Martinborough Music Festival turns 10 this year, and celebrations start early at the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival in May.
For the first time, two of South Wairarapa’s key festivals are collaborating, bringing words and music together in a live performance of a new work by acclaimed composer Eve de Castro-Robinson and poet Nick Ascroft, accompanied by a conversation with Dave Armstrong about their collaboration.
The work is being written for soprano (Barbara Paterson) and marimba (Yoshiko Tsuruta). “The poem, Breaking, contains phrases of rage used by others, which Nick has concocted into very original quirky poetry,” Eve explains.
“I’m very keen on that wacky kind of wordplay because it means I can express myself musically in that way. And Barb is terrific at that—very theatrical—which is why I chose her. Yoshi is a real virtuoso who tackles contemporary music. From a composer’s point of view, you always want performers who want to take on challenging material!”
The pair are also working on a second poem with a more lyrical, melodic bent, into which Eve has had more direct input. “I told Nick a personal story, he took notes and I will be interested to see what he makes of that!
“It’s been a very satisfying collaboration. Although we haven’t yet met, I have a real feel for his aesthetic just by reading through the poems – a mixture of deeply serious and wonderfully absurdist, and a wonderful observer. I like the sense of humour almost masking something deeper and more profound.”
Eve’s body of work spans orchestral, vocal, chamber and theatrical music and is widely performed in New Zealand and internationally. She has just moved to Wellington for a year to take up the position of Creative New Zealand / Lilburn Residence composer-in-residence at the New Zealand School of Music – Te Kōkī.
Alchemy & Annunciations: The Poetry of Music
2.30-3.25pm, Saturday 9 May, Featherston School Hall. Tickets via booktown.org.nz
