composers
Michael Calvert
New Zealand guitarist, lutenist and composer Michael Calvert has performed as a soloist and as a member of chamber ensembles throughout New Zealand, Australia, United States and Brazil. Since 2000 he has concentrated on the lute, performing on both renaissance and baroque instruments. As a composer, his works have been performed worldwide and featured at such festivals as De Ysbreker (Holland), Unge Tonekunstnere (Denmark), Musica Nova (Brazil) and Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Morelia (Mexico). Calvert studied at the University of Auckland, Wellington Polytechnic and Brooklyn College CUNY. His teachers have included Milton Babbitt, Robert Starer and Gillian Bibby (composition), David Starobin and John Mills (guitar), and Robert Barto, Paul O’Dette and Nigel North (lute). Calvert has also worked extensively as a teacher and record producer. He lives in New York City.
Louise E Matthews
Louise Matthews studied composition at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand with Chloe Moon & John Cousins. After finishing a Bachelor of Music and Associate Diplomas in piano & pipe organ, she then then went on to Christchurch Teacher’s College. In 1993 she moved to Australia where she has been teaching classroom music, piano, voice, musical productions, and directing choirs. Louise often returns to her passion of writing music in the form of custom pieces for her piano students and choral works, many of which are frequently performed. She has been able to focus on composition more seriously in recent times and has written for various instruments and ensembles, especially projects for particular performers.
Mike Nock
Since his first concert in 1951 at Ngaruawhia Town Hall, New Zealand pianist/composer Mike Nock’s career has spanned an extraordinary breadth of contemporary musical styles and he has become internationally recognised through his large catalogue of recordings and original compositions. Living in Sydney since 1985, after 25 years pursuing his musical career in the USA, he teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Jazz Studies course and continues his busy, multifaceted music career. Recent honours include the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2003, for services to jazz and in 2009 he was inducted into the Australian Jazz Hall of Fame. Awarded an Australia Council Fellowship from 1999-2001 from 1996-2001 he was music director of Naxos Jazz. His compositions encompass a wide range including music for jazz groups of all sizes, string, woodwind/percussion ensembles, solo piano music, orchestral and choral works. His biography Serious Fun - The Life and Music of Mike Nock by Norman Meehan was recently published by Victoria University Press.
Philip Norman
Composer, conductor, author, speaker, educator and publisher Philip Norman has been entertaining audiences since the 1970s. His output of over 250 compositions ranges from orchestral, chamber music and opera (A Christmas Carol), through secular and sacred choral and vocal works, to musicals with playwright Roger Hall (including Love Off the Shelf and Footrot Flats – still New Zealand’s best selling musical), and ballets for the Royal New Ballet such as the highly successful Peter Pan (toured New Zealand three times). His music has been performed in many countries, by organisations as diverse as Vienna Boys Choir, Kemerovo Philharmonic Orchestra (Siberia), Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough UK directed by playwright Alan Ayckbourn, and West Australian Ballet, Perth. Guitar compositions include From Inception to Infinity (2001) a concerto with string orchestra and It’s Love Isn’t It? (2017) a collection of 15 miniatures to partner selected poems by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and his wife Meg Campbell. Both were commissioned and premiered by Matthew Marshall with funding assistance from Creative New Zealand. Philip holds a PhD in musicology and is the award-winning author of Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music, as well as the compiler and publisher of John Ritchie at Ninety: a festschrift. He was the inaugural Lilburn research fellow at the Alexander Turnbull Library in 2013 and recipient of the Michael King Writer’s Fellowship 2017-2018, completing a history of composition in New Zealand. He was awarded a CNZM for services to music and music theatre in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Anthony Ritchie
Anthony Ritchie studied composition at The University of Canterbury in New Zealand, the Liszt Academy in Hungary, and completed a PhD on the music of Bartok. He was Composer-in-Schools in Christchurch in 1987, Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago 1988-89, and Composer-in-Residence with the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra 1993-94. Renowned ensembles such as The Takacs Quartet and soloists such as Bella Hristova have performed his works. Eleven sole albums of his music have been released, and in 2016 he was joint winner of the Classical Album of the Year at the New Zealand Music Awards. Anthony’s guitar output reaches back to his Rhapsody (1988) and the popular short solo Melancholia (1991), both written for Suzanne Court as well as Pas de Deux for two guitars (1992), Guitar Concerto (1997), Sultry (2009) for solo guitar, Autumn Moods (2017) for cello and guitar, commissioned by Matthew Marshall. Anthony is Professor of Music at the University of Otago.
John Ritchie
John Ritchie was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He graduated in music from the University of Otago and trained as a teacher at Dunedin Teachers' College. He served in the navy in World War II and subsequently undertook post-graduate study with Walter Piston at Harvard University 1956-57. In 1946 he was appointed to the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, becoming Professor and Head of Music in 1962, later serving as Acting and Deputy Vice-Chancellor 1973-83. During 1967-68 he held a Visiting Professorship at Exeter University and served on the board of Trinity College of Music, London. In 1974 John Ritchie was Music Director of the Tenth Commonwealth Games and for the Papal Visit of Pope John Paul in 1986. He was Secretary General of the International Society for Music Education from 1976-84 and its President 1990-92. As a composer he is known for choral music, music for brass, concerto-type works, carols and church music. These include Concertino for Clarinet and Strings, Concerto for Saxophone and Small Orchestra, Threnody (brass band), The Snow Goose (flute and orchestra), and Papanui Road Overture (orchestra). John Ritchie wrote five works for guitar: Whimsies for solo guitar (1985), Dreamer for guitar and string quartet (1987), Two’s Company for two guitars, harp and strings (1987/1994), Album Leaves for solo guitar (1991) and Five William Blake Songs of Innocence for high voice and guitar (1994).
Kenneth Young
Kenneth Young is one of New Zealand’s most well-known and performed composers with a professional career which has expanded over the last 40 years. Numerous commissions from Chamber Music New Zealand, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the International Festival of the Arts, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra Wellington, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra and Radio New Zealand, have been regularly performed nationwide and in the United States, Europe and Australia. His output encompasses various genre; three symphonies, various concertos, opera, chamber music and solo piano works. Both Atoll and Trust Records have released recordings of Young’s orchestral works with the composer conducting the NZSO. He has been a finalist for the SOUNZ Contemporary Award on three occasions with his Symphony No. 2, Four Questions, No Answers, a chamber work written for the Australian contemporary music ensemble Southern Cross Soloists and Piano Trio which was commissioned and performed by NZTrio. Since 1988 he has been a member of the music faculty of the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University Wellington where he lectures in conducting and composition. In 2004 Young was awarded the Lilburn Trust Citation in Recognition of Outstanding Services to New Zealand Music. Kenneth Young’s guitar works include Three Sad Waltzes (1991) for solo guitar, Sonatine (1981) for solo guitar and Saffire Concerto for four guitars and orchestra (2006).