On Monday 10 August, Mark Menzies will be giving the premiere of James Gardner’s MM@L at University of Canterbury Arts Centre Recital Room in Christchurch, New Zealand. MM@L is a short solo violin piece James Gardner wrote for Mark Menzies’ 50th birthday.
Also on the programme will be the first New Zealand performance of Tim Souster’s Spectral performed by Mark Menzies (viola), assisted by Jason Long and James Gardner himself (electronic processing).
After so many months of lack of concerts to an in situ audience all over the world, it is so nice to hear from James Gardner about this concert:
We’ve been having normal music concerts in NZ since at least the beginning of this month, Many of my friends overseas find this hard to believe! I wouldn’t want to get too complacent about things here – they could change rapidly, of course – but yes, so far so good, and it’s why I jumped at the chance to do the Souster’s piece, which I’ve wanted to do for years.
James Gardner
I will indeed be there for the premiere of my piece MM@L and I’ll be one of the people processing the viola in Spectral – the other is Jason Long. If all goes to plan we’ll be using a couple of vintage EMS Synthi A synthesisers as part of the processing as well as some digital processing, so it’ll be a historically-informed performance using some period instruments.
We are also delighted to introduce James Gardner’s new website. It includes information on all James’ pieces, including audio files, score excerpts, and even a few miniatures for free download.
In addition there are some recordings of improvisations, links to some of James Gardner’s RNZ Concert programmes, plus interviews.
Composers Edition is proud to celebrate all good news from James Gardner and to present a range of his works available for perusal and purchase through our website.
Tags: Jason Long, Mark Menzies, MM@L, Spectral, Tim Souster, University of Canterbury