Jamming with nature

Local musician Mark Wilson is inviting everyone to refamiliarise and be re-energised by the world we live in. He will host Te Taiao, a music and sensory experience, at Te Atamira this Friday. It’s a concert, but not in a traditional format, that offers something for all the senses.

Wilson is a well-known personality around Queenstown – he’s a pianist who happens to be blind and describes seeing the natural world through sound. It’s hard to pigeonhole his music, he’s a classical pianist, jazz keyboardist, church organist, celtic stylist, and a hymm writer. After moving to Alexandra and commuting to Queenstown for music ventures, he soon met some of the “musos” of the area and has since fully immersed himself in the scene here.

At the event, he invites us “to step out of yourselves and step into the broad sense of creation. To take your headphones and blinkers off, to open your ears to the song of birds and breathing of branches in the wind, to open your nose to the fragrances of sap rising in the trees, to open your eyes to the miniature beauty of shells and the timeless being of stones. And so therefore, to open your hearts and minds.”

After working in music professionally for over 50 years, he was recovering from surgery and becoming hyperaware of the nature surrounding him. He describes listening to sparkling bird song, the trickling of a stream, or the rustle of leaves on a tree, which is something he will incorporate into his experience.

Wilson respectfully relates the experience with Te Taiao. Te Taiao means the natural world that contains and surrounds us including the land, water, climate and living beings in Te Reo.

“It really grabbed me and really resonated with me. I got good feedback also from my late, great father, so I’m always thinking of him and his encouragement,” Wilson says.

In February, he performed at Te Atamira and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. He’s excited to bring the experience back and help people to engage with the nature surrounding them in a different way.

“I’m going to be improvising on the piano but with the sounds of the birds – they take control, if you like. I will take their lead, and then I blend in to them, so therefore it’s a jam with nature. It’s going to be in a space where people can be either on seats or in a place of meditation.”

Wilson’s wife, Emma, has captured some beautiful nature photos from some of the pairs different trips, too, which will be displayed to tie in with the performance. There will also be different textures getting passed around and essential oils from pine trees infused into stone to smell – Wilson invites all to feel the world from the point of view of a blind person.

“Hopefully people might say ‘I’ve never thought of that in that way’. I’m simply inviting them to be filled with that kind of ambiance.”

In addition to getting a sense of the way Wilson hears and experiences the world, he’s happy if people take something away from the experience.

“If nothing else, if they get a sense of tranquillity, if they get a sense of calmness, but also if they get a sense of opening up to all their being, to what’s around them and therefore a sense of wellness – and then wow-ness.”

Te Taiao, Mark Wilson’s musical and sensory experience will be at Te Atamira with dates to be announced. You will be able to grab tickets and read more about the hour-long meditative event at teatamira.nz/events/te-taiao-mark-wilson