Visiting Artists

Jane Curry

Jane Curry completed a Doctorate in Musical Arts (University of Arizona) and spent seven years studying and performing in the US before returning to New Zealand. During her time overseas she was prize winner in a number of international competitions in North America and received awards including the Creative New Zealand Jack McGill Music Scholarship and the International Arts Foundation Scholarship. She has performed in England, Scotland, Spain, Mexico, Tahiti, Canada, and throughout the United States.

Her travels have nurtured an interest in cultural and musical hybridism in classical repertoire. Her additional degree in theatre studies and time spent in both the United Kingdom and the United States has fostered a keen interest in the potential for collaborative and cross-disciplinary work in musicology, ethnomusicology and performance. She is head of the guitar programme at the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington.

Donald Maurice

Donald Maurice is Professor at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington. He has performed for over four decades as viola soloist, chamber musician and conductor, has given world premieres of many solo and chamber music compositions and has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Silver Alto Clef of the International Viola Society in 2001 (only one awarded each year). He was made an honorary life member of the American Viola Society in 2007, and in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

His Atoll recording as viola soloist with the Vector Wellington Orchestra of “Requiem - The Holocaust” by Israeli composer, Boris Pigovat, has earned high praise from Fanfare Magazine (USA) and a Supersonic award from Pizzicato Magazine (Luxembourg). In 2011 he gave its German premiere in Wuerzburg, to critical acclaim. His recordings for Naxos of Alfred Hill’s complete string quartets with the Dominion Quartet are broadcast regularly around the world. They have received many favorable reviews from Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. The final three quartets Nos 15-17 (Volume 6) are due for release in late 2015.

Donald has performed as either soloist or conductor in Australia, Britain, Canada, Fiji, Germany, Iceland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland and the USA, and has given recitals for NZ Embassies and High Commissions in Washington, New York, Ottawa, Berlin and Warsaw. He has recorded twelve CDs for Atoll, Kiwi Pacific, Naxos and Tantara Records and in 2007 he was invited to give the annual William Primrose Memorial Concert at Brigham Young University. His book on Béla Bartók, published in 2004 by Oxford University Press, is recognized internationally as an authoritative text and his publication of the Leipzig Diaries of Alfred Hill 1887-1891, along with his Naxos recordings of the quartets and conducting of several of his orchestral works, has made a major contribution to redefining the history of colonial New Zealand music.

New Zealand Guitar Quartet

After a whirlwind 2011 tour schedule of nearly 20 concerts across the length of the country, the NZGQ is quickly developing a following with invitations to perform both locally and overseas.

Highlights for the 2012/13 season include sold out concerts in Christchurch and Timaru, performing in Nelson at the International Adam Chamber Music Festival and 15 concerts nationwide through Chamber Music New Zealand.

Laura Thompson

Laura Thomson is a New Zealand violinist who is currently living in Brisbane and working as a member of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (Australia). She has received placings in many notable competitions including NZ Young Musician of the Year and the title of NZ Young Performer of the Year and various university prizes and awards. At 15 years of age, she was one of the youngest recipients to receive a Civic Award for her Service to Music from the City of Nelson, NZ.

She completed her Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music studying under Michele Walsh and then a further 2 years of study at the Australian National Academy of Music with John Harding and Wilma Smith with mentoring from other internationally renowned visiting professors.

Laura has undertaken study in London with financial aid from the QCGU Exchange Programme also attending the 2003 International Salzburg Festival studying under Yaer and Eyal Kless with help from an Australian Government Grant.

As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with prominent Australian and New Zealand professional chamber and orchestral musicians. In 2011, under the guise of Virtuosi Tasmania she led a string quartet which released a CD comprising Mendelssohn String Quartet in A minor and the Beethoven Sextet, recorded in Government House Tasmania. This and many other chamber music projects have been broadcast on various radio stations including ABC Classical Radio, 4MBS and ClassicFM.

William Newbery, Viola

William completed a Bachelor of Music Degree with 1st class honours at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide, Australia followed by a Diplom at the Hochschule für Musik Köln in Germany.

He has performed in several of Australia's leading orchestras including the Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and is currently a permanent member of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

William has been broadcast in recital several times on ABC Classic FM and has tutored for youth orchestras in Adelaide and Hobart as well as tutoring for the Australian Youth Orchestra. As a chamber musician William has performed throughout Australia and Europe and has recorded for Virtuosi Tasmania.

Colin Clark

Colin started playing with local brass bands in his hometown of Adelaide, (South Australia) aged 5. He began on the tenor horn before moving to the soprano cornet four years later.

At age 12 he took up trumpet while studying at Marryatville High School, as part of the schools' "Special Interest Music Program". While at Marryatville, Colin received his first exposure to the delights of the orchestra, eventually holding the position of 1st trumpet in the Senior Orchestra and Concert Band for the last three years of high school.

During this time he was featured as "guest soloist" with the South Australian Police Band at their annual ‘Proms’ concert, playing the 2nd and 3rd movements of Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.

In 1997 Colin moved to Victoria to further his musical studies at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, also playing for the Hawthorn City Band.

A move to New Zealand followed in 2001 when he signed to play for Dalewool Auckland Brass on Soprano, and later that year joined the Royal New Zealand Navy Band for the first time.

In 2005 he moved to Christchurch, joining the New Zealand Army Band and the prestigious Woolston Brass. He returned to Auckland and the Navy Band after the birth of his daughter Isabella in 2008.

Four times Australian Junior Brass Champion of Champions, and winner of numerous state and national solo championships on both sides of the Tasman, Colin has represented both Australia and New Zealand in National Brass Bands, the RNZ Navy and NZ Army Bands both at home and overseas.

More recently Colin has taken up the baton, firstly as Resident Conductor at Dalewool Auckland Brass, and in May 2011 he was appointed as the Conductor of North Shore Brass, guiding the band to success at the Auckland Regional Championships.

Luke Di Somma

Luke Di Somma is based in Christchurch as a freelance musical director, composer and conductor. A Fulbright Scholar, he is fast establishing himself as one of New Zealand’s most exciting and versatile young musical talents.

In 2010 he graduated from New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts with a Master of Fine Arts from the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Programme. Before his graduate study he completed his Bachelor of Music from the University of Canterbury, and gained first class honours from the New Zealand School of Music (NZSM) where he studied conducting with Kenneth Young.

Currently Chief Conductor of the Christchurch Youth Orchestra, and Artistic Director of the newly formed Christchurch Pops Choir, Luke regularly works with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and has also worked with he Christchurch City Choir, the NZSO National Youth Orchestra, the Court Theatre, Showbiz Christchurch, the New Zealand Army Band and the CCMT Emerging Talent School in Auckland.

Luke's musical direction credits include SWEENEY TODD, MY FAIR LADY, LES MISERABLES, THE FULL MONTY, RENT, HAIR, WHO WANTS TO BE A HUNDRED?, THE HOT SHOE SHUFFLE, THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS and THE FIEND, for which he wrote the score. His musical THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE received readings in New York and in Christchurch, and his songs have been performed in cabarets in New York, Connecticut and Ohio.

Recent score credits include DON'T MENTION CASABLANCA, SKIN TIGHT, HEROES and THE GREAT GATSBY (Court Theatre) and HAMLET (Toi Whakaari – the New Zealand Drama School.)

Future projects include writing and workshopping a new musical, appearances with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, and writing the score for a new production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at the Court Theatre.

Jenny Banks

Born and raised in Alexandra, New Zealand, Jennifer started violin lessons at age 4, and has since performed for audiences worldwide as a chamber and orchestral musician, soloist and singer. She has played Ravel's Tzigane and concertos of Bach, Barber, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and Sibelius with orchestras including the Southern Sinfonia, the Nelson Symphony, the University of Toronto Symphony and the New Zealand School of Music Orchestra.

Following undergraduate studies at the University of Otago, she founded the Amygdala Quartet – graduate quartet at the New Zealand School of Music, where they worked intensively with the New Zealand String Quartet. She then attended the University of Toronto, where she won the school-wide concerto competition. In addition to this, her piano trio received the Felix Galimir Award for Chamber Music, resulting in debut concerts in Toronto and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She since appeared at the Banff Festival many times as a soloist, chamber musician and as concertmaster of the Festival Orchestra.

Jennifer completed a Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with the renowned violinist Miriam Fried. While studying in Boston she played with ensembles including the Boston Philharmonic and Gardner Chamber Orchestra, and performed at the Sarasota Music Festival in Florida.. She was a founding member and concertmaster of the Discovery Ensemble – a high-energy chamber orchestra that brings music to disadvantaged kids, and was also selected to play as assistant concertmaster for a concert at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

Jennifer left Boston for Colorado in 2009 to become the 2nd violinist of the Tasman String Quartet, who were quartet-in-residence at the University of Colorado as assistants to the Takács Quartet. The Tasman Quartet performed and won top competition prizes throughout NZ, Australia, Germany, Canada and the USA. Since relocating to Germany in 2010, she has been invited to perform with the Aldeburgh Strings in England, as principal 2nd violin with the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany, and with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on their recent European tour.

Photo by Liss Photography