Composer focus – Ross Harris

Reviewers’ comments:

“It’s the best experience I’ve ever had at a premiere, and one of the best musical experiences I can remember.”

A Concerto is Born – From score to stage, a new New Zealand Composition is born – David Larsen writing in Metro, June 2012. The article documents the journey Larsen makes from attending the first rehearsal to the premiere of Ross’s Cello Concerto four days later.

“It is a work that captures perfectly the essence of our time – it is also a work of extraordinary and haunting beauty”

Rod Biss reviewing the Violin Concerto in the NZ Listener, 17 May 2010.

Ross Harris is one of New Zealand’s leading composers. He has written more than two hundred compositions including opera, symphonic music, chamber music, klezmer and electronic music. He has been a finalist in the prestigious SOUNZ Contemporary Award eight times in thirteen years and has won the award four times. Harris received a QSM in 1985 for his opera Waituhi with libretto by Witi Ihimaera, and the CANZ Citation for Services to New Zealand Music in 1990. His major works include five string quartets, four symphonies, a violin concerto (premiered by Anthony Marwood in 2010) and a cello concerto (premiered by Li-Wei Qin in 2012). His collaborations with poet Vincent O’Sullivan have produced two operas, a symphony and three song cycles. One of these cycles is The Abiding Tides for soprano Jenny Wollerman and the New Zealand String Quartet.

“It is a work that instantly enriched our heritage of New Zealand music.”

The Abiding Tides, Rod Biss in the NZ Listener, 20 March 2010.

Read more about Ross Harris on his website: http://www.rossharris.co.nz/