Country/Americana comes to the Black Box Theatre

Taking the stage together is the musical duo of Matt Joe Gow and Kerry Fields who will be performing at the Black Box Theatre in Kerikeri.

They will
be celebrating their debut single called Your Heart of Gold from their forthcoming album in conjunction with New Zealand music month.

They have toured Australia extensively, winning a Music Victoria Award in the process for their respective solo records and appearing at numerous festivals including the famed Tamworth Country Music Festival.

Matt Joe Gow grew up in the deep south of New Zealand, in Dunedin, in what he describes as a town with bad weather and good music.

He picked up a guitar at an early age and travelled the world, first moving to Melbourne, and then as a supporting act for the likes of Chris Issak, The Hayhawks, Justin Townes Earle, Grant Lee Phillips plus (back home) Marlon Williams.

Kerryn Fields was born and raised in Te Kūiti in the heart of a farming community. In 2007 she relocated to Melbourne and toured around Australia and Canada for the next 13 years in her much-loved camper can.

In 2020 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she felt “called” back to New Zealand.

It resulted in a period of self-acceptance and an album. Her 2021 award-winning record Water showcases her voice and delivers a body of work that is raw and “greater than the sum of its parts”, she believes.

There is a natural chemistry as performers between them which culminates in their songwriting. They take their cues from performers such as Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, Tracy Chapman, Sir Dave Dobbyn and Neil Finn.

The show at the Black Box Theatre, which is part of a New Zealand-wide tour, is on Sunday, May 14, at 6.30pm. Tickets $25 plus booking fee, beer and wine, food and other refreshments available.

blackboxtheatre.co.nz

String Quartet on New Zealand-wide tour

The celebrated New Zealand String Quartet is about to embark on a 17-concert tour of the country, from Invercargill to Kerikeri and including playing in Whangārei at the Riverbank Centre.

Part of the performance will highlight New Zealand composers and the quartet members themselves will introduce various pieces to stress the stories behind the music.

First violinist is Helene Pohl. She was born in New York to German parents and studied at Musikhochschule, Cologne, at the Eastman School of Music and at Indiana University.

She has performed in the United States, Germany, England, Italy and South America. She joined the New Zealand String Quartet as first violinist in February 1994. She was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for her services to music. She plays a violin made in Venice in 1730.

Second violinist is Monique Lapins. She studied the Suzuki method, then continued at the Australian National Academy of Music and at Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.

She has twice been a finalist in the Asia Pacific Chamber Music Competition and has performed at festivals in France, the Czech Republic, Holland, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and at the Open Chamber Music Seminars in Prussia Cove.

On viola is Aucklander Gillian Ansell, who made her concerto debut as violinist with the Auckland Philharmonia at the age of 16. She studied violin, viola and piano at the Royal College of Music in London then won a scholarship to the German Academic Exchange to study at Musikochschule.

She became a founding member of the NZ String Quartet in 1987. She plays on a 1619 Nicolò Amati viola loaned by the Adam Foundation.

Playing cello is Rolf Gjelsten, a native of Victoria, Canada. At 22 he became the youngest member of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra before returning to North America to study with Zara Nelsova and with members of La Salle, Hungarian, Vermeer, Cleveland and Emerson String quartets.

He has a doctoral degree in cello from Rutgers University, he joined the NZ String Quartet in 1994 and was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM). He plays a Francesco Gofriller cello made in Venice in 1705.

Friday, May 26, 7.30pm Whangārei – The Riverbank Centre

Saturday, May 27, 7.30pm Kerikeri – Turner Centre

Bay of Islands Singers’ first concert of the year

The Bay of Islands Singers are performing their first concert of the year in May. It’s entitled Music of our Time.

A coronation, the millennium, a 16th-century Latin text and the world of jazz are all incorporated into the programme devised by musical director John Jackets. The choir will be accompanied by a nine-piece instrumental ensemble with cello, brass and a lot of percussion with Michael Bell on piano and organ.

Sylvia Burch from the choir says the programme is an interesting mix of 20th and 21st century music.

“It includes the ever popular and dramatic The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins and since its premiere in April 2000 the work’s popularity among choirs, musicians and audiences has grown to make it one of the most significant works of this century.

“It was voted number one of RNZ Concert listeners in Settling the Score 2022.”

Other pieces include Hubert Parry’s I Was Glad written for the coronation of King Edward VII. It has been sung at coronations since and because King Charles III is a Parry devotee it’s likely the work will be included in his coronation this week, only time will tell.

There is John Rutter’s haunting Musica Dei donum written for the flute and choir to “soothe the spirit and uplift the soul”. The jazz influences come from Bob Chilcott’s A Little Jazz Mass written in 1999 and comprising five short movements, each celebrating a different jazz style.

Bay of Islands Singers, May 14, 2.30pm. turnercentre.co.nz

The Artist and the Ocean

An exhibition of artist Tim Li’s work is opening on Friday, May 5 at the Turner Centre.

Called Te Tini a Tangaroa, the artwork contained in the exhibition acknowledges that our oceans are under siege and the work highlights both the beauty and the sanctity of the multitudes of Tangaroa.

The raison d’etre of the exhibition is to slow down, to question the sense of kaitiakitanga and to engage with the subject of ocean sustainability. There are gyotaku prints and scientifically accurate pencil drawings which highlight that sustainability.

Tim Li is a 35-year-old contemporary Wellington artist producing graphite-on-paper drawings of New Zealand’s marine species. He grew up in the family-owned fish and chip shop which, he says, “baited the hook for his enchantment with New Zealand aquatic fauna”.

He spent hundreds of hours gazing at the poster depicting New Zealand’s fish species and despite living 100 kilometres from the nearest ocean, it fired up his fascination with the variety, complexity and diversity of New Zealand’s marine bounty.

Pieces on show can run well past a hundred careful hours of work before Li has satisfied his tendency toward perfection. Each individually honed piece is a monument to the ocean and a challenge to the “plenty more fish in the sea” mindset.

As part of the exhibition, Li will also run an already sold-out workshop, where participants will produce their own gyotaku fish prints.

He is a keen spearfisherman and intends to get out in the Bay for a hunt on the day of the workshop along with some local ‘spearos’ to catch the subject matter.

The exhibition runs until the end of May. Opening times are Monday-Friday from 9am-2pm and during events.

turnercentre.co.nz