Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange between Australia and New Zealand
Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange Program
The Australian Music Centre, in collaboration with SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music, established the Trans-Tasman composer exchange residency in 2003 to further develop music relationships between the two countries.
2007 Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange Residency
Kenneth Young, composer and conductor, has been awarded the Trans-Tasman Composer Exchange and is currently enjoying Hobart’s hospitality as he works with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.
The Composer Exchange is a collaborative project between SOUNZ, the Centre for New Zealand Music and the Australian Music Centre which aims to increase musical collaborations between the two countries. Each year a composer from one country is given the opportunity to spend between six weeks and two months with a leading professional performing ensemble in the other country. Mr Young is being hosted by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, a group with whom he already has a considerable history.
“I have conducted the Tasmanian Symphony several times over the last ten years and have many friends there,” Mr Young said. “I am very much looking forward to spending intensive time with the orchestra as a composer – Hobart is an inspiring place to write music. It is very beautiful.”
Young will work closely with the players to write a new work which the orchestra will perform in their main season in 2009. While in Hobart he will also be a mentor for the Australian Composers School and give guest lectures at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music. Young will return in December to conduct the TSO in a recording for ABC Classics of his own Saffire Concerto for guitar quartet and orchestra.
The Trans-Tasman Exchange is funded by the Australia Council and Creative New Zealand and managed by the Australian Music Centre and SOUNZ, the Centre for NZ Music. The Centres undertake a role of ‘wedding planner’ – identifying composers and ensembles who would work fruitfully together to perform and create music by both the resident composer and other Australasian composers. Together the music centres work to ensure that promotional opportunities resulting from the Exchange increase the understanding and appreciation of music from their respective countries.
Kenneth Young
Kenneth Young regards himself as fortunate in having been commissioned by various orchestras and artistic organisations...
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra was established as such in 1948 as a result of a partnership between the State Government, the Hobart and Launceston City Councils and the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Since 1923 an amateur orchestra, the Hobart Orchestral Society, had provided concerts for Hobart patrons. In the 1930s the ABC Tasmanian Studio Orchestra was formed and, under conductor Clive Douglas, it provided live radio broadcasts on 7ZL.The outbreak of war delayed the ABC’s decision to create a permanent orchestra in every state. However, the introduction of a four-concert subscription series by the augmented amateur orchestra in 1946 paved the way for the establishment of a permanent professional orchestra.
