Perth premiere for Waikato student's Parihaka composition

A new composition on Parihaka by a University of Waikato student has had its premiere in Perth – thanks to a chance meeting of musicians at a prestigious US summer school.

Composer Lizzie Dobson, a Hillary Scholar who’s now embarking on a PhD at Waikato, met Perth-based professional percussion player Louise Devenish in Massachusetts last year at the Bang On A Can summer festival, the foremost professional development programme in contemporary music.

Devenish is a member of eclectic percussion group Tetrifide, which regularly performs works by world-renowned composers, and she also teaches at the University of Western Australia.

“Louise combines singing with her performance, and was just perfect for my piece which is written for kalimba (thumb piano), vibraphone and voice,” says Dobson, who was one of just nine composers worldwide to be selected for the Bang On A Can programme for young musicians – and the only Kiwi. 

Dobson, who’s from New Plymouth, based her composition on Apirana Taylor’s poem Parihaka. “I had an instant connection with the poem,” she says. “We were never taught about Parihaka at school even though it was just down the road.”

She sought Taylor’s permission to set the poem to music, and the result, says Dobson, is a gorgeous sound. “It relates back to Maori oral tradition -- Louise sings the text of the poem while she’s playing, and it’s quite simple and repetitive.”

Dobson is heading to Perth this weekend to hear her piece performed, and while she’s there she’ll be giving talks at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and at Tetrafide’s percussion workshops. She’ll also hear some of her other compositions performed.

She’s hoping to organise a New Zealand premiere of the work with Louise Devenish in the near future.  

Dobson was a finalist in the NZSO/Todd Corporation Young Composer Awards in 2008 and 2009, and has been awarded a three-year University of Waikato doctoral scholarship worth $22,000 plus fees each year to further her studies in composition.