Gemma Peacocke Photo: Gemma Peacocke
New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke (currently resident in Princeton, New Jersey) was back in the country recently to take part in the CANZ Composer Workshop in Christchurch as a mentor.
Earlier this year, her work ‘White Horses’ had its South Island premiere, performed by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra.
And there’s the first performance of another work coming up in October. Gemma was selected for the 2023 SOUNZ Commission for Orchestra and Sistema Youth Orchestra, and her work will be performed by Arohanui Strings and Orchestra Wellington in the orchestra’s Pharoah concert.
Gemma talked with Bryan Crump about the challenges and rewards of writing music for two groups with different levels of musical ability.
“For me, it was the first time I’ve been ‘allowed’ to write for kids. Mostly, I’ve written really difficult [to play] music, so this was a real challenge for me, and a real joy thinking about how children approach learning an instrument.”
Talking about her compositional influences, Gemma said that it was the music of minimalists Philip Glass and Steve Reich that she was really drawn to early on, as well as composers like George Crumb and Kaija Sariaaho.
"I wouldn't call their music minimalist, but there's something about the emotion in each of those composers' works that I think is what really spoke to me. I had to find a way around the squeamishness of being a classical composer who's interested in expressing emotion."
"You have to be comfortable enough in your own skin to say something that's human, that we can't necessarily express another way. And I think that's music's greatest value to humankind, that we can say things and express things that are deeply and intrinsically human that we have no other way of expressing."
Music:
Peacocke, Gemma: White Horses, excerpt - Auckland Philharmonia/Johannes Fritzsch (RNZ 2022)
