Dr Leonie Holmes Photo: Gareth Watkins
They say you should never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
Composer Leonie Holmes begs to differ.
Leonie, whose piano concerto gets its public premiere this week, can't get into a piece until the deadline is beginning to loom.
She told Three to Seven host Bryan Crump that she used to berate herself for the habit. Now she accepts it as part of her creative process.
The concerto, which she's written for its first performer, Stephen De Pledge, came out of the difficult first few months of the Covid lockdown and that pandemic response delayed its first performance by more than a year.
In that time, it's been recorded by its dedicatee and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra but there's no doubt Leonie won't feel the project is complete until Stephen De Pledge lays down the final chords with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at its first public performance in the city's Town Hall this Saturday, October 14th.
Stephen De Pledge performs at the Whakatipu Music Festival. Photo: © 2023 JR Media Productions, all rights reserved.
Listening to the recording, made by RNZ Concert and SOUNZ, Bryan Crump noted a lot of nervous energy: did the anxiety of the Covid pandemic hang over the piece?
No, says Leonie, her mind was on the music, especially once the deadline pressure kicked in.
But how does her technique of putting things off tie in with her other job, teaching composition at Auckland University's Music School?
It's not an approach she recommends. Her best advice: "just write". Get things down, and if it doesn't work, try again.
