Saturday Morning for Saturday 7 May 2011

Guest details for Saturday Morning 7 May 2011

8:15 Tariq Ali

Born in Pakistan and based in London, Tariq Ali is an editor of New Left Review and has written seven novels and more than 20 books on world history and politics, including The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (2008, Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 978-1-84739374-6) and The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad (2010, Verso, ISBN: 978-1-84467449-7). The three 2011 Sir Douglas Robb Lectures that he delivered at Auckland University in March are currently being broadcast on Radio New Zealand National.

8:30 Atka Reid and Hana Schofield

Atka Reid and Hana Schofield grew up as sisters in the Yugoslavian city of Sarajevo, until the declaration of independence by Bosnia and Herzegovina and ensuing war of 1992 separated them. Now resident in New Zealand, they tell their story in Goodbye Sarajevo (Bloomsbury, ISBN: 978-1-4088-1274-7), and will be guests of the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival with sessions on 14 May (Goodbye Sarajevo) and 15 May (Peace Please).

9:05 Fred Allendorf

Fred Allendorf is a Regents Professor of Biology at the University of Montana and a Professorial Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, where he was a Senior Fulbright Fellow in 2001. His research focuses on the application of population and evolutionary genetics to problems in conservation biology. His 2007 book, Conservation and the Genetics of Populations, co-authored with Gordon Luikart, provides an understanding of how genetics can be used to conserve species threatened with extinction. His recent essay, No Separation Between Present and Future, from the edited volume Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril (Trinity, ISBN: 978-1-59534-066-5), argues that the deep awareness of our evolutionary connection with all life on Earth provides the basis for ethical action for responding to the current threats to our planet, its animals, its plants, and its people. Professor Allendorf will participate in the Saving the World panel discussion on 15 May at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, supported by the Allan Wilson Centre.

9:35 Sonny Rollins

American bebop saxophonist Sonny Rollins has been recording and performing since the mid 1940s, and was described as a "saxophone colossus" at age 26, playing alongside jazz greats Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. He was one of ten recipients of the 2010 National Medal of Arts for outstanding achievements and support of the arts in the United States, and continues to perform 20 to 25 dates a year, including one New Zealand concert, at the Wellington Jazz Festival on 11 June.

10:05 Playing Trombones with BonaNZa

BonaNZa is New Zealand's premier trombone quartet and has given many performances in diverse places to audiences of up to 150,000 people. The collective resumes of the players (Tim Sutton, Douglas Cross, Matthew Allison, David Bremner) include memberships of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, The New Zealand Dominion Centenary Concert Band, Stroma, New Zealand Chamber Brass, La Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, the National Youth Brass Band of NZ, and the National Brass Band of NZ, and performances and recordings with many other artists including Crowded House, Sting, Diana Krall, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Meatloaf, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, and Shirley Bassey.

11:05 David Mitchell

British novelist David Mitchell has been described by TIME magazine as one of the "100 people who shape our world", and is a patron of the British Stammering Association. His novels Number9Dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004) were shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize, and he made the longlist with Black Swan Green (2006), and latest book The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre, ISBN: 978-0-340-92158-6). David is visiting New Zealand for three sessions at the Auckland Writers & Readers Festival, on 14 May (An Hour with David Mitchell) and 15 May (2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Regional Winners, and The Grand Finale).

11:45 Jeffrey Paparoa Holman

Historian and poet Dr Jeffrey Paparoa Holman is a senior adjunct fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Canterbury, and has worked as a sheep-shearer, postman, and psychiatric social worker. He has published a number of volumes of poetry, most recently Fly Boy (Steele Roberts, IBSN: 978-1877577-12-3), and his history book, Best of Both Worlds: the story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau (Penguin), was also published last year. Dr Holman is currently pursuing two projects as Waikato University's 2011 writer in residence: Shaken Down 6:3, a collection of poetry emerging from the ruins of Christchurch post-earthquakes; and a memoir about his father, for which he has travelled to Japan to research kamikaze pilots.

Music played during the programme

Lanu, featuring Megan Washington
From the 2011 album: Her 12 Faces
(Tru Thoughts)
Played at around 8:30

Sonny Rollins: Why Was I Born?
From the 2005 album: Without a Song: the 9/11 Concert
(Milestone)
Played at around 9:30

BonaNZa: William Tell Overture
Live in the Wellington studio of Radio New Zealand
Played at around 10:05

BonaNZa: A Winters Willow
Live in the Wellington studio of Radio New Zealand
Played at around 10:20

BonaNZa: Hungarian Dance
Live in the Wellington studio of Radio New Zealand
Played at around 10:40

BonaNZa: Amazing Grace
Live in the Wellington studio of Radio New Zealand
Played at around 10:45

BonaNZa: That's a Plenty
Live in the Wellington studio of Radio New Zealand
Played at around 10:55

Alison Krauss and Union Station: Lie Awake
From the 2011 album: Paper Airplane
(Rounder Records)
Played at round 11:45

Studio operators

Wellington engineers: Andrew Dalziel