayne Tankersley.
It comes as no surprise to AWE Artistic Director, Benjamin Baker.
"Victoria has been a leading light in Aotearoa’s music scene for a long while and we are absolutely thrilled that she has received this thoroughly well deserved award, he says.
"Her CV reads like a who’s who of the music world - from classical musicians to contemporary artists such as Tami Neilson, Anika Moa and Shapeshifter - and we could not be happier to have her add AWE Composer-in-Residence to her accomplishments. We’ll certainly be raising a glass or two in celebration of this fantastic recognition of her endless talents.”
The opening night of this year’s AWE Festival tomorrow Saturday, 7 October, takes its name from one of Kelly’s pieces, Sono, to be performed that evening. Sono is the Portuguese word describing the cerebral feeling of wanting to be or trying to get back to sleep and Kelly’s piece plays with the idea of trying to hold onto a lucid dream that has just escaped our grasp and can’t be recaptured.
This follows Barber’s String Quartet in b minor which features the unmistakeable Adagio, arguably one of the most recognisable and heart-wrenching movements of classical music.
Kelly returns to Queenstown for Immemorial on Friday, 13 October, when she will be involved in a free composer talk, discussing the evening’s programme in the intimacy of Te Atamira.
Engaging with local kura and encouraging young musicians is at the heart of AWE’s ethos and during the festival, senior students with a keen interest in composition will work alongside Kelly and Composer Mentor, Salina Fisher, in one-on-one composition workshops.
Kelly will also be at Rippon, Wānaka, on Sunday, 15 October, for Manifesto, the pinnacle of the festival's journey. Leoš Janáček’s Intimate Letters begins the programme, a Czech piece exploring Janáček’s manifesto on love and bringing together personal and cultural dimensions.
Kelly then introduces her brand-new AWE commission for horn, violin and cello, before Tchaikovsky’s joyful remembrance of a summer in Florence brings the programme, and festival, to a close.
Performers are Benjamin Goldscheider, french horn; Benjamin Baker, Justine Cormack, Vesa-Matti Leppänen & Marike Kruup, violin; Jordan Bak & Tobias Breider, viola; anf Alice Neary & Rolf Gjelsten, cello.
General admission to Manifesto, at 2pm and 5pm, is $65, but Kelly also gives a fee talk at 4pm, about her new AWE commission for horn, violin and cello.
At the World’s Edge Festival features six stunning programmes to be performed across the region, until 15 October, with wider festival school visits until 20 October.
For tickets and more information on the full festival programme and free AWE+ events, head to www.worldsedgefestival.com
