21 x 21: not such a “crazy idea”
Soprano Jenny Wollerman and pianist Jian Liu
Photo credit: Debbie Rawson
Soprano Jenny Wollerman had a “middle-of-the-night” bright idea in 2020. The NZ School of Music senior lecturer in voice was troubled by a scarcity of homegrown repertoire for singing students by female composers. From that nocturnal thought came 21 x 21, a major project of new songs with piano by female composers of Aotearoa, setting poetry by our female poets. Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka funded the commissions, and work began.
Wollerman laughs now about how the project has grown from that “crazy idea.” Consulting colleagues, she assembled a long list of composers, then selected the final 21 herself, including such well-known names as Dame Gillian Whitehead, Salina Fisher, Claire Cowan and Eve de Castro-Robinson alongside younger emergent creators. Poets include Dinah Hawken, Fiona Farrell, Katherine Mansfield and Roma Potiki.
Mere Tokorahi Boynton
“…wrote her own words for a very beautiful song.”
Singers Mere Boynton and Deborah Wai-Kapohe had not written for voice with piano before. “They’ve composed very beautiful pieces,” says Wollerman. Like Boynton, several composers wrote their own words, including ethnomusicologist and educator Aiono Manu Fa’aea, whose Ala Mai Moana in Samoan delights Wollerman. “I really wanted a Pasifika composer; it’s wonderful for our many Pasifika students to have a new song from their culture.”
Aiono Manu Fa’aea
…composed Ala mai Moana in Samoan.
When the songs began to arrive, there were some surprises. “Gillian Whitehead’s song is unaccompanied, which is a performing challenge, three minutes of a quite complex song,” Wollerman tells me. Eve de Castro-Robinson composed for voice and ‘prepared’ piano. Wollerman is pleased there is a big range in levels of difficulty, with some suitable for high school or university students, others much more challenging. “Eve’s,” laughs Wollerman, “is definitely in the ‘really, really difficult’ category.”
Eve de Castro-Robinson
…a “really, really difficult” song for voice and ‘prepared’ piano.
21 x 21 explores themes relevant to Aotearoa in the 21st century. Wollerman sent a sampler of poems to the composers illustrating themes to explore - love, whakapapa, nature and culture. Poet Nina Mingya Powles drew on her Chinese-Malaysian heritage in Night Train to Anyang, inspiring a poignant song about belonging from composer Gemma Peacocke. Ghanaian New Zealander Leila Adu-Gilmore, who teaches composition at New York University, set part of poet Tusiata Avia’s confronting Massacre about the Christchurch mosque shootings.
Leila Adu-Gilmore set Tusiata Avia’s poem Massacre.
Photo credit: Rodrigo Vazquez
The Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts has included the premiere recital of 21 x 21 by Wollerman with pianist Jian Liu in its five-concert Chamber Music Series. With Omicron-related cancellation of the live concerts, film of the five programmes will be available to the festival’s digital audiences (see below). The musicians are also recording 21 x 21 for release by Atoll Records and Waiteata Press at VUW will publish the set of song scores. RNZ Concert will broadcast all five festival concerts later this year.
The five concerts of the Chamber Music Series of the 2022 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts are online until April 4. Film of the premiere performance of 21 x 21 is available at www.festival.nz now. “Pay what you can” tickets.
The composers of 21x21 are: Leila Adu-Gilmore, Helen Bowater, Mere Boynton, Josie Burdon, Claire Cowan, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Rosa Elliott, Aiono Manu Fa'aea, Helen Fisher, Salina Fisher, Maria Grenfell, Leonie Holmes, Janet Jennings, Jenny McLeod, Celeste Oram, Gemma Peacocke, Tabea Squire, Deborah Wai Kapohe, Louise Webster, Dame Gillian Karawe Whitehead and Miriama Young.
The song texts for 21 x 21 include poetry by Tusiata Avia, Arapera Blank, Sarah Broom, Jeni Curtis, Peggy Dunstan, Lauris Edmond, Fiona Farrell, Miriama Gemmell, Dinah Hawken, Michele Leggott, Katherine Mansfield, Roma Potiki, Nina Mingya Powles, Jo Randerson and Elizabeth Smither.
A shorter version of this article first appeared in the NZ Listener issue 26 February 2022