International exchanges

by Elizabeth Kerr, Manager, New Zealand String Quartet Trust, March 2011

3 Faces of Ebony, one of numerous wonderful concerts at the recent Adam Chamber Music Festival in Nelson, featured virtuoso James Campbell, a Canadian clarinetist visiting the Festival for the second time. Campbell, “Jim” to his friends, first met the New Zealand String Quartet when the five musicians were programmed together in a concert in Barrie, Ontario in 2004. They established great artistic rapport and became musical colleagues and friends in a relationship that demonstrates what cultural exchange is all about.

Jim Campbell is artistic director of one of eastern Canada’s most well-known summer chamber music festivals, the Festival of the Sound, located north of Toronto at Parry Sound in Ontario. Since that first meeting, the musicians of the Quartet have been frequent visitors to his festival, where they have worked with many other musicians from around the globe. They have also continued to perform and tour with Jim, including appearances at other festivals such as the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival and Elora Festival. Last year he joined them for their November tour in North America and they premièred a new quintet, Raven and the First Men, composed especially for them by Canadian Tim Corlis, in the prestigious series run by the Women’s Music Club of Toronto.

This fascinating work, inspired by an iconic indigenous Canadian wooden sculpture, received its New Zealand premiere in the Ebony programme mentioned above. As I listened, I was aware that Jim and the Quartet are an example of the best kind of cultural exchange in music, a long-term relationship that brings many benefits to both musicians and audiences. This creative collaboration has brought Jim to New Zealand to work with both students and professional musicians including wind players from the NZSO (Mozart’s 13 instrument Gran Partita in the opening concert was another Festival highlight), has brought the New Zealand String Quartet to a wider audience in Canada and the US, has inspired at least one composer to create a new work and has enabled audiences in both countries to enjoy a range of great chamber repertoire. Successful international activity for New Zealand’s musicians is much more than the occasional overseas tour – long-term artistic partnerships bear a lot more fruit for everyone.